Hamilton wins Bahrain GP interrupted by huge Grosjean crash

Lewis Hamilton took his 11th win of the 2020 Formula 1 season in a Bahrain Grand Prix overshadowed by a horrific accident for Romain Grosjean.

The race was delayed by an hour and a half due to the crash on the first lap of its original start.

Grosjean clipped Daniil Kvyat’s AlphaTauri on the run out of the first complex and was fired across into an armco barrier.

The Haas pierced the barrier, was ripped in two and exploded into a fireball.

Its cockpit section was wedged in the middle of the split barrier, but Grosjean quickly extricated himself from the blaze as the medical team approached.

He has been taken to hospital with burns and possible broken ribs.

The destroyed barrier section was replaced with a wall for the restart, which quickly became a long safety car period due to Lance Stroll’s Racing Point being flipped upside down at the tight Turn 8 right-hander in a clash with Kvyat, who was given a 10s time penalty for the collision. Stroll got out unhurt.

⚠️ SAFETY CAR ⚠️

Stroll has crashed

The Canadian has radioed the team to say he is ok and he's out of car #BahrainGP 🇧🇭 #F1 pic.twitter.com/C6fRGPjBL3

— Formula 1 (@F1) November 29, 2020

Valtteri Bottas’s day was already wrecked by that point. He had fallen from second to sixth at the original start, which became fourth for the restart because the positions were taken from the order as the field passed the safety car line.

But he quickly had to pit at the restart having picked up a slow puncture from debris. That dropped him to the back and he could only recover to eighth – and even that came under threat with another suspected puncture on the last lap.

That left Max Verstappen to take the fight to Hamilton, which he and Red Bull did their best to achieve.

Verstappen briefly fell behind Sergio Perez at the restart and though he soon regained second he couldn’t keep up with Hamilton in the first stint.

Red Bull put Verstappen onto hards at the first pitstops while Hamilton and Mercedes took mediums, and Verstappen put on an early charge to try to put the champion under pressure.

Hamilton’s six-second lead came down to four seconds but he then picked up his pace and the gap stabilised.

Red Bull kept Mercedes on its toes by bringing Verstappen in for a second stop before Hamilton, and then taking a punt on a late third stop for mediums tyres.

Mercedes didn’t respond, and Verstappen wasn’t catching Hamilton at a fast enough rate to spring a late surprise.

There was a final potential twist when Perez suffered an engine failure while running a comfortable third ahead of Alex Albon’s Red Bull.

LAP 54/57

Agony for Checo Perez!

After looking certain to finish in P3, his car starts billowing smoke

He's out ❌ #BahrainGP 🇧🇭 #F1 pic.twitter.com/oiq584Q1os

— Formula 1 (@F1) November 29, 2020

The parked Racing Point brought out a safety car for the final three laps. Had it come in and allowed a final sprint, Verstappen might have had a final shot at Hamilton, but the race ran to the flag under caution.

Perez’s heartbreaking retirement denied him a second straight podium and handed a second career podium to his rival for a 2021 seat, Albon.

McLaren got a big boost in the fight for third in the constructors’ championship with fourth and fifth for Lando Norris and a hard-charging Carlos Sainz Jr.

Pierre Gasly made a unique one-stop strategy work to take sixth for AlphaTauri, with the safety car denying Daniel Ricciardo a chance to attack him.

Renault took seventh and ninth with Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon either side of Bottas.

Perez’s retirement allowed Ferrari to inherit a single point with Charles Leclerc on a poor day for the team.

A first-corner brush between its drivers left Sebastian Vettel unimpressed. He then lost more ground dodging the Kvyat/Stroll clash, had a solo spin and ended up between the two Williams in 13th.

Race Results