![]() ![]() Red Bull may have started the season with the quickest car, but the world champions seized this opportunity to prove they can with with tactical superiority as well as speed. We just have to get on with it and try to do better.” ![]() “Last year we would have been super-happy with this result and now we are disappointed so we definitely made a good step forward and of course it is still a very long season. So maybe also there we could have done better in choosing our tyres throughout the practice. “We didn’t have the tyres like they had so we didn’t really have a lot of flexibility in the strategy. “I think, strategy-wise, we’ll have to analyse what we could have done better,” he said. Both drivers made good use of these in their middle stint, the importance of which was not lost on Verstappen. Hamilton withstood Verstappen’s attack just long enoughThe second significant factor was that Mercedes kept a new set of hard C2 tyres in hand for the race, which Red Bull did not have. Unluckily for Bottas this was ruined by a slow second pit stop. Once he was free of Charles Leclerc, Bottas was close enough to the leaders to be a factor, and Mercedes ran him closer to a conventional strategy, forcing Red Bull to cover both options. ![]() The first was the presence of Valtteri Bottas. Two things allowed Mercedes to be this aggressive with Hamilton’s strategy. (The move didn’t stick, but that’s besides the point.) Indeed, the strategists can be satisfied that, having arguably dropped the ball by letting Hamilton get ahead in the first place, they put Verstappen in a position where he was able to overtake the Mercedes for the lead with three laps to go. With further degradation forcing Hamilton back into the pits for his second stop as early as lap 28 – half-distance, which suggested he would need to pit a third time – the plan seemed to be working. The 2021 edition of the race kicked off the titanic title fight between Hamilton and. Vettel received a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision. Red Bull reacted the only way they could – by extending Verstappen’s first and second stints as long as they dared. An F1 track guide to the Bahrain International circuit at Sakhir. 26 Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir Race Race result Fastest laps Pit stop summary Starting grid Qualifying Practice 3 Practice 2 Practice 1 Note - Bottas scored an additional point for setting the fastest lap of the race. Hamilton gained a massive two-and-a-half seconds after switching to fresh rubber, and having been only 1.7s behind the race-leading Red Bull beforehand, he was guaranteed to put himself in a position to jump ahead at this point. Tyres degrade rapidly on the abrasive Bahrain International Circuit, and getting onto fresh tyre provides a powerful ‘undercut’ advantage. ![]()
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