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Lewis Hamilton wins Bahrain Grand Prix as Leclerc's Ferrari breaks down

31 March 2019 at 17:48
Last update 31 March 2019 at 18:16
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  • Nicolás Quarles van Ufford

Lewis Hamilton has won the 2019 Bahrain Grand Prix, as the reigning champion overtook race leader Charles Leclerc in the final stages of the race as the Ferrari lost a lot of power.

Leclerc was dominating the entire race from the start, leading by a big margin, but eventually finished in third place as both Mercedes cars and overtook the helpless 21-year-old as the Silver Arrows finished in a one-two.

The other Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel finished fifth, as the German spun out and then lost his front wing after he got passed for second place by Hamilton as well.

Bottas remains the championship leader, as Leclerc did take the extra point for the fastest lap, and leads Hamilton by a single point.

Summary

At the race start, Vettel was quickest off the line and led the race by turn one. Leclerc, who got caught napping a little bit, dropped down to third, as Bottas had another flying start from P4. The Monegasque recovered, though, and took back P1 from Vettel shortly after.

Bottas stayed ahead of Hamilton but eventually got overtaken by his teammate with a good move.

In midfield, there was contact out of turn one, with Lance Stroll bumping Romain Grosjean's Haas. Both drivers got punctures but Grosjean eventually had to retire as he had too much damage. Back-to-back retirements for him. Dèja vu?

Ferrari nightmare

In the second half of the race, the nightmare for Ferrari began. They looked to be set for a one-two finish, but it wasn't to be.

Hamilton attacked Vettel and the German fought bravely until the reigning champion made one stick at turn one. Exiting the turn, Vettel then hit the accelerator too hard and spun out, losing a lot of time to his rival. He then lost his front wing as well, as the vibrations on the Ferrari on the back straight took the wing straight off.

It meant P2 for Hamilton but he was still a long way behind Leclerc in the lead. But then, the team radio's started coming. The Monegasque youngster reported engine issues and his lap times started dropping heavily. He lost several seconds per lap and couldn't use ERS deployment, meaning he was down about 40 km/h on the straights. 

Hamilton flew past Leclerc and so did Bottas, and Leclerc is lucky he still ended up with a podium place.

That is because both Renault cars suddenly stopped working three laps before the end and forced a Virtual Safety Car for the final laps. This meant no overtaking on track, and no podium for Max Verstappen in the Red Bull in P4, who was charging. Leclerc got a podium, but should've gotten the win.