Sports

Team by team analysis of the Sakhir F1 Grand Prix

Perez took his first F1 victory and became the first Mexican in 50 years to win a grand prix

REUTERS December 07, 2020

LONDON:

Team by team analysis of Sunday's Sakhir Grand Prix in Bahrain, penultimate race of the Formula One season (listed in championship order):

MERCEDES (Valtteri Bottas 8, George Russell 9)

Bottas lined up on pole but Russell, alongside, led from the start. The Briton, moving up from Williams as a stand-in after seven times champion Lewis Hamilton tested positive for COVID-19, had to make an extra pitstop after the team gave him Bottas's tyres by mistake on lap 62 when the safety car was out. He then suffered a puncture while in second place and closing on Perez. Russell at least scored his first points in F1 and took fastest lap. Bottas endured a 27 second pitstop due to the tyre mixup which saw Mercedes fined 20,000 euros ($24,254).

RED BULL (Alexander Albon 6, Max Verstappen retired)

Verstappen crashed out on lap one after being caught in a collision between Perez and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, an incident that triggered the safety car. Albon, with his race seat in jeopardy and Perez his main rival for it, missed a chance to impress.

RACING POINT (Sergio Perez 1, Lance Stroll 3)

Perez took his first F1 victory and became the first Mexican in 50 years to win a grand prix. He did it after starting fifth before dropping to 18th and last at the end of the opening lap following contact with Leclerc. Stroll was 10th on the grid and felt he could have won but had maybe pitted too late, allowing Renault's Ocon to get ahead.

MCLAREN (Carlos Sainz 4, Lando Norris 10)

McLaren lost ground to Racing Point in the battle for third place. Norris started in 19th place due to penalties for a change of power unit components but gained nine places straight away. Sainz started eighth on soft tyres and ran third early on.

RENAULT (Esteban Ocon 2, Daniel Ricciardo 5)

Ocon celebrated the first podium of his F1 career, and Renault's third of the season, with a one-stop strategy. Ricciardo was fourth at the end of lap one.

FERRARI (Sebastian Vettel 12, Charles Leclerc retired)

Leclerc crashed out on lap one after contact with Perez at turn four, which led to the Monegasque collecting a three-place grid drop for the next race. He had started fourth. Vettel went from 13th to ninth on lap one but could not hold it.

ALPHATAURI (Daniil Kvyat 7, Pierre Gasly 11)

Kvyat, who is likely to lose his seat to Japan's Yuki Tsunoda, had his best weekend of the year. Gasly said his car just lacked pace, with lots of understeer.

ALFA ROMEO (Antonio Giovinazzi 13, Kimi Raikkonen 14)

Raikkonen spun at turn three on the opening lap. Neither driver did much wrong otherwise.

HAAS (Kevin Magnussen 15, Pietro Fittipaldi 17)

Fittipaldi became the fourth Fittipaldi to race in F1, 50 years on from grandfather and double world champion Emerson's debut at Brands Hatch in 1970. He was replacing injured Romain Grosjean after the Frenchman's fiery crash last weekend.

WILLIAMS (Jack Aitken 16, Nicholas Latifi retired)

Briton Aitken also made his F1 debut as a stand-in for Russell. He spun and shed the car's front wing, bringing out the safety car. Latifi retired with a suspected oil leak.