Ferrari wins in Bahrain with Leclerc & Sainz at podium with 1-2

Ferrari wins 1-2 with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell grabbing a third and fourth place for Mercedes, with Kevin Magnussen taking an impressive fifth for Haas.

Charles Leclerc wins the opener of the Grand Prix season in Bahrain against Lewis Hamilton and Sainz who won third and second place respectively. The Ferraris looked strong early on from the qualifying rounds as the Italian house looked better against the rest of the grid which was mentioned by the rivals alike.

Leclerc took up the pole position from qualifying whereas Lewis Hamilton secured a fourth along with previous Mercedes rival, Valteri Bottas who bagged a fifth in an Alfa Romeo. Max Verstappen, the 2021 Champion, however, had to withdraw from the race in the lap preceding the final lap as he made a pit stop for the vehicle that lost power, a never-ending nightmare for Redbull in the past few years as Ricciardo lost a win in the same manner back in 2018 in Monaco in the same suit. Pierre Gasly had also retired from the race as the Alpha Tauri overheated in the 46th lap.

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F1 has however admitted the human error that caused the controversy in the last season at the Abu Dhabi GP where the safety car rules were not followed according to the rule book and a similar misunderstanding was heard through Leclerc’s radio, “The safety car must go quicker, it gives me a big disadvantage by going slow like this”, said the Frenchman according to Guardian.

Leclerc and Hamilton had competition at a few turns while racing back and forth but the french kept it ahead till the final lap followed by Carlos Sainz, who was ahead of Hamilton who had DRS enabled only by a second helping the team win points to give themselves a headstart to the season. Lewis congratulated the Ferraris for their win in the post-race interview and is set for a big comeback this season after his loss in the previous season which ended his seven-year-long streak of World Championship.