Bahrain Grand Prix: for Hamilton, « you had to do something special »
The Briton narrowly held off Max Verstappen to win the first race of the season!
(1st): Lewis Hamilton « We knew it would be tough by stopping early »
The battle has begun in Bahrain! Lewis Hamilton fought against his challenger Max Verstappen. But in the end, it was the Briton who emerged victorious on the Sakhir circuit, after a thrilling finish!
Wow, it was a tough race! We knew it would be tough by stopping early. But we had to cover Max’s strategy,” justified Hamilton in the Parc Fermé upon getting out of his car.
The winner of the day naturally highlights the performance of the Verstappen-Red Bull duo. A performance that pushed Hamilton to do things differently. Once again, the Mercedes driver made the most of his tires, taking the gamble on the hard compound. Two pit stops to switch to the white-striped tires each time.
They had an incredible performance this weekend, so we had to do something special. We tried to find the right balance with the car in the final relay between not pushing too hard and keeping the tires until the end of the race.
« We had to cover Max’s strategy »
On a strategy that differed from Verstappen, the reigning world champion took the lead on the 18th lap, and on the 40th lap, after Red Bull driver’s second pit stop.
Coming out at turn 10 on the 51st lap, the end of the race was tense: Hamilton outright asked his engineer Peter Bonnington to leave him alone. Attacked on the 53rd lap by Verstappen at the exit of turn 4, the Dutchman let Hamilton pass and the seven-time world champion came to pocket the victory:
« It was difficult and Max was really close at the end, but I managed to contain him. It was one of the toughest races I’ve had in a long time. »
Hamilton gets off to a flying start in 2021: 95th career victory, for a 165th podium finish! The British driver is also now the driver with the highest number of laps led in F1: 5112 laps in the lead since the beginning of his career in 2007!
