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Sergio Pérez won a race for the first time in the 190th attempt and in what could be his penultimate Formula One race when the Mexican took victory in Bahrain.
The Racing Point driver took the checkered flag on an extraordinary night at the Sakhir Grand Prix ahead of Renault’s Esteban Ocon and his Racing Point teammate Lance Stroll.
“I am speechless,” Pérez said.
“I hope I am not dreaming because I have dreamed for so many years to be in this moment.
“Ten years it has taken me to win. Ten years. Incredible. I don’t know what to say.
“After the first lap, the race was over. But it was about not giving up, recovering, trying and doing the best I could.”
Lewis Hamilton’s replacement at Mercedes, George Russell, was in contention for the win, but dropped the order after a puncture in the final stages of the race.
Russell, temporarily promoted from the Williams team to the fastest Formula One machine in history after Hamilton was struck by the coronavirus, was chasing Pérez and following the Mexican for just two seconds before he was forced to stop for a new rubber.
Moments earlier, Russell, a 3000-1 outsider who won here in the desert before Hamilton was sidelined for the first time in his 256-race career, dropped the order after a pit-stop howl from Mercedes.
The 22-year-old had a five-second lead over teammate Valtteri Bottas when Mercedes called his two drivers for a new tire after a safety car deployed after rookie Jack Aitken spun.
But there was confusion among the Mercedes mechanics, as they mistakenly put Bottas’ tires on Russell’s car.
That meant Russell had to pit again on the next lap, leaving him fifth.
“Now he should have a tire advantage,” Russell’s race engineer for the weekend, Pete Bonnington, told the young Briton. “Fuck, I hope so,” Russell replied.
The safety car came to a halt with 19 of 87 laps remaining and Russell, bite between his teeth, wasted no time advancing in the order, passing Bottas, Lance Stroll and Esteban Ocon in two laps.
He set out to chase Perez, taking more than a second off the Racing Point man’s lead before his puncture. It allowed Pérez, who does not have a guaranteed race seat for 2021, to achieve a 10-second victory, while Russell finally crossed the line in ninth place, marking the Englishman’s first points in his F1 career.
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