Mercedes ran a different strategy with Hamilton that gained him the lead after he undercut Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in the first round of stops. But Red Bull didn’t react, running a medium-medium-hard tyre strategy to Hamilton’s medium-hard-hard that looked to swing back in its favour in the second half of the race. Verstappen had to pass Hamilton on track in his final stint, the race climaxing with an on-track fight in the closing laps.

Despite getting ahead with four laps to go, Verstappen was told to hand the place back to Hamilton as he briefly leaving the track as he passed him. After that, Max was unable to get ahead again and Lewis hung on for a fine victory.

Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix race results: How the race unfolded

After an aborted start for teammate Sergio Perez grinding to a halt on the formation lap, Verstappen led from pole position, chopping across Hamilton’s nose. Haas rookie Nikita Mazepin crashed out at Turn 3, bringing out the safety car but not before Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who started on the soft tyre as opposed to those in front, jumped ahead of Bottas at the exit of Turn 4 to snatch third.

Verstappen backed up the pack for the restart but held on from Hamilton and Leclerc. Pierre Gasly lost his AlphaTauri’s front wing after clipping Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren at Turn 5, while Mick Schumacher spun his Haas at Turn 4 and continued, all of which caused a brief virtual safety car to clear the track.

Verstappen got out of Hamilton’s DRS range by Lap 5, as Bottas reclaimed third from Leclerc using DRS. McLaren’s Lando Norris further demoted Leclerc on Lap 9. Alpine’s Fernando Alonso triggered the pitstop cycle, undercutting past Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, but paid the price later as he tumbled down the order.

In the lead battle, Hamilton pitted first, switching to hards (as he didn’t have any new mediums) but Verstappen stayed out as Hamilton reeled off a sequence of fastest laps. Four laps later, Verstappen suffered a slow stop on Lap 17, rejoining 7s behind Hamilton but on fresh medium tyres. He took his time in closing the gap, and was within 2s when Hamilton pitted again on Lap 29 for a new set of hard tyres to avoid being undercut himself.

Verstappen made his final stop with 16 laps to go, switching to fresh hard tyres and rejoining with a 8.5s deficit. He closed that gap down slowly, careful not to overheat his tyres, while Hamilton drove brilliantly on his 11-laps-older rubber. As the laps ticked down, Verstappen got into DRS range with five laps to go.

Verstappen passed Hamilton at Turn 4 with four laps to go, but he passed him off the track at the exit and handed Hamilton the position back. After a slide, Verstappen fell out of DRS range, but got it back starting the final lap. But Hamilton held on for a brilliant win.

Bottas suffered a horrendously slow 10.9s second pitstop, but it didn’t cost him any positions such was the Red Bull/Mercedes advantage. Norris finished fourth, ahead of Perez, whose epic comeback netted him fifth. Leclerc finished sixth from Ricciardo, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, AlphaTauri’s rookie Yuki Tsunoda and Stroll.

Alonso retired on Lap 34 with a rear brake failure.

2021 Bahrain Grand Prix race results

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	56	-
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	56	0.745	0.745
3	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	56	37.383	37.383
4	Lando Norris	McLaren	56	46.466	46.466
5	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	56	52.047	52.047
6	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	56	59.090	59.090
7	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	56	1'06.004	1'06.004
8	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	56	1'07.100	1'07.100
9	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	56	1'25.692	1'25.692
10	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	56	1'26.713	1'26.713
11	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	56	1'28.864	1'28.864
12	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	55	1 lap
13	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	55	1 lap
14	George Russell	Williams	55	1 lap
15	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	55	1 lap
16	Mick Schumacher	Haas	55	1 lap
17	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	52
18	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	51
	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	32
	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	0
View full results

2021 Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix fastest laps

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	56	1'32.090
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	41	1'33.228	1.138
3	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	44	1'33.970	1.880
4	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	44	1'34.015	1.925
5	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	48	1'34.090	2.000
6	Lando Norris	McLaren	38	1'34.396	2.306
7	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	48	1'34.509	2.419
8	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	38	1'34.761	2.671
9	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	31	1'34.865	2.775
10	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	36	1'34.932	2.842
11	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	39	1'34.988	2.898
12	George Russell	Williams	40	1'35.036	2.946
13	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	32	1'35.122	3.032
14	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	45	1'35.192	3.102
15	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	33	1'35.250	3.160
16	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	26	1'35.566	3.476
17	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	31	1'36.063	3.973
18	Mick Schumacher	Haas	38	1'36.134	4.044
19	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	16	1'36.602	4.512
View full results

2021 Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix tyre history

Cla	Driver	Chassis	1		2		3		4
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	M	16	H	15	H	28
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	M	20	M	22	H	17
3	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	M	19	H	14	H	24	M	5
4	Lando Norris	McLaren	S	15	M	21	H	23
5	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	M	5	M	20	H	19	M	23
6	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	S	15	M	20	H	24
7	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	S	16	M	19	H	24
8	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	S	18	M	22	H	19
9	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	M	18	H	18	H	23
10	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	S	15	M	16	H	28
11	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	M	13	H	16	M	27
12	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	M	12	H	18	M	25
13	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	S	13	M	18	H	24
14	George Russell	Williams	S	13	M	23	M	19
15	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	M	24	H	31
16	Mick Schumacher	Haas	M	14	M	19	H	22
17	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	M	7	H	15	M	23	H	13
18	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	S	14	M	18	M	19
	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	S	14	M	18	H	3
	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	M	0
View full results