Bahrain GrandPrix Race Report 2021 Round 1

So round 1 seen F1 head of out to the desert to kick start the 2021 season and whilst Verstappen put it on Pole on Saturday however the question was could he hold of 7 time world champion Sir Lewis Hamilton. However before we even got a lap under our belts problems struck RedBull’s Sergio Perez who seemed to suffered a brief electrical issue however managed to get his car restarted prior to the lights going out however this cost the field 1 whole extra formation lap.

The 5 lights came on and it was lights out go, go, go with the 2021 season getting underway and off the front row it was pretty even between Hamilton and Verstappen and all cars made it through Turn 1 the Schumacher corner unscathed however then at Turn 3 the exact same corner in which Grosjean found barriers last season in hugely terrifying crash Nikitia Mazepin found them this time! 

Lap 4 and we got back underway however this wouldn’t last long tho’ as Pierre Gasly would loose his front wing in the middle of battle coming out of Turn 4 on run down through 5 and 6 and then Mick Schumacher would spin his car also on the exit of Turn 4 making Haas day go from bad to worse. 
These incidents brought out the VSC and still yet haven’t fully completed a racing lap at full racing speeds. However lap 5 and that was all about to change as race calmed down a notch however still allowing great racing between all the driver. Bottas found his way up to 3rd overtaking Leclerc, before Lando made a pass on the Ferrari driver. 

Lap 11, Alonso pits initiating the first round of pit stops looking to get a undercut on his rivals ahead. Lap later Norris, Leclerc and Stroll respond also been called into the pits in bid to defend off the two time world champion. A lap later current champion also decides take a early stop on lap 13 in his bid to now undercut Max Verstappen. 

Lewis is immediately on it and his out lap was 1.4 seconds quicker than Verstappen current lap at this point. The undercut was successful and when Max Verstappen stopped on Lap 18 he’d re-emerge 4 seconds behind Lewis. Whilst all this was going on up front Sergio Perez behind was cutting his way through the field trying to overtake left, right and centre. Lap 27 Lewis Hamilton stops again after pushing his tyres to wall and back for one final time and on this set he’d be tasked with nursing them to the end. Max Verstappen stays out going longer into the race again just like earlier which we saw in order to have advantage of fresh tyres. Lap 34 and Alonso peeled into the pits however not for a conventional pit stop but sadly to retire car due to brake issues and became alongside Mazepin the second driver to retire from the race. 

Lap 38 and battle between Tsunoda and Raikkonen commences as F1’s eldest goes up against F1’s youngest and one of its newest talents. However Tsunoda in his faster AlphaTauri took the position of the more veteran driver showing him who’s the new driver in town.

Lap 40 and Verstappen pits giving Verstappen a 12 lap fresher tyres. Also Lewis is pre warned by Bono “Verstappen forecast to catch us in about 10 laps.” Lap 42 and Verstappen is already within under 6 seconds of Hamilton after having almost 9 seconds to make up of lost time. Lap 45 Vettel locks up in his new Aston Martin heading into T1 and punts Ocon up the rear spinning both himself and Ocon the Alpine driver around. Lap 50 and now the gap between the leading pair is within 1.3 seconds but then Hamilton locks up into T10 helpline Verstappen to get within DRS. Lap 54 Verstappen makes his move on the outside on T1, no joy. But he goes again on the next turn and, after some wheel-to-wheel duelling, he races past his rival into first. But later same lap hands back the position after team orders so they’d not incur a 5 second penalty. 

After this however Verstappen for whatever reason pace seemed to had evaporated and Lewis Hamilton wins the Bahrain GP.

So championship now looks as follows.
Drivers...

1 Hamilton 25pts 
2 Verstappen 18pts
3 Bottas 16pts 
4 Norris 12pts 
5 Perez 10pts 
6 Leclerc 8pts 
7 Ricciardo 6pts 
8 Sainz 4pts 
9 Tsunoda 2pts
10 Stroll 1pts 

And Constructors 
Mercedes 41pts
RedBull 28 pts
McLaren 18pts
Ferrari 12pts
AlphaTauri 2pts 
Aston Martin 1pts 

Alpine, AlfaRomeo, Williams and Haas are yet to score. 

So that’s then that for race number 1. I can say regardless of the winner today that was on edge stuff with a little a bit of everything. Little spice, little sugar, little bit of sauce and little bit of juice. But come back in 3 weeks time when F1 returns back to Europe and back to Imola for the first European championship round of the 2021 season. 

Imola 16th April-18th April

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