Hamilton squeaks to a Bahrain Grand Prix WIN ahead of Verstappen

Lewis Hamilton managed to hold off Max Verstappen, sort of, to grab the first win of the 2021 Grand Prix season at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen had pole position for the opening Bahrain Grand Prix, and despite different tyre strategies mixing things up as the race progressed it did look like the Red Bull had the measure of the Mercedes, and that Verstappen, on fresher rubber, would take Hamilton in the closing laps for victory. Which he did, but didn’t too.

In fact Verstappen did pass Hamilton in the closing laps but did so by going off track, was immediately told to give the place back to Hamilton and couldn’t quite muster enough to pass again. So Hamilton took the win and proved he could still be victorious in a Mercedes which isn’t quite as fast as the Red Bull. It was impressive.

Hamilton might have had an easier ride to victory had team mate Bottas been riding shotgun, but a slow pitstop from a sticky wheel saw him too far behind the leaders to have any impact, and his third place was more than half a minute adrift of Hamilton and Verstappen.

Behind the top three it was an impressive run from Norris in the McLaren to take fourth, with the second Red Bull of Perez in fifth and Ricciardo in the McLaren in seventh, splitting sixth and eighth for the Ferraris of Leclerc and Sainz.

An impressive outing for Yuki Tsunoda in the AlphaTauri saw him take ninth, with the new Aston Martin team managing the last points place with Stroll.

Things might change as the season progresses, but the Bahrain Grand Prix perhaps, hopefully, previews a new F1 season where Red Bull properly take the fight to Mercedes.