In Pictures: Sakhir 2020
The second weekend in Bahrain came filled with surprises, Lewis Hamilton tested positive for Covid-19 and was substituted by George Russell, with Jack Aitken taking his seat at Williams. Pietro Fittipaldi, grandson of two times World Champion Emerson, was at the wheel of injured Romain Grosjean's Haas.
The biggest shake-ups came on Friday and Saturday as George Russell impressed everyone with his performances, setting fastest laps on both practices on Friday and qualifying a very respectable second, just 0.026 seconds behind Valtteri Bottas in the sister Mercedes.
The race on Sunday didn't change the script much as Sergio Perez crashed into Charles Leclerc's Ferrari, ending Leclerc's race while Max Verstappen crashed on his own trying to avoid Leclerc, ending his race, all of that on lap one. Perez was able to return to the pits but exited dead last.
Up front it was a Russell show, managing the race beautifully. Until Mercedes had one of those very rare mistakes, ruining both Russell's and Bottas' pitstops and therefore the race itself. Russell showed he's World Championship material nevertheless.
At the end, it was Sergio Perez, who had to wait for 190 starts to win his first Grand Prix. He is only the second Mexican to win in F1 – after Pedro Rodriguez, victor in the 1967 South African and 1970 Belgian Grands Prix.
QUOTES FROM THE PODIUM:
““I’m a bit speechless, I hope I’m not dreaming, you know, because I dreamed so many years of being in this moment. Ten years, ten years it took me. Incredible. I mean, I don’t know what to say, you know. After the first lap the race was again gone - same as last weekend, but it was all about not giving up, recovering, going for it, just making the best of what you possibly could. This season the luck hasn’t been with us, but we finally got it.””
““I have no words. I cried on the line, that’s how much emotion is going through my mind actually now. It’s been a tough season on our side. It hasn’t paid off all the time but we never stopped pushing. We kept working hard, we kept staying motivated. That was very important. At the moment where less and less people are believing in you, it’s important to believe in yourself and today we made it happen and I’m very pleased with it. It’s hard work but it has paid off.””
““Yeah, I mean, amazing race for the team,” he said. “A part of me is a little bit disappointed; I think I could have won the race. I went a little bit deep on my pit exit after my pit stop and Esteban managed to get by me. Then I just didn’t have the pace. I locked up – Sergio went by, I didn’t have the pace to overtake Esteban, so I got held up there a little bit. All in all, very happy for the team. I mean, it’s an unbelievable result and first and third is exactly what we needed this weekend for the championship.””
