Summary:
- Hamilton wins an entertaining Bahrain GP after both Ferraris suffer problems
- Bottas makes it Mercedes 1-2, Leclerc finishes on podium for first time ever
- Norris finishes impressive 6th for McLaren
Lewis Hamilton has claimed his first win of the 2019 season in an extremely entertaining race in Bahrain, in arguably very fortunate circumstances. Hamilton's team-mate Valtteri Bottas, who did not have a great race, benefitted from Ferrari's struggles to complete a second Mercedes 1-2 of the season, whilst polesitter Charles Leclerc finished third in extremely unfortunate circumstances despite driving a brilliant race.
At the start, actually polesitter Charles Leclerc did not get away well at all and his team-mate Sebastian Vettel led going into turn 1. Bottas also managed to overtake Leclerc on the opening lap, whilst Hamilton dropped down to fourth place. Leclerc, however, quickly got back past Bottas for second place. Lance Stroll and Romain Grosjean made contact at the start, which caused Stroll to require a front wing change and caused Grosjean significant damage which ultimately led him to retire from the race.
On lap 5, Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz made contact in a wheel-to-wheel incident in turn 4 which caused Sainz heavy damage, though neither driver was given a penalty for the incident. After a poor start, Leclerc was quickly back on a good pace, and on lap 6 re-passed Vettel for the lead of the race, and Hamilton also got past Bottas for third place.
The first round of pitstops began on lap 12 as far as the top 5 drivers were concerned, with Verstappen pitting first (from soft to medium tyres). Bottas, who was in fourth place, followed on the next lap to try cover off Verstappen, but actually did not succeed as Verstappen managed to overtake the Finn. On the next lap, both Leclerc and Hamilton pitted (with Hamilton switching onto another set of soft tyres). Hamilton was able to re-emerge from his pitstop in second place ahead of Vettel who pitted on the next lap, whilst not long after Bottas managed to retake fourth from Verstappen.
Daniil Kvyat and Antonio Giovinazzi were involved in contact which sent Kvyat into a spin - no further action was taken by the stewards on the incident, but Kvyat was given a 5-second penalty for speeding in the pitlane. Hamilton was struggling massively on his soft tyres, and on lap 23 Vettel was able to retake second position.
The 2nd round of pitstops for the frontrunners began on lap 34 when Verstappen pitted from fifth place. Hamilton followed a lap later in an attempt to regain second place from Vettel. Vettel himself pitted on the following lap, and was successful in re-emerging from the pitstop ahead of Hamilton, though Hamilton closed up massively on the German, and Hamilton was more comfortable on the medium tyres. Leclerc pitted on the next lap and comfortably re-emerged back in first place.
Hamilton was able to overtake Vettel once again for second place, and in the process, without contact of any sorts between the two drivers, Vettel inexplicably spun and a little bit later on in the lap lost his front wing as it just disintegrated, which required a third pitstop for Vettel which initially caused him to drop down all the way to ninth, though he did recover to fifth place.
If anyone watching the race thought the drama was over, they were badly mistaken, as if it was not bad enough for Ferrari with Vettel, it got even worse as Leclerc suffered an engine failure as he lost around 160bhp. As a result, both Mercedes drivers Hamilton and Bottas were able to pass him for the win. Leclerc was fortunate not to get passed by Verstappen as on lap 53 both Renault drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo simultaneously suffered car failures which caused them to retire, and as a result the Safety Car (SC) was deployed, which effectively stopped the racing.
Classification:
Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes
Charles Leclerc - Ferrari
Max Verstappen - Red Bull Racing-Honda
Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
Lando Norris - McLaren-Renault
Kimi Raikkonen - Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari
Pierre Gasly - Red Bull Racing-Honda
Alexander Albon - Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda
Sergio Perez - Racing Point-BWT Mercedes
Antonio Giovinazzi - Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari
Daniil Kvyat - Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda
Kevin Magnussen - Haas-Ferrari
Lance Stroll - Racing Point-BWT Mercedes
George Russell - Williams-Mercedes
Robert Kubica - Williams-Mercedes
Nico Hulkenberg - Renault
Daniel Ricciardo - Renault
Carlos Sainz - McLaren-Renault
Did not finish the race and not classified: Romain Grosjean (Haas-Ferrari)
World Championship classification:
Valtteri Bottas - 44 points
Lewis Hamilton - 43 points
Max Verstappen - 27 points
Charles Leclerc - 26 points
Sebastian Vettel - 22 points
Kimi Raikkonen - 10 points
Lando Norris - 8 points
Kevin Magnussen - 8 points
Nico Hulkenberg - 6 points
Pierre Gasly - 4 points
Lance Stroll - 2 points
Alexander Albon - 2 points
Daniil Kvyat - 1 point
Sergio Perez - 1 point
Antonio Giovinazzi - 0 points
George Russell - 0 points
Robert Kubica - 0 points
Daniel Ricciardo - 0 points
Carlos Sainz - 0 points
Constructors' Championship classification:
Mercedes - 87 points
Ferrari - 48 points
Red Bull Racing-Honda - 31 points
Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari - 10 points
McLaren-Renault - 8 points
Haas-Ferrari - 8 points
Renault - 6 points
Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda - 3 points
Racing Point-BWT Mercedes - 3 points
Williams-Mercedes - 0 points