Sergio Perez wins dramatic Sakhir GP after Mercedes fall apart
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Sergio Perez has won his first-ever Formula 1 Grand Prix, despite major contact on the first lap of the race. George Russell looked likely to win the race, but the Mercedes pit crew hampered his chances with a pit stop mistake. Russell's race was entirely ruined after a puncture in the final stages. Esteban Ocon and Lance Stroll completed the podium, with the battle for third in the World Championship swinging towards the Pink Panthers.
It was looking like Mercedes had the race under control, until they attempted a double-stack pitstop under the safety car. The pit crew mixed up the tyre allocations pushing back their drivers.
Russell was fighting back, but a puncture ruined his race entirely. And it was the man who doesn't have a seat for next season stretching his advantage and winning the race. Russell managed to get back into the top 10 to secure his first points finish in F1 on the day Lewis Hamilton was forced to sit on the sideline due to a COVID-19 infection.
In his 190th Grand Prix start, Perez wins his first ever Formula 1 race.
The celebrations have begun! #SakhirGP @RacingPointF1 pic.twitter.com/AE6vQBrsEJ
— Formula 1 (@F1) December 6, 2020
Lights out, Safety car out
Russell aced his first start in the Mercedes car. The 22-year-old beat pole-sitter Bottas to the first corner and accelerated into the lead.
Perez, Bottas and Verstappen arrived at the third corner at the same time. Verstappen backed out first, but Perez tangled with Charles Leclerc. This pushed Verstappen onto the gravel and into the wall for his fifth first lap retirement. The Ferrari driver also retired from this incident.
The race restarted on lap seven, and once again Russell got away smoothly. Third-placed Carlos Sainz attacked Bottas at turn one, but it the Finnish driver stayed ahead. By lap 13, Russell had a two-second advantage. Sainz and Ricciardo started to fight over the final spot of the podium places.
Quick laps
Degradation of the tyres was far less than expected. On lap 28 some of the midfield drivers opted to change from soft to medium tyres. By this stage, it was a two-horse race with the Mercedes drivers far ahead of the rest.
On lap 37, Russell suggested his tyres were "fine", but Bottas was concerned about his front tyres. Meanwhile, Lance Stroll was delivering in third-place but pitted on lap 43. He managed to maintain his place ahead of Esteban Ocon out of the pit lane. But on colder tyres, Stroll wasn't able to battle with the Frenchman in sector 2.
It's Russell time
On lap 46, Mercedes finally stopped extending Russell's stint on the medium tyres. He pitted for hard tyres. Four laps later, Bottas came in for his set of hard tyres. In the pitstops, Russell gained five seconds, making the undercut successful. Not for the first time this season, Mercedes experienced a sensor issue.
By this point, Sainz regained his podium place and the two Renault cars lined up in P4 and P5. Due to a broken down Williams, the stewards threw a VSC. Sainz pitted, but by the time he was in his box, the track had returned to green meaning he had lost out.
Perez benefitted from this and took the final podium place, swinging the third-place championship battle in Racing Point's direction.
One last twist
Jack Aitken had a spin and left his front wing out on the track. The safety car came out and Mercedes reacted with a double stack pitstop. The pit crew are normally slick under the double stack move, but they put Bottas' tyre on Russell's car.
This hampered both drivers, with Russell needing to pit again to correct the error. As a result, Perez moved into the lead. Bottas and Russell were P4 and P5 respectively at the restart.
Russell passed Bottas, Stroll and Ocon to move into second place. He was 3 seconds behind leader Perez with 10 laps remaining. The F1 were denied a last lap battle when Russell picked up a puncture.