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First race, first podium: Max Verstappen 2nd under Bahrain's desert skies
Red Bull Racing Honda's Max Verstappen just loses out on victory, while team-mate Sergio Pérez storms from the back in a dramatic F1 season-opener.
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Max Verstappen secured second place in the Formula One season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, after a tense race-long strategic battle between Red Bull Racing Honda and Mercedes went the way of the world champions, with Lewis Hamilton holding on for victory in a thrilling start to the new season.
Verstappen qualified on pole and led for 28 of the 56-lap race, but was edged by 0.7s at the chequered flag. The Dutch driver had passed Hamilton with four laps remaining, but was forced to give the place back to the Briton after his overtake was deemed to have taken place outside of the track limits at Turn 4.
Hamilton's team-mate Valtteri Bottas rounded out the podium, but was 37 seconds adrift as Hamilton and Verstappen's duel in the desert set the stage for what looks set to be a tight tussle for supremacy at the front of the F1 field in 2021.
Verstappen's new Red Bull Racing Honda team-mate Sergio Pérezturned despair into delight with a determined charge from the back of the field to fifth after his car temporarily ground to a halt on the warm-up lap, while Scuderia AlphaTauri rookie Yuki Tsunoda produced some scintillating overtakes to finish ninth and score points on his F1 debut.
Here's what went down under the desert skies in Bahrain.
The Red Bull Racing Honda's are right on the pace to start the season
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Max Verstappen is up for the fight
Pole position on Saturday for Verstappen – by more than three-tenths of a second from Hamilton – proved Red Bull's promising pre-season testing pace at the same Sakhir circuit was genuine and the Dutchman flew in the early stages, before Mercedes played its strategic card on Lap 13, bringing Hamilton in earlier than expected for a tyre change.
With 16 laps remaining, Verstappen emerged from a lightning-quick 1.9s pit stop and started eating into Hamilton's nine-second lead and after the pair swapped positions on Lap 53, Verstappen just couldn't quite get close enough to make another attempt on the final lap, having to settle for second.
Verstappen took his 43rd podium finish in F1
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Disappointed as he lost out on a chance of victory, Verstappen was encouraged by Red Bull's early-season pace against F1's dominant force of the past seven seasons.
"It's of course a shame, but you also have to see the positives," he said. "We're really putting the fight to them, so I think it's great to start the year like that.
"They undercut us and we stuck to our strategy, which I think was fine, but the problem with these cars is that it's so hard to pass. Once you have that track position, it showed again today that it's super powerful. I had that one shot, but I went outside of the track. I gave that position back and tried again, but my tyres weren't in a condition to pass."
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Sergio Pérez is the king of salvage jobs
Sergio Pérez gritted his teeth and fought through the field
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
In Bahrain last December, Pérez was facing backwards and in last place after being tapped into a spin on the first lap. The Mexican won that Grand Prix for Racing Point however, which is why he stayed positive on Sunday after his car shut down on the way to the final corner on the warm-up lap.
After just one-and-a half days of pre-season testing with his new team and starting his first race from the pit lane, the only way was up – and Pérez combined his renowned tyre preservation skills with some sublime overtaking to finish fifth and earn Driver of the Day from F1's fans.
"Considering how we started... I was warming up the tyres and everything shut down. I was so close to jumping out of the car," Pérez admitted afterwards. "The most important thing today was the kilometres and things are starting to click more lap-by-lap. My understanding of the car is getting better and better.
"It's going to be a long season ahead of us and I just have to get on with it and take my time to make my progress. Eventually it will click and when that happens we're going to be really strong."
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Yuki Tsunoda isn't wasting any time
Anyone who followed Tsunoda's rapid rise to the business end of Formula 2 last year wouldn't have been surprised to see the electrifying Japanese driver make his mark in F1 as early as qualifying, when he was a stunning second to Verstappen in Q1.
The 20-year-old was disappointed to not make the top 10 on Saturday and admitted he was too circumspect on the first lap of his first Grand Prix, dropping to 15th place on lap one of the race. From there however, Tsunoda showed serious pace and delighted in a late-braking pass of Alpine's two-time world champion Fernando Alonso on the way to a ninth-place finish for Scuderia AlphaTauri.
Yuki Tsunoda delivered on the hype on race day
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"I'm really happy to get points, but I was too cautious in the first lap, so I had to recover a lot of positions from there," he said. "It's not a 100 percent performance, but I'm really happy for the first points. I really enjoyed this race week – overtaking a lot of cars was a really positive thing and good learning for me."
Bahrain was less kind to his team-mate Pierre Gasly, whose chance of a strong points haul from fifth on the grid was shattered – along with his front wing – after clipping McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo at Turn 4 on lap four. An unscheduled pit stop for repairs dropped him to the back of the field and he retired while outside the points with four laps remaining.
Ferrari and McLaren renew old rivalry
Ferrari (238 wins) and McLaren (182) are the two most successful teams in F1 history and the storied teams locked horns on Sunday in Bahrain, with Lando Norris (McLaren) taking best-of-the-rest honours behind the podium finishers, the Brit ending up nine seconds behind Bottas in fourth place. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was sixth behind Pérez, with Ricciardo edging Leclerc's team-mate Carlos Sainz to seventh on his McLaren debut.
Elsewhere, it was a tougher opening to the season for a pair of multiple world champions in new teams. Fernando Alonso retired after picking up debris that cooked his rear brakes, while Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel started from the back after a yellow flag infringement in qualifying and was then penalised for colliding with Alonso's team-mate Esteban Ocon in the race, the four-time world champion finishing 15th.
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Imola awaits
F1 was back like it never left – which it kind of hadn't, given Sunday was the third race in the past four to be held in Bahrain – but a welcome change of scenery isn't far away, with a return to Imola for round two on April 18 at the extravagantly-named Gran Premio del Made in Italy e dell'Emilia Romagna.
Verstappen will be keen to make amends after a late tyre blowout scuppered his chances of a big points haul last November, while Tsunoda will have some rare data to draw upon, after the Japanese cut his first laps in F1 machinery at the picturesque Italian circuit last year.
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