Lewis Hamilton won the first race of the new Formula 1 season after managing to keep Max Verstappen in a tense finale after Red Bull driver temporarly took the lead four laps before the end while Valtteri Bottas finished third in the second Mercedes.

Verstappen attacked and overtook Hamilton four laps before the end after reducing the gap from eight seconds with 11 laps with newer tyres, but Verstappen had to give the position back as he overtook him off the track in the turn 4.

Bottas finished third for Mercedes and Norris fourth in McLaren after overtaking teammate Ricciardo in the first lap who finished seventh.

Perez stopped on the track in the warm-up lap so the drivers had to go into the warm-up lap again until the Mexican turned on his Red Bull, got to the pits and prepared to start from the pits.

The drivers lined up again for their starting positions, with Verstappen retaining the lead ahead of Hamilton, Bottas and Leclerc as Gasly battled McLaren drivers Ricciard and Norris.

Norris managed to overtake Ricciardo and Alonso broke through to eighth place, overtaking Sainz in a Ferrari who lost two places to Alonso and Stroll.

Mazepin applied too much throttle over the curb at turn 3 and crashed into the barriers on the left side of the track causing a safety car to enter the track.

During the safety car, Perez took the opportunity to replace a set of medium tyres with a new set of medium and the race continued in the fourth lap.

Verstappen retained the lead ahead of Hamilton, but Leclerc overtook Bottas as Gasly lost the front wing in a fight with McLaren drivers which caused the virtual safety car.

Verstappen continued to complain to the team about a car problem that the team could not explain, and Gasly managed to get to the pits, replace the nose and front wing and replace the medium tyres with hard.

2021 Bahrain GP start wide shot Photo Red Bull
2021 Bahrain GP start (Photo: Red Bull)

Bottas overtook Leclerc on the main straight in the sixth lap with the help of DRS, but Leclerc threatened him after the third turn even though he failed to regain the lost third place.

Norris first tried to overtake Leclerc in the eighth lap, but Leclerc closed his trajectory in the fourth turn. But Leclerc failed to defend the lap later when Norris overtook him on the start-finish line and managed to defend on the next direction.

In the 12th lap, Alonso was the first to enter the pits on a regular tyre change and replaced soft tyres with medium, followed in the next round by Stroll, Norris and Leclerc who also replaced soft with medium.

Ricciardo later replaced the soft lap with a medium and lost his place to Alonso, and Hamilton replaced the medium with a hard in the 14th lap and came back behind Sainz whom he easily overtook in the direction before the fourth turn.

Bottas replaced his medium tyres with hard in the 17th lap, and Verstappen entered boxing a lap later and replaced his medium set with a new set of the same component. A longer stay on the track cost him the lead and Hamilton took the lead on harder tyres from lap 18.

In the 18th round, Bottas overtook Perez on the DRS straight in the second sector on 17 laps with older tyres and regained third place and Alonso overtook Vettel in the 21st lap, who was not yet in the pits, and immediately after that he lost positions to Vettel and Sainz. .

2021 Bahrain GP start first corners Verstappen leads Hamilton Leclerc Photo Red Bull
Verstappen leads Hamilton and Leclerc at the 2021 Bahrain GP start (Photo: Red Bull)

Tsunoda overtook Vettel, who was not yet in the pits, in the 24th lap on the main straight, and Perez brilliantly overtook Leclerc from the outside of the fourth turn in the 25th lap.

In the same lap Vettel made his first tyre change and replaced the medium with a hard one making it clear that he would try to finish the race with just one tyre change.

Verstappen reduced Hamilton’s lead from seven to less than two seconds, and Mercedes reacted in lap 28 and called on Hamilton to replace the used hard with a new one while Bottas was called two laps later and held for too long due to problems removing the front right tyre.

Alonso became the second driver after Mazepin to retire in thelap 33 as he was invited to the pits by the team due to problems with the brakes that are under heavy load on this track.

Perez entered pits for the second time in lap 39, replaced hard tyres with mediums and returned to seventh place while Verstappen later entered boxing for the second time and replaced medium with hard with a change of tyres faster than two seconds.

Verstappen came back 8.7 seconds behind Hamilton who was on 11 laps of older hard tyres and began to catch up significantly, seven laps before the end he was two seconds behind, and five laps before the end he could use DRS as he got to less than seconds behind.

Verstappen attacked Hamilton in the 53rd lap from outside the fourth corner, but Verstappen had to regain position as he overtook him off the track.

Perez finished fifth after a start from 11th place and poor qualifiers, and Leclerc was sixth for Ferrari after finishing third in the first lap.

Ricciardo finished seventh in second McLaren ahead of Sainz in second Ferrari, and Stroll in Aston Martin scored two points in ninth place.

Tsunoda finished tenth for AlphaTauri in his first F1 race and scored the first point of his F1 career.

The next race is scheduled for three weeks in Imola.

2021 BAHRAIN GP RESULTS

1 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 56 1:32:03.897
2 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda 56 1:32:04.642 0.745
3 77 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 56 1:32:41.280 37.383
4 4 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 56 1:32:50.363 46.466
5 11 Sergio Pérez Red Bull/Honda 56 1:32:55.944 52.047
6 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 56 1:33:02.987 59.090
7 3 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren/Mercedes 56 1:33:09.901 1:06.004
8 55 Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 56 1:33:10.997 1:07.100
9 22 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri/Honda 56 1:33:29.589 1:25.692
10 18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 56 1:33:30.610 1:26.713
11 7 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 56 1:33:32.761 1:28.864
12 99 A.Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 55 1 lap
13 31 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 55 1 lap
14 63 George Russell Williams/Mercedes 55 1 lap
15 5 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin/Mercedes 55 1 lap
16 47 Mick Schumacher Haas/Ferrari 55 1 lap
17 10 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri/Honda 52 4 laps
18 6 Nicholas Latifi Williams/Mercedes 51 5 laps
14 Fernando Alonso Alpine/Renault 32 Brakes
9 Nikita Mazepin Haas/Ferrari 0 Spun off

Fastest lap: Max Verstappen – 1:32.090 (lap 56)

DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER 1/23 RACES

1 Lewis Hamilton 25 25
2 Max Verstappen 18 18
3 Valtteri Bottas 16 16
4 Lando Norris 12 12
5 Sergio Pérez 10 10
6 Charles Leclerc 8 8
7 Daniel Ricciardo 6 6
8 Carlos Sainz Jr. 4 4
9 Yuki Tsunoda 2 2
10 Lance Stroll 1 1
11 Kimi Räikkönen 0
12 A.Giovinazzi 0
13 Esteban Ocon 0
14 George Russell 0
15 Sebastian Vettel 0
16 Mick Schumacher 0
17 Pierre Gasly 0
18 Nicholas Latifi 0
Fernando Alonso 0
Nikita Mazepin 0

CONSTRUCTORS’ CHAMPIONSHIP

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