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.
00:20Hamilton 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,
00:49but 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.
01:05Hamilton 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 1?
01:14It's 3 of rest almost.
01:15Verstappen, 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, as Verstappen goes into Turn 4,
01:32ahead of Hamilton and Leclerc, Bottas, and then round the outside.
01:35Lando Norris has got ahead of Pierre Gasly, and 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.
01:45Here's Mick Schumacher. Well, that's the second half we've seen,
01:49just where they put the throttle on and the back ends come around on them.
01:53We 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.
02:01Lando Norris wants some benefit, and a little bit more benefit maybe,
02:05to try and get past Charles Leclerc. Didn't quite have it at that stage,
02:08but he's going to have another run at the Ferrari towards Turn 4.
02:11Another good overtaking opportunity. Lando Norris going round the outside.
02:16Charles Leclerc will force him as wide as he possibly can,
02:19and they're 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.
02:36He's gone a little bit deeper than I'm sure he would have wanted,
02:39but he has carried on and taken seventh place. He's seventh, Norris up to fourth,
02:43and back comes Charles Leclerc again. Anything you can do, I can try as well,
02:48but he needs to be a bit closer on this occasion. He's not, and Lando Norris stays in fourth.
02:53Hard tyres going on to Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes. They've not got any new sets of mediums.
02:58No, they haven't. Verstappen 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.
03:061.7 it was.
03:08Yeah, between Verstappen and Hamilton. Chance 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. We're going to go longer.
03:20Max Verstappen is not going to like this, I'm sure, as 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. Sainz 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 1,
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 guessing 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, and they were getting very, very close.
04:25through Turn 4.
04:28Hamilton crosses the start-finish line, and Max Verstappen makes his way out of the pit.
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.
04:44Oh, 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, can't do anything to stop going into the
04:59rear.
05:00This 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, and that is exactly what Max Verstappen and Red
05:10Bull would want to see.
05:12As the gap now comes down to just one second, and they can see for their own eyes that Hamilton
05:17is 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, forces Verstappen wider at Turn 1, and positions that Mercedes beautifully.
05:31But is that only temporary from Lewis Hamilton? Can he now hold Max Verstappen up as they head towards Turn
05:384?
05:38Hamilton's going to force Verstappen the long way round. By the time they get to the corner, he's about a
05:43third of a car in front.
05:44By the time they get out of the corner, he's a whole car in front. Max Verstappen is ahead of
05:49Lewis Hamilton.
05:50But will Hamilton be complaining because he took the position whilst off the race track?
05:55He's given it back because he took the position off the race track.
06:00So there's the DRS for Verstappen. He'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. He's gone a little bit deep there, but he will get
06:10another 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. Hamilton is quite comfortable, I think, with
06:20Verstappen this far behind.
06:23He 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.
06:31Sir 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. They were the pre-race favorites.
06:41But by the slenderest margin of just seven tenths of a second, they've been beaten by Mercedes tonight.
06:48Wouldn't mind some more races like that. 23 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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