How Verstappen lost the race that followed Grosjean's escape

The 2020 Bahrain GP will forever be remembered for Romain Grosjean's astonishing escape from his opening lap crash, but there was still a race to be won. Red Bull's Max Verstappen had good cause to believe this was one that got away

Alex Kalinauckas Nov 30, 2020, 10:27 AM

Upd: Nov 30, 2020, 11:20 AM

Once it was clear that Romain Grosjean had emerged thankfully and relatively unscathed from what was a truly horrifying crash at the start of the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix - and the barrier his Haas VF-20 had pierced through had been replaced - someone had to actually win it.

In the end it was Lewis Hamilton who came away with his 11th win of the 2020 campaign, but in his wake came an unusually and vocally frustrated Max Verstappen. The Dutchman's reaction stood out because on the previous occasions he has split the Mercedes duo so far this season, including in that famous finish to the British GP where he might've won had it not been for a late pitstop, he has generally been happy to simply pick up a better result than third.

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Author Alex Kalinauckas

Alex Kalinauckas is Autosport's Grand Prix Editor, covering every Formula 1 race since the start of 2020. After completing a master's degree in journalism at Goldsmiths College University of London in 2014, he worked for a range of motorsport and technology publications while covering national racing as an Autosport freelancer.

A lifelong motorsport fan - no one in his family can explain quite how or why such a development first occurred - Alex joined the Autosport staff in April 2017 as the magazine’s Assistant Editor covering Formula 2 and GP3, before being made Formula E correspondent and Autosport.com’s Plus Editor in March 2018. He lives in north-east London and is constantly frustrated by the Central Line.