Hamilton’s win at the Bahrain F1 Grand Prix sheds light on the season for the first time

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Lewis Hamilton won again, but the truth is that he should never have won World Champion the Bahrain F1 Grand Prix on Sunday.

Max Verstappen made a mistake and went off track when he passed Hamilton to take the lead on lap 53 of the 56 lap race. The Dutchman had to give the place back and after doing so he found that the Red Bull wasn’t fast enough to take the same step again.

It was a missed opportunity, but it was clear that Red Bull is competitive.

But what about the others? Who were the winners and losers? There were few answers to that in Bahrain as several teams used risky strategies to make a good impression. They ran soft tires in the second part of qualifying (known as Q2) in the hope that it would make it into the top 10 runoff for the third quarter. However, that meant they had to start the race with the soft rubber, which wasn’t the optimal choice.

Some did it because they couldn’t think of a better idea, others to look good

Ferrari looked better in qualifying, Charles Leclerc finishing fourth on the grid and Carlos Sainz eighth. No question about it, the Ferrari is a better car than last year, but at the end of the race Leclerc was sixth – 59 seconds behind the winner – and still out of pace. Sainz finished eighth.

Max Versteappen was unable to take care of business from pole position on Sunday.

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Alfa Romeo flattered a few training sessions but finished race day 11th and 12th, which wasn’t much better than last year. Alpine (formerly Renault) appeared to have gone backwards while Aston Martin, the old Racing Point that won in Bahrain late last year, never looked like a challenger. Is your focus on 2022? It looks like this.

The cars that used the soft tires in qualifying made life difficult for others. Cars that would normally have been in the Q3 shootout did not make it and had problems starting on Sunday. Sergio Perez was 11th on the grid because he stayed on the middle tire, but things really went wrong on the last lap of the save.

“The car has been shut down,” said Perez. “I was so close to jumping out, but I stayed in and somehow the car started moving again, which was really a miracle. That meant that we had to start from the pit lane. That wasn’t ideal. “

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Perez’s race was a nice comeback from behind for fifth place, but almost as impressive as that of AlphaTauri rookie Yuki Tsunoda, who finished day nine and scored points on his debut.

So what did we learn from Bahrain in 2021?

We are facing an exciting racing season.

Bahrain F1 Grand Prix

Results

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 56 laps
2. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, +0.745 seconds
3. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, +37.3
4. Lando Norris, McLaren, +46.4
5. Sergio Perez, Red Bull, +52.0
6. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, +59.0
7. Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren, +1: 06.0
8. Carlos Sainz, Ferrari, +1: 07.1
9. Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri, +1: 25.6
10. Lance Stroll, Aston Martin, +1: 26.7
11. Kimi Raikkonen, Alfa Romeo, +1: 28.8
12. Antonio Giovinazzi, Alfa Romeo, 1 lap
13. Esteban Ocon, alpine, 1 lap
14. George Russell, Williams, 1 round
15. Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin, 1 lap
16. Mick Schumacher, Haas, 1 lap
17. Pierre Gasly, AlphaTauri, 4 rounds
18. Nicholas Latifi, Williams, 5 rounds
19. Fernando Alonso, alpine, 24 laps
20. Nikita Mazepin, Haas, 56 rounds

F1 constructors ranking

1. Mercedes 41
2. Red Bull 28
3. McLaren 18th
4. Ferrari 12
5. AlphaTauri 2
6. Aston Martin 1
7. Alfa Romeo 0
8. Alpine 0
9. Williams 0
10. Haas 0

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