An old-school Max Verstappen, an excellent second-place Kimi Antonelli who sees the World Championship ever closer and a Ferrari that first gets everything wrong with a terrible tyre strategy and then saves itself with a podium by Lewis Hamilton.
The Bahrain Grand Prix , held in Sepang, Malaysia, due to the Gulf War , started with a serious delay due to the usual equatorial downpour and rewarded the two drivers in the Circus who were best at navigating the perils of the wet track , namely the Flying Dutchman and the World Championship leader: thus the Red Bull standard bearer took his first victory of the season in a crazy race, while the Italian driver extended his grip on the World Championship after the retirement of his teammate George Russell , who dropped to -84 in the standings. Hamilton was third, overtaking Isaac Hadjar with two laps to go, who had just inherited third place from Russell, who was forced to surrender during the safety car phase with five laps to go. The other Ferrari of Charles Leclerc was fourth, while Oscar Piastri sealed the top five with McLaren ahead of Liam Lawson and Fernando Alonso who finally brought Aston Martin into the points. Lando Norris and Arvid Lindblad took the last points up for grabs.
The Sepang race started an hour and a half late, first due to a downpour and then to software issues with the power units of some cars (Verstappen and the two Ferraris) during the laps behind the Safety Car on the first attempt. The green light immediately dashed any chance of victory for the Prancing Horse: Hamilton and Leclerc both started on the soft compound tyres on a still-wet track, initially floundering at the back of the pack.
Only a dramatic turn of events in the final laps of the Sepang race allowed Ferrari to return to the podium, where it had not been since July, with Hamilton, and to take fourth place with Leclerc. This result didn't save the Reds from the fury of the fans who took to social media, with the Prancing Horse's pit wall in particular being targeted.
(Unioneonline)
