Sakhir Grand Prix – Race: an incredible podium Perez, Ocon, and Stroll

A week after the horrifying accident in the first lap last week, the Sakhir Grand Prix once again saw the appearance of the safety car. The reason: a collision between an overly ambitious Charles Leclerc trying to overtake from the inside and Sergio Perez, in the third turn. The collateral victim was Max Verstappen, who managed to avoid the collision but ended up trapped in the gravel trap and couldn’t avoid the wall.

The other notable action at the start was George Russell managing to gain an advantage over Valtteri Bottas, leading his first F1 Grand Prix. At the end of the sixth lap, the safety car withdrew. But if one thought the Finn would be on the attack, he was ultimately on the defensive against Carlos Sainz’s McLaren. The Spaniard managed to gain an advantage at the end of the straight but had to yield in the following turn. It’s a pity for the future Ferrari driver as he was then easily distanced by the Black Arrows despite being on medium tires.

Behind, the one who made a superb comeback was Sergio Perez: relegated to last place by his pit stop on the first lap, he was already ninth by the 21st lap, overtaking all his rivals in the regular way.

During the first round of pit stops, Daniil Kvyat gained an advantage over Daniel Ricciardo, slotting in between the Australian and Carlos Sainz’s McLaren. This proves the referee role we anticipated for AlphaTauri in our race outlook in the battle for third place in the Constructors’ Championship.

In the internal battle at Mercedes, the first to make a decision was George Russell, on lap 46 when driver number 63 dived into the pit lane. His stop went well but he complained of a power loss and then had to make adjustments on his steering wheel. This proved effective while Valtteri Bottas opted to extend his stint by four laps to give himself a chance to overtake his teammate for the weekend. This was not effective at all as he rejoined over eight seconds behind the leader!

On lap 55, Nicholas Latifi inadvertently shuffled the deck by abandoning his car on the trackside, triggering a virtual safety car procedure. Many drivers dashed into the pit lane, including Sebastian Vettel, whose stop was once again troubled by a stubborn left front gun.

But on the 60th lap, a twist with the second Williams, which spun at the last corner, causing it to lose its front wing. Initially, the virtual safety car was triggered, but then the safety car entered the track. However, a huge mess in the pits for Mercedes with confusion regarding George Russell’s car, which left with the wrong tires and thus was forced to make another stop on the following lap, then Valtteri Bottas had to wait a long time because the tires were not ready for him.

At the restart, the order was incredible: Perez, Ocon, Stroll, Bottas, Russell! But the order didn’t stay the same for long as Russell took advantage of a slight mistake by Bottas to pass him in the sequence of turns 6 and 7. Simply magnificent! The Briton was absolutely on fire as he then overtook Lance Stroll and Esteban Ocon to find himself back in second place with 13 laps to go.

The disaster continues for Valtteri Bottas, after being overtaken by Carlos Sainz, Daniel Ricciardo, Alex Albon, and even Daniil Kvyat in three laps! But fate turned against George Russell, who fell victim to a slow puncture while he was catching up to Sergio Perez. He was therefore forced to pit once more with seven laps remaining! He showed admirable determination by setting off again on soft tires, rejoining the race to climb back into the points zone for his first-ever points in F1!

But during this time, Sergio Perez made absolutely no mistakes and was never threatened, allowing him to secure his first victory in F1 even though he still doesn’t have a seat for the next season! He thus enters the history of the category, with a first victory after 189 Grand Prix, compared to 130 for Mark Webber.

Final standings of the Sakhir Grand Prix: