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The strange outcome should not hide the essential.
And the essential thing is that Lewis Hamilton, with a weaker car, added in Sakhir the first victory of a season that seems most exciting.
He did it against
Max Verstappen
, the man he had dominated all weekend, the pilot destined to dethrone him.
However, it all came to a halt with four laps to go, when
race director
Michael Masi
forced Red Bull to give up the position just seconds after his driver had taken the lead.
The disappointment on
Mad Max's
face
bore certain similarities to that of
Fernando Alonso
, who could not reach the goal due to a brake failure.
At least
Carlos Sainz
saved an eighth place in his debut with Ferrari.
"They have warned us from
race control,
" explained
Christian Horner
by radio, when the disappointment had already been consummated, when his counterpart
Toto Wolff
raised his fists in the Mercedes garage, in a celebration that included the podium of
Valtteri Bottas
.
Verstappen had to slow down because he had crossed the track limits at Turn 4, just passing Hamilton.
Before the F1 microphones, the volcanic Dutchman kept a very cautious silence, quite rare for him.
"It's a shame, but you have to get the positive side. We have managed to fight with them and added some good points," he managed to stammer.
The consequences of Masi's decision will linger over the next few weeks.
Today it is difficult to accept that the duel that F1 dreams of will be resolved with such a bucket of ice water.
Hamilton, who had made a flagrant mistake, was on the ropes.
His young adversary had more speed and at Turn 4 he advanced on the outside, gaining an advantage beyond the piano.
Just as Lewis had bought time on the spot with similar maneuvers.
Thus a career with many incentives was resolved.
Alpine's bet
We did not even have to wait for the traffic light for the first shock, because the fatality of
Sergio Pérez
, gagged throughout the weekend, was reflected in an electrical failure during the formation lap.
Condemned to start from the
pit-lane
, the Mexican left more space to whoever wanted to fight for privileged positions.
The start, in the end, did not change much between the favorites, although it did trigger the
safety car
after the
gaffe
of
Nikita Mazepin
, in the same area of the horrifying accident of
Romain Grosjean
.
With so many nerves in the resumption, it did not take long for the incidents to accumulate.
The most serious left
Pierre Gasly
, another of the animating theorists,
without a front wing
.
Much more subtle was the contact between Sainz and
Lance Stroll
, vying for ninth position.
The Canadian, at that time, was flying to get rid of Alonso, the first to go through the pits, on lap 12, in search of the intermediate tires.
Alpine's bet paid off immediately, because with that
undercut they
won the position to Stroll and
Daniel Ricciardo
.
Fernando must have enjoyed during those laps, gambling with Sainz and
Sebastian Vettel
.
However, his car was obviously losing gas, overwhelmed even by
Kimi Raikkonen
and Yuki Tsunoda.
It did not even seem feasible to reach the points zone when after the second stop, his engineers detected a problem in the rear brakes that triggered his abandonment with 24 laps to go.
Vettel's Onslaught
The goal also seemed very far for Sainz, with no possible defense against Pérez's Honda engine.
While
Charles Leclerc was
filming fifth, in the wake of
Lando Norris
, the Madrilenian did not have much more incentive than Stroll's eighth place.
At the end of the straight, in a very fine maneuver, he achieved his goal.
In that turn 1, Vettel rammed
Esteban Ocon
in an obvious illegality punished with 10 seconds by the stewards.
Ahead there was too much at stake in that strategic pulse, with which Wolff intended to attack the leader.
Verstappen was tense, complaining of anomalies in his accelerator and in his rear end, without the rhythm of his long runs on Friday, when he led the Mercedes by two tenths per lap.
The precarious situation of Pérez, engrossed in his courageous comeback, left him outnumbered.
So Hamilton went ahead with the hard tires to squeeze with them to the open grave.
A twist later the Dutchman came in to mount the intermediate compound.
The leadership changed hands.
It seemed the moment of Mercedes, who was also rooting for Bottas for the attack.
The second pit pass only confirmed what was taken for granted.
A heads up between Hamilton and Verstappen with only seven laps to go.
In that critical situation, the veteran came out gracefully again.
As stated in his protest shirt, with which he knelt again before the start, actions speak louder than words.
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Engine themes
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Formula 1
Mercedes gp
Lewis hamilton
Valtteri Bottas
Red bull racing
Max verstappen
Sergio perez
Carlos Sainz Jr
Fernando Alonso
McLaren F1
Daniel Ricciardo
Formula 1The hope of Alonso and Sainz: the factors that point to a more even World Cup
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