00:00That is Sergio Perez stopping by the side of the track.
00:04And now if he gets that going, I believe he's duty bound to come in the pit lane and start from the end of the pits.
00:11And indeed he has.
00:15And it's lights out and away we go.
00:17And it's Max Verstappen against Lewis Hamilton.
00:19They both got away quite evenly.
00:21Hamilton tucks in behind the Red Bull and Leclerc already alongside Valtteri Bottas.
00:25Hamilton goes into turn one behind Max Verstappen.
00:27Bottas has been challenged all the while by Charles Leclerc.
00:30Pierre Gasly's kept his place as well ahead of the McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo.
00:34He's got Lando Norris, his teammate, for company as they head now.
00:37Down towards turn four and that's off.
00:39And that looks like a Haas and it could have been Nikita Mazepin in the Haas,
00:43spearing off into the barriers at turn three.
00:46It's definitely going to be a safety car, I would imagine.
00:49But it's Max Verstappen who's got the better of the start against Hamilton.
00:53And it is Nikita Mazepin who went off and into the barriers.
00:58Yeah, that's what I thought. He got a bit trigger happy with the throttle
01:02and went off and had his own accident.
01:06Hamilton now will try and tuck him behind him
01:08and Verstappen immediately darts over to the right-hand side of the track.
01:11Now, what is going to happen down into turn one?
01:14It's three of rest almost.
01:15Verstappen, Hamilton, and then Charles Leclerc with Valtteri Bottas on the inside.
01:19Gasly is challenging him. Norris is still ahead of Daniel Ricciardo.
01:23And turns two and three have been navigated safely by the leaders.
01:27Norris is right on Gasly's tail, as you can see,
01:30as Verstappen goes into turn four ahead of Hamilton and Leclerc.
01:33Bottas and then round the outside.
01:35Lando Norris has got ahead of Pierre Gasly.
01:38And there's cars going wide.
01:39Could have been Sebastian Vettel right at the rear of the field.
01:42And there's a car spinning off as well. I wonder if he's tangled.
01:45There's Mick Schumacher.
01:47Well, that's the second half we've seen,
01:49just where they put the throttle on and the back ends come around on them.
01:52We can now ride on board with Pierre Gasly.
01:56And that's the bit where he touched the rear of Daniel Ricciardo
01:59and lost his front wing.
02:01Lando Norris wants some benefit and a little bit more benefit, maybe,
02:05to try and get past Charles Leclerc.
02:07Didn't quite have it at that stage, but he's going to have another run
02:09at the Ferrari towards turn four.
02:11Another good overtaking opportunity.
02:14Lando Norris going round the outside.
02:16Charles Leclerc will force him as wide as he possibly can.
02:18And they're absolute wheel-to-wheel.
02:20It's synchronized position holding.
02:24Sergio Perez is absolutely flying out there, Crofty,
02:27from the very back of the grid.
02:28Hang on, Ted. Here goes Lando Norris.
02:30It's a bit easier to overtake down into turn one,
02:32and he's managed that.
02:33And there goes Lance Stroll on Fernando Alonso.
02:36He's gone a little bit deeper than I'm sure he would have wanted,
02:39but he has carried on and taken seventh place.
02:42He's seventh, Norris up to fourth, and back comes Charles Leclerc again.
02:46Anything you can do, I can try as well.
02:48But he needs to be a bit closer on this occasion.
02:50He's not, and Lando Norris stays in fourth.
02:53Hard tires going on to Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes.
02:56They've not got any new sets of mediums.
02:58No, they haven't.
02:59Verstappen will need a great lap, and then pit at the end of the lap.
03:03And don't forget, the gap was about one and a half seconds.
03:071.7 it was.
03:08Yeah, between Verstappen and Hamilton.
03:10Chance of an overtake.
03:11He stayed out.
03:12Wow.
03:13Mercedes pulled the trigger for the undercut.
03:15Red Bull have said, right, you do that.
03:16That's absolutely fine.
03:17We're going to go longer.
03:20Max Verstappen is not going to like this, I'm sure,
03:22as he sees Lewis Hamilton now disappearing through turn one,
03:26and into the lead of this race.
03:28Here goes Fernando Alonso with DRS,
03:33and also Carlos Sainz as well,
03:35and Sebastian Vettel loses two places in one corner,
03:38but a lockup there might just allow him to fight back with Carlos Sainz.
03:42Alonso heads them up the hill towards turn four.
03:45Sainz now pulls out to the left-hand side.
03:48He is ahead of Sebastian Vettel,
03:50and Sainz is now ahead of Fernando Alonso,
03:52and Sebastian Vettel is ahead of Fernando Alonso.
03:55Yuki Tsunoda, ladies and gentlemen, new to Formula One,
03:59and I think we might see a few more of those moves
04:02during the course of the season.
04:05Mercedes switching the strategies and keeping Red Bull,
04:09guessing which way is the best way.
04:12Kimi Raikkonen and George Russell, ladies and gentlemen.
04:15Remember the Nürburgring when the last time these two got close together,
04:18George Russell ended up taking a bit of a tumble.
04:21Raikkonen ahead of the Williams there,
04:23and they were getting very, very close through turn four.
04:28Hamilton crosses the start-finish line,
04:30and Max Verstappen makes his way out of the pitch.
04:33Sub two-second stop for the Red Bull crew.
04:36That wasn't just neat, that was super neat, wasn't it?
04:39And now, ladies and gentlemen, with 16 laps to go, it is game on.
04:43Oh, and who's had a tussle and a tangle?
04:47It's the Alpine of Esteban Ocon, and it's the Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel.
04:52Ocon is ahead, going into the braking zone, and Vettel locking up.
04:56Can't do anything to stop going into the rear.
04:59This is epic.
05:02And he's locked up into 10, he's gone wide.
05:04He's gone very wide.
05:05And that will have cost him an awful lot of time,
05:08and that is exactly what Max Verstappen and Red Bull would want to see,
05:11as the gap now comes down to just one second,
05:14and they can see for their own eyes
05:16that Hamilton is starting to really struggle out there.
05:20He's looking in his wing mirrors to see what's happening at the rear.
05:24It's Max Verstappen coming his way.
05:26Hamilton moves to the middle of the track,
05:27forces Verstappen wider at turn one,
05:29and positions that Mercedes beautifully.
05:32But is that only temporary from Lewis Hamilton?
05:34Can he now hold Max Verstappen up as they head towards turn four?
05:38Hamilton's going to force Verstappen the long way round,
05:40by the time they get to the corner,
05:42he's about a third of a car in front.
05:44By the time they get out of the corner,
05:46he's a whole car in front.
05:47Max Verstappen is ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
05:50But will Hamilton be complaining
05:52because he took the position whilst off the race track?
05:56He's given it back because he took the position off the race track.
06:01So there's the DRS for Verstappen.
06:02He's getting extra pace, but it's not enough to make an overtake here.
06:06He's got one more chance up into turn four.
06:08He's gone a little bit deep there, but he will get another helping of the rear wing.
06:12But Hamilton's got him covered.
06:14This is the second DRS zone.
06:16There's one more to come after this.
06:17Hamilton is quite comfortable, I think, with Verstappen this far behind.
06:22He starts this year going for a record-breaking eighth world championship.
06:26He has been put under immense pressure by Max Verstappen and Red Bull here tonight.
06:30Sir Lewis Hamilton as he is now crosses the line and wins the Bahrain Grand Prix.
06:36Max Verstappen and Red Bull come home to take second place.
06:40They were the pre-race favorites.
06:42But by the slenderest margin of just seven tenths of a second,
06:46they've been beaten by Mercedes tonight.
06:48Wouldn't mind some more races like that.
06:5023 races to come in 2021.
06:54This is a time to look back and then look ahead for what will be a brilliant,
06:58we hope, season in 2021 for Formula One.
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