Lewis Hamilton holds off Max Verstappen in epic Bahrain opener | Motorsports News

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Seven-times Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton gained the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix for Mercedes on Sunday after an epic, knife-edge thriller with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen over the ultimate laps. Verstappen, who handed the Briton with 4 laps to go solely to have at hand again the lead for exceeding observe limits, completed a mere 0.745 seconds behind after beginning on pole place. 

Hamilton’s crew mate Valtteri Bottas was third, 37.383 seconds behind after a gradual cease, however the Finn gained a bonus level after pitting for recent tyres late on to safe the quickest lap.

“Wow, what a difficult race that was,” mentioned Hamilton, who began second on the grid and took one other of Michael Schumacher’s all-time data together with his 5,112nd race lap led in a strategic cat-and-mouse thriller. 

“Max was all over me right at the end, but I just about managed to hold him off. It was one of the hardest races I’ve had for a while,” added the Briton, who needed to negotiate the ultimate laps on older and extra worn tyres than his rival. Towards the top, he merely informed his race engineer to ‘depart me to it.”

The victory was a record-extending 96th for Hamilton, persevering with additionally his run of successful in each season of his profession since his debut with McLaren in 2007, however the first time he had gained an opener since 2015. 

“I had that one shot, went outside of the track and I then of course gave the position back and tried again but my tyres were not in the right state to put the pressure on,” mentioned Verstappen.

The Dutch teen had hoped he would possibly have the ability to proceed and pull far sufficient clear to soak up the inevitable time penalty, however Red Bull had been clear on what he needed to do. “Once you have that instruction you have to move out of the way. It is tough racing, it is fair racing,” mentioned crew boss Christian Horner. “I think the biggest winner today was the fans. It sets up a great season and I hope we see more battles between Max and Lewis this season.”

PEREZ PROBLEM

Lando Norris completed fourth for McLaren whereas Verstappen’s new Mexican crew mate Sergio Perez went from beginning in the pit lane, after his automobile had stopped on the formation lap, to fifth place.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was sixth and Australian Daniel Ricciardo seventh on his McLaren debut with Spaniard Carlos Sainz, the person he changed, eighth in his first race for Ferrari.

Japanese rookie Yuki Tsunoda scored on his F1 debut in ninth for AlphaTauri and Lance Stroll took the final scoring place for Aston Martin in the marque’s first race as a constructor since 1960.
Stroll’s crew mate Sebastian Vettel, the four-times world champion who has joined from Ferrari, had one other of his nightmares.

The German collected a five-place grid drop for not respecting warning flags in qualifying and went to final on the beginning grid. He then collected a 10-second penalty in the race for inflicting a collision with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and two penalty factors — taking his tally for the weekend to 5 with 12 in one 12 months incurring a one-race ban.

Ocon’s crew mate Fernando Alonso, returning after a two-year absence on the age of 39, retired from the race after particles was trapped in a brake duct, inflicting it to overheat. Mick Schumacher, F2 champion and rookie son of seven-times champion Michael, was lapped and the final finisher in sixteenth for Haas.

The debut of his Russian crew mate Nikita Mazepin lasted solely seconds earlier than he spun off popping out of flip two, triggering the security automobile. The race was shortened by one lap as a consequence of Perez’s drawback forcing the sector to go round as soon as extra. Mechanics had been working earlier on the Mexican’s automobile in the storage to switch some energy unit parts. 





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