Even though the Ferrari dominated the practice session, as well as in the qualifiers, the Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton won the Bahrain Grand Prix 2019 while another silver car driver Valtteri Bottas took the second place beating the Ferrari youngster Charles Leclerc at Bahrain International Circuit on Sunday.
This is the first time a third DRS zone was added to the Bahrain circuit for the second round of the 2019 Formula 1 season and it gave an opportunity to the drivers to immediately attack again using DRS if they are not quite close enough to make a pass into the first corner.
At the starting of the race, the contact between Racing Point's Lance Stroll and Haas star Romain Grosjean forced both the drivers to take an early pit stop. But at Bahrain GP Grosjean had to retire after 14th lap and it happened to the Swiss driver for the second time in this season.
The Torro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat received a five-second penalty due to the contact with Alfa Romeo driver Antonio Giovinazzi.
The Belgian-Dutch driver Max Verstappen was also determined to hold his position which caused damage on Carlos Sainz's McLaren car as he was trying to pass the Red Bull superstar. After that incident, Nico Rosberg said that the message was "never try to cross Max Verstappen."
The race became more dramatic after the German driver Vettel's car spun during the lap 38 when the defending world champion Hamilton put presser on him and finally surpassed him. Vettel's front wing became damaged and he had to take a second pit stop. However, the Ferrari driver finished in the fifth position after 57th lap.
Meanwhile, both the Renault drivers Nico Hülkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo faced some unexpected technical issues just a few laps before crossing the checked flag. It was a huge disappointment for the team as well as for the fans of the Australian driver Ricciardo, who failed to finish his second race of this season.
Monégasque driver Leclerc, who showed an amazing performance starting from the practice session and took his first F1 pole position after Saturday qualifier round, failed to maintain the leader's spot on Sunday as Hamilton comfortably passed him and maintained the distance till the safety car comes in. Later, Bottas crossed Leclerc and both the silver cars took the top two positions at Bahrain GP 2019.
Final result of Bahrain GP 2019:
- Lewis Hamilton
- Valtteri Bottas
- Charles Leclerc
- Max Verstappen
- Sebastian Vettel
- Lando Norris
- Kimi Räikkönen
- Pierre Gasly
- Alexander Albon
- Sergio Pérez
- Antonio Giovinazzi
- Daniil Kvyat
- Kevin Magnussen
- Lance Stroll
- George Russell
- Robert Kubica
