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
00:09and start from the end of the pits, and indeed he has.
00:14And 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.
00:24Hamilton goes into Turn 1 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,
00:34who's got Lando Norris, his teammate, for company as they head now.
00:37Down towards Turn 4 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 3.
00:46There's definitely going to be a safety car, I would imagine,
00:50but 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 in 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 1?
01:14It's 3 of rest almost!
01:16Verstappen, Hamilton, and then Charles Leclerc with Valtteri Bottas on the inside.
01:20Gasly is challenging him, Norris is still ahead of Daniel Ricciardo,
01:23and turns 2 and 3 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 4 ahead of Hamilton and Leclerc, Bottas,
01:34and then round the outside, Lando Norris, who's gone ahead of Pierre Gasly,
01:38and there's cars going wide. Could 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, just where they put the throttle on,
01:50and 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 and lost his front wing.
02:02Lando 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 at the Ferrari towards Turn 4.
02:12Another good overtaking opportunity.
02:14Lando Norris going round the outside.
02:16Charles Leclerc will force him as wide as he possibly can,
02:19and their absolute wheel-to-wheel. It's synchronized position holding.
02:24Sergio Perez is absolutely flying out there, Crofty, from 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 1, and he's managed that,
02:34and there goes Lance Stroll on Fernando Alonso.
02:37He's gone a little bit deeper than I'm sure he would have wanted,
02:39but he has carried on and taken 7th place.
02:42He's 7th, Norris up to 4th, 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 4th.
02:53Hard tyres 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.
03:04And don't forget, the gap was about 1.5 seconds.
03:071.7 it was.
03:08Yeah, between Verstappen and Hamilton.
03:10Chance of an overtake.
03:11He stayed out.
03:11Wow. Mercedes pulled the trigger for the undercut.
03:15Red Bull have said, right, you do that, that'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 1,
03:25and into the lead of this race.
03:29Here goes Fernando Alonso with DRS, and also Carlos Sainz as well.
03:35And Sebastian Vettel loses two places in one corner,
03:38but a lock-up there might just allow him to fight back with Carlos Sainz.
03:42Alonso heads them up the hill towards Turn 4.
03:46Sainz now pulls out to the left-hand side.
03:48He is ahead of Sebastian Vettel, and Sainz is now ahead of Fernando Alonso,
03:52and Sebastian Vettel is ahead of Fernando Alonso.
03:56Yuki Tsunoda, ladies and gentlemen, new to Formula One,
03:59and I think we might see a few more of those moves during 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,
04:19George Russell ended up taking a bit of a tumble.
04:21Raikkonen ahead of the Williams there,
04:24and they were getting very, very close through Turn 4.
04:28Hamilton crosses the start-finish line,
04:30and Max Verstappen makes his way out of the pitch.
04:33Sub-2 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.
04:45Oh, and who's had a tussle and a tangle?
04:47It's the Alpine of Esteban Ocon,
04:49and it's the Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel.
04:52Ocon is ahead, going into the braking zone,
04:55and Vettel locking up, can't do anything to stop going into the rear.
05:00This is epic.
05:02And he's locked up into ten, he's gone wide.
05:04He's gone very wide.
05:06And 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,
05:12as 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 1,
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 4?
05:38Hamilton's going to force Verstappen the long way round.
05:40By the time they get to the corner, he's about a third of a car in front.
05:44By the time they get out of the corner, he's a whole car in front.
05:47Max Verstappen is ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
05:50But will Hamilton be complaining because he took the position whilst off the race track?
05:56He's given it back because he took the position off the race track.
06:00So 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 4.
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. There's one more to come after this.
06:17Hamilton is quite comfortable, I think, with Verstappen this far behind.
06:23He starts this year going for a record-breaking eighth world championship.
06:27He has been put under immense pressure by Max Verstappen and Red Bull here tonight.
06:31Sir 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, but by the slenderest margin of just 7 tenths of a second.
06:45They've been beaten by Mercedes tonight.
06:48Wouldn't mind some more races like that.
06:5023 races to come in 2021.
06:53This is a time to look back and then look ahead for what will be a brilliant, we hope, season
06:59in 2021 for Formula One.
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