@LewisHamilton cruises to #BahrainGP victory as #Grosjean survives horrific crash. #F1

Lewis Hamilton cruised to a dominant victory in a wild Bahrain GP, which ended under a safety car and saw a horrific, fiery accident involving Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean on the opening lap.

 

 

This was Hamilton’s fourth Bahrain GP victory, and the 95th of his career.

 

The Grand Prix was also interrupted by two safety cars in incidents that saw a double retirement for both BWT Racing Point F1 Team drivers, but the race will be remembered for the scariest accident on the first tour involving Grosjean escaping his burning VF-20 racer after crashing through one of the circuit’s barriers after suffering a tangle with AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat.

 

When the 57 lap Bahrain Grand Prix began, Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas made a slow run off the line from second whilst Mercedes team-mate Hamilton pulled clear and the Finn was rapidly passed by Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen and Racing Point’s Sergio Perez on the rundown to the first corner.

 

Bottas was then hauled by the other Red Bull of Alexander Albon and Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo at the right-hand opening turn and lost momentum as he entered the second corner, it appeared to set off a spark of reactions in the field behind.

 

McLaren’s Lando Norris had to check his mirrors, which brought him into line with the second Renault of Esteban Ocon and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, which tangled at turn two and caused Norris to slow again and left him with damage to his front wing.

 

The following Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel and Racing Point’s Lance Stroll had to run wide to avoid the rear of Norris’ MCL35 racer, which sent Stroll wide, and the field bunched up again going through the third corner right kink, which slowed the pack at the back of the midfield again.

 

The drivers at the back of the field – including Grosjean – thus quickly caught up to those ahead, and in reaction the Frenchman swerved right across the track, striking AlphaTauri’s Kvyat and sending the Haas straight into the barriers.

 

 

Grosjean’s VF-20 racer was split in half by the impact, with its fuel tank erupting in flames and the front-half of the car spearing through the barrier.

 

Grosjean was able to extract himself out of the burning wreckage, jumping back onto the circuit-side of the fence and into he arms of FIA’s medical delegate Dr Ian Roberts, who arrived on the scene with medical driver Alan van der Merwe moments after the impact.

 

The red-flagged was brought out, just as the front-runners were exiting turn six, and the Grand Prix was suspended for an hour and 20 minutes while Grosjean was taken to the track’s medical centre by ambulance and then airlifted to the BDF Military Hospital for further evaluation.

 

His Haas team explained at first, he suffered minor burns to his hand and ankles, then gave a further update that he suffered suspected broken ribs.

 

The pierced barrier was removed and replaced with a set of concrete blocks, which was installed under the supervision of FIA race director Michael Masi.

 

The race resumed on lap three, with Hamilton on pole position again in-front of Verstappen and Perez, with Bottas back up to fourth as the field was set by the positions at the second safety car line during the first start.

 

Hamilton once again took a great run from the line, with Bottas momentarily challenging Perez and Verstappen ahead of him, but it was the Dutchman that had to defend from the Racing Point at turn one.

 

Perez was pushed out on the outside line, which brought him under-pressure from Bottas as the field raced through the rest of the opening sector.

 

But the race was halted again when Stroll and Kvyat collided together at the turn eight hairpin, with the latter on the inside and flipping Stroll’s RP20 when it hit the Racing Point’s right rear, with Vettel forced to slam the brakes of his Ferrari and Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen damaging his front wing against the slowing SF1000 in-front of him.

 

As Stroll was stuck upside down, the safety car was deployed onto the circuit as he climbed out, during which Mercedes had to pit Bottas who suffered a puncture, which relegated him from fourth to 16^th as he emerged on the C2 hard compounds.

 

The race went green on the ninth lap, with Hamilton building a 0.7 second gap to Verstappen by nailing the final corner spot on compared to Verstappen as they returned to racing speed.

 

The top duo rapidly moved clear of Perez, as they were the only two drivers lapping in the 1:34’s, but just after a few tours at that pace Verstappen started to fall back.

 

By the 14^th lap, Hamilton edged two seconds clear of Verstappen, briefly lapping in the 1:33’s as Verstappen posted 1:35’s, and the Briton continued to pull away across the rest of the initial stint.

 

Hamilton stopped at the end of lap 19 for a set of C3 mediums with a gap of 4.6 seconds, with Verstappen and Perez pitting at the end of the following tour – where they switched for C2 hards, as both drivers had two sets of the more durable rubber for the Grand Prix compared to Hamilton’s sole set he had available.

 

When the stops took place, Hamilton lead the race by 5.5 seconds at the beginning of lap 22, but Verstappen told his team he’ll go “full send” and brought the gap down by a full second and then posted a fastest lap.

 

The front-two kept switching fastest lap times in the 1:33 and 1:34 range before Hamilton re-established his five second advantage by the end of the 30^th tour.

 

Red Bull opted to go aggressive for Verstappen, pitting him for the second time on lap 34, swapping back onto the mediums, but the stop was longer than three seconds.

 

After Mercedes pitted race leader Hamilton for harder tyres at the end of the following tour, Verstappen was 3.7 seconds behind after a quick out-lap and initial flying effort, as Perez pitted in-between the two front-runners.

 

In a close copy of the second stint, Verstappen was able to switch fastest lap times with Hamilton before starting to fall back – posting 1:34’s again after for a brief period running in the 1:32’s after his second stop on lap 46.

 

Hamilton had pushed his lead up to five seconds again by that lap, at the end of which Red Bull decided to bring in Verstappen for a third stop to take on another set of mediums as he had enough time over Racing Point’s Perez.

 

Verstappen immediately set the fastest lap of a 1:32.014 as Mercedes left Hamilton out with a 30 second gap.

 

This was cut down to over 20 seconds, although it looked as though Hamilton had the race under control, when Perez’s engine suddenly spewed plooms of smoke as he ran down the main straight with four tours remaining.

 

The Mexican slowed down as his power-train eventually caught fire, after which he pulled off on the back-straight and the safety car was deployed again.

 

Mercedes were considering pitting Hamilton again but opted not to as the gap between the Briton and Verstappen was touch and go, judging that the Grand Prix would finish under the safety car, which it did.

 

 

Hamilton crossed the line to take his 95^th-career victory at the Bahrain GP ahead of Verstappen by 1.254 seconds as Albon joined the Mercedes driver and his Red Bull team-mate as a result of Perez’s issue, with McLaren’s Norris and Carlos Sainz taking fourth and fifth respectively – the latter making the softer rubber work to perfection during the initial stint.

 

Gasly was the sole driver in the field to complete a one-stop strategy (Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi pitted for a second time under the safety car and fell to 16^th) as the AlphaTauri driver came home sixth despite being overtaken by the McLaren pairing later and looking as if he’ll also be passed from Ricciardo behind without the safety car.

 

Bottas recovered his Mercedes to eighth after making small progress following his puncture, making three stops in total on his way back up the field, and then was hit with a second puncture during the second safety car, which he was able to hobble home for the finish.

 

Renault’s Ocon finished ninth having been in a big fight with team-mate Ricciardo during the middle stage of the Grand Prix, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc completing the top ten.

 

AlphaTauri’s Kvyat was 11^th and in-front of Williams Racing’s George Russell who took 12^th, Ferrari’s Vettel who settled for 13^th and the second Williams FW43 of Nicholas Latifi who was 14^th.

 

Alfa Romeo Racing duo Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi finished 15^th and 16^th respectively as Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen brought up the rear.

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The Top Three

 

 

Bahrain GP Winner – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W11 EQ Power+: “It was such a shocking image to see. When I get in the car, I know that I’m taking risks. But it’s horrifying, I’m just so grateful that the halo worked. It could have been so much worse. But it is a reminder to people watching – this is a dangerous sport. It’s an amazing job that Formula 1 and the FIA has done to make it safer. Physically very demanding, [Red Bull] had a lot of speed today so I was flat out trying to keep them at bay. I’m grateful to my team who at the end of the day did a great job with strategy.”

 

2^nd Place – Max Verstappen, #33, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB16: “We were just lacking a bit, I tried to keep it close, we weren’t really aggressive enough with the strategy and had the issue with the pit stop – it is what it is.”

 

3^rd Place – Alexander Albon, #23, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB16: “A bit of luck involved, but it feels good.”

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Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2020 Race Results Classification (57 Laps)

 

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	TIME/RETIRED	PTS
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	57	1:34:01.829	0
2	33	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING HONDA	57	+1.254s	0
3	23	Alexander Albon	RED BULL RACING HONDA	57	+8.005s	0
4	4	Lando Norris	MCLAREN RENAULT	57	+11.337s	0
5	55	Carlos Sainz	MCLAREN RENAULT	57	+11.787s	0
6	10	Pierre Gasly	ALPHATAURI HONDA	57	+11.942s	0
7	3	Daniel Ricciardo	RENAULT	57	+19.368s	0
8	77	Valtteri Bottas	MERCEDES	57	+19.680s	0
9	31	Esteban Ocon	RENAULT	57	+22.803s	0
10	16	Charles Leclerc	FERRARI	56	+1 lap	0
11	26	Daniil Kvyat	ALPHATAURI HONDA	56	+1 lap	0
12	63	George Russell	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	56	+1 lap	0
13	5	Sebastian Vettel	FERRARI	56	+1 lap	0
14	6	Nicholas Latifi	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	56	+1 lap	0
15	7	Kimi Räikkönen	ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI	56	+1 lap	0
16	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI	56	+1 lap	0
17	20	Kevin Magnussen	HAAS FERRARI	56	+1 lap	0
18	11	Sergio Perez	RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES	53	DNF	0
NC	18	Lance Stroll	RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES	2	DNF	0
NC	8	Romain Grosjean	HAAS FERRARI	0	DNF	0

* Provisional results

https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2020/races/1059/bahrain/race-result.html

 

Click here for the 2020 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings.

 

Round 16 of the 2020 FIA Formula 1 World Championship races on next weekend once again at the Bahrain International Circuit in the second of its back-to-back races in Sakhir, Bahrain for the Formula 1 Rolex Sakhir Grand Prix 2020 from Friday December 4-Sunday December 6.

 

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