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A big mistake marked the Sakhir GP in Bahrain, the penultimate of the 2020 Formula 1 season. This is because a mistake in the Mercedes pits “took away” the victory from George Russell, who led the race for a good part of the race, and that the Mexican Sergio Pérez took advantage, who in the first lap came to be in 18th position.
What makes the situation more striking is that Sergio Pérez is currently out of the next edition of the category, since Racing Point, his current team, has not renewed a contract with the Mexican driver. That was his first victory in his entire career.
Shortly after the race, Pérez couldn’t contain his excitement, as in addition to all the obstacles, a Mexican driver had not won a Formula 1 race in 50 years.
The second place went to Esteban Ocon, who was also gaining positions after Mercedes’ mistake and took the podium for the first. Lance Stroll closed the podium.
Mercedes loses race in the boxes
Everything indicated that Mercedes was going to do another double and that George Russel would win the first F1 race of his career. With a huge advantage over the rest, the British team decided to make a double pit stop and a bad tire change caused Bottas to stay in the pits for an incredible 27 seconds and Russell had to return to the pits because he had a tire that belonged to the Finn. . .
With that, what would be a victory and a second place on the podium, ended with Bottas and Russell fighting in the closing laps to at least try not to leave Sakhir’s GP without scoring.
Remember that the Finn had everything to guarantee today’s runner-up and that Russell had no points before today’s race.
Hamilton out for COVID-19
Seven times Formula 1 champion, already this year’s winner in advance, Lewis Hamilton could not be in the Sakhir GP because he tested last Monday (30) for COVID-19. In his place, young George Russell temporarily entered.
Fittipaldi’s debut
The young Brazilian pilot Pietro Fittipaldi started the GP Sakhir in last place, however, he took advantage of his opponents’ various individual starting errors to take 16th place. However, little by little the lack of experience made Aitken me Raikkonen overtake the Brazilian, who moved to 18th position (last Verstappen me LeClerc dropped out).
Towards the end of the race, Latif dropped out of the race, leaving the Brazilian in 17th place.
Exciting start in Sakhir
The start had marked moments both for the talent of some drivers and for individual errors. Starting in second place, Russel had excellent acceleration in the opening seconds to take the lead that was until then from his provisional teammate, Valtteri Bottas. In fact, the Finn again fell short of his initial expectations and nearly fell to third place in the first corners.
Another event that marked the beginning was the accident that involved three drivers: Sergio Pérez, from Racing Point, Max Verstappen, from Red Bull, and Charles Leclerc, from Ferrari. Due to Bottas’ “slowness” at the start, the Monaco driver misfired the brakes, hitting the Mexican competitor and unintentionally knocking Verstappen off the track. Despite Leclerc’s touch, Pérez managed to return to the race, luck that the other two involved did not have and left the Sakhir GP with a few seconds of racing.
The irritation of the young Dutchman was evident, since the pilot criticized the situation a lot on the radio – he declared that he could not have done anything to prevent it – and kicked the side of the runway protection as a symbol of the revolt.
“I tried to get inside Max (Verstappen), I saw Sergio (Pérez), but I didn’t expect him to be even inside. That didn’t happen. I don’t blame Sergio, he didn’t. Nothing bad, it was bad luck. I’m the one to blame, I was inside and tried to change, I think it was more bad luck than anything, ”LeClerc said in an interview with Sportv minutes after the accident.
Who also highlighted the fault of the Ferrari driver was Verstappen. “I think Charles was very aggressive, he wasn’t very smart, he braked at Turn 4, he ended up hitting Sergio and I had to get out of there. He’s a great driver, but today I think he was too aggressive.” Getting out of the car, he asked me what had happened and I replied that I did not understand, because he forced it at the wrong time. Again, he’s a great driver, but I hope you see that he was too aggressive today, ”also answering questions. to Sportv.
Safety Car only leaves after the sixth lap
Due to the accident at the start, the Safety Car entered the sequence and only left the track after the sixth lap of the 87 totals. At the restart, Bottas was about to falter again and was even overtaken by Carlos Sainz, but the Spaniard did not maintain stability and saw the Finn return to second place.
Russell controls the pace of the race
Despite his inexperience in Formula 1, George Russell put on a performance worthy of “great people” this weekend. The 22-year-old Briton led two of the three free practice sessions, was second in the standings and was top of Bottas at the start.
Ferrari goes wrong
In addition to the Mercedes that made a serious mistake in the end, who also did not have a positive weekend was Ferrari, who saw Charles Leclerc leave the race on the first lap and Sebastian Vettel again without being in a good position.
Sakhir GP grid finish
1st: Sergio Pérez / MEX – Racing Point
2nd: Esteban Ocon / FRA – Renault
3rd: Lance Stroll / CAN – Racing Point
4th: Carlos Sainz Jr /ESP – McLaren
5th: Daniel Ricciardo/OUTSIDE – Renault
6th: Alexander Albon / TAI – Red Bull
7th: Daniil Kvyat/ RUS – AlphaTauri
8th: Valtteri Bottas / FIN – Mercedes
9th: George Russell /IN G – Mercedes
10th: country Norris/IN G – McLaren
11th Pierre Gasly / FRA – Alpha Tauri
12th Compound Vettel / ALE – Ferrari
13 Antonio Giovinazzi / ITA – Alfa Romeo
14th Kimi Raikkonen / FIN – Alfa Romeo
15th Kevin Magnussen / DIN – Haas
16th Jack Aitken / COR – Williams
17th Pietro Fittipaldi / BRA – Haas
Who did not complete
– Nicolas Latifi / CAN – Williams
– Max Verstappen / Red Bull
– Charles Leclerc / MON – Ferrari
