Lewis Hamilton held back a tenacious Max Verstappen for victory at the Formula 1 season opening Grand Priz in Bahrain.
Verstappen led the race from pole position, but Mercedes and Hamilton took the lead through their pit strategy. Despite having made the final lap of pit stops, Verstappen came out of the pits 8.8 seconds behind the seven-time F1 champion. Verstappen made his way to Hamilton and briefly took the lead on lap 53 of the 56-lap race, only to have to relinquish the position after it was discovered that Verstappen had moved all four tires beyond the track limits on his pass.
After Verstappen let Hamilton through, Hamilton led the rest of the way. If Hamilton hadn’t been let through, Verstappen would have received a possible 5-second penalty for exceeding route restrictions in order to gain an advantage. Verstappen later suspected the call and said he understood the violation, but he also thought he could win the race more than 5 seconds after the pass.
“Great race, hard to lose,” said Red Bull team principal Christian Horner.
Hamilton’s profit margin was 0.7 seconds. Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas, who set the fastest lap of the race, was third, 37.3 seconds behind Hamilton.
Here is some of what it was like in Bahrain:
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