Mercedes and Hamilton pounce as Ferrari fumble away a win in the desert; Bottas P2 ahead of hard-luck Leclerc while Vettel spins

Ferrari had the dominant car and driver all weekend long. And in Sunday’s race at the Sakhir Circuit in Bahrain everything appeared to be playing out just as it had in practice and qualifying, with a Prancing Horse firmly in the lead. It was their rising young star Charles Leclerc who was dominating from the front, showing his class by fighting back first against his 4-time World Champion teammate Sebastian Vettel when Vettel got away quicker at the start and then leaving the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas in his wake. The 21-year-old pole-sitter looked to be on course for his maiden Formula 1 victory and perhaps the establishment of a new team and driver pecking order in the paddock. But on Lap 46 the dream weekend of Ferrari dominance began to crumble as Leclerc began compiling of engine issues and his blood-red car began losing power with what appeared to be a turbo problem. With Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton running a clean race even though he lacked the pure pace of the Prancing Horse the 5-time and current World Champ was in perfect position to take advantage of the Ferrari’s ill-timed reliability issues. In heartbreaking fashion, Leclerc saw his almost certain victory evaporate as Hamilton’s Silver Arrow relentlessly closed down his previously unassailable lead. On Lap 48 the Englishman passed the wounded Ferrari easily. Worse still for the Scuderia, Bottas was also able to catch up to Leclerc and took away P2.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

In a bare minimum of good fortune for the crestfallen Ferrari pilot the race finished under the Safety Car when both Renaults suffered terminal mechanical failures on Lap 53 of this 57-lap contest. With the drivers forced to hold station for the final few laps, this insured that Leclerc at least made the podium and kept his P3 before Red Bull’s Max Verstappen could dispatch him on track, as the Dutchman most likely would have. But it was cold comfort on a day that promised so much more for the famed team from Maranello and their young Monegasque phenom. To compound Ferrari’s woes Vettel had a disappointing effort. He spun while dicing with Hamilton on Lap 38 for that precious P2, which would ultimately prove to be so important as it converted into the race winning position. It was reminiscent of some of the German’s unforced errors from last year, though in this case the strong winds buffeting the Sakhir circuit may have contributed, particularly in the tricky Turn 4 complex where Vettel lost it. Nonetheless the result was very nearly catastrophic, as Vettel damaged his tires in the spin and then saw his front wing fairly detonate off his car as he limped back to the pits due to the oscillations caused by the flat spots on his tires. While Vettel was eventually able to claw his way back up to P5 after that unscheduled stop for fresh rubber and a new nose it was not a good day for him. Despite jumping his pole-sitting teammate at the start he was only able to hold the lead for 5 laps before Leclerc returned the favor and overtook the his senior teammate relatively easily. Then Vettel’s unfortunate spin when going mano-a-mano with Hamilton’s Merc may have cost him and the team a podium. It should be very interesting to see who performs better for Ferrari in China two weeks from now, not to mention if the Prancing Horses can maintain their blistering pace while also finishing an entire race distance without any reliability issues or driver errors.

With Hamilton lucking into the win, Bottas was also happy to claim that valuable P2 for Mercedes on a day where he was definitely not even the second fastest car on track. It was an interesting reversal of fortune from Round 1 two weeks ago when Bottas was dominant over his teammate and the field for the win in Australia. Today the Finn was clearly the inferior Mercedes and likely would not have even podiumed if not for Vettel’s mishap. Verstappen ran out of laps to catch Leclerc once that Safety Car was deployed and finished P4 after driving a solid but somewhat lonely race. His Red Bull teammate Pierre Gasly salvaged a P8 finish but the difference in pace between he and Verstappen was not close. Behind Vettel’s unsatisfying P5, McLaren’s rookie Lando Norris had a massively pleasing P6 result. With the factory Renaults of Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg both suffering terminal power loss in the waning laps, robbing them and the team of a double points finish, that meant that the impressive young Norris was the top placed — and only — Renault powered vehicle in the race. Veteran Kimi Raikkonen drove with spirit and controlled aggression for Alfa-Romeo to take solid P7 and Toro Rosso rookie Alexander Albon also took advantage of the Renault double DNF to vault his way up to P9. Likewise, Racing Point’s Sergio Perez was gifted P10 after running out of the points for most of the day.

Top 10 finishers of the Bahrain GP:

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next Grand Prix is in a fortnight at the always entertaining and fast-paced Shanghai International Circuit in China. The mechanics and engineers at Maranello will be working overtime to bulletproof their very fast Ferrari engines to try to ensure there are no more what-might-have-been scenarios. Leclerc will be looking to duplicate his peerless form in Bahrain and for that elusive first top step. Vettel will be looking for redemption and to reestablish his authority within the team. And Mercedes will be scrambling to catch up to the fierce pace of the Ferraris and reagin the edge they’ve had since this new turbo era began. They know they got very lucky at Sakhir on Sunday but they also know that luck is not a strategy for long term success. Hope to see you for the Chinese GP to see how it all shakes out!