Lewis took his 74th career victory, his first of the 2019 season and third at the Bahrain International Circuit. Valtteri came home second, completing a Mercedes 1-2 and claiming his 1000th point in Formula One.
Today's result marks the 175th win as well as the 450th podium position for Mercedes-Benz Power in Formula One. Valtteri (44 points) leads the Drivers' Championship by one point from Lewis (43 points) in P2. Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport (87 points) lead Ferrari (48 points) by 39 points in the Constructors' Championship.
Toto Wolff: Charles was very unfortunate today; he was the quickest guy out there and should've won the race. But on the other side that's racing; sometimes you are lucky, sometimes you are unlucky - in my experience it all weighs out in the end. Lewis drove a strong race today. He fought a fight with a weapon that maybe wasn't on his opponents' level, but he managed to stay close to Vettel and win that battle on track, which was one of the key moments for the victory. Valtteri had a tougher day in the office, he was struggling with the tyres on the very abrasive asphalt here in Bahrain. We're walking away with 43 points from this weekend, but it is clear that we were very fortunate today and that it was our reliability, not our pace that won us the race. We are lacking straight line speed which is very important in China. So we need to stick our heads together and analyse why we were struggling with our pace both in qualifying and in the race. It's a very close fight and we need to make sure to bring our A game in order to be competitive in Shanghai.
Andrew Shovlin: We're delighted with the 1-2 today but well aware that we didn't have the fastest car this weekend and we've got some work to do to catch Ferrari. We've lacked a bit of rear grip and a bit of straight line speed this weekend and this made qualifying and the race difficult. We've got some developments to try at the test here that should help our speed in the corners; it would be nice in China if we can rely on our pace to get the win rather than good fortune. However, the team did work really well today under a lot of pressure our car has been perfectly reliable here all week which is great to see. It was really unfortunate for Charles today, he has impressed everyone with his speed and composure, so to lose the win through no fault of his own must be tough, but it looks like he won't have to wait long for the next opportunity.
Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow leaves Bahrain with a feeling of regret after the second round of the Formula 1 World Championship, thinking about what might have been. All weekend long, the SF90 clearly demonstrated it had the potential to win, having rediscovered the competitive pace it had lost in Australia. However, in the end, it had to settle for a third place courtesy of Charles Leclerc and a fifth with Sebastian Vettel.
Sebastian got the better of his team-mate at the start to lead at the first corner. Charles found himself in third behind Valtteri Bottas in the Mercedes, but on the second lap, the Monegasque driver got past the Finn and closed on his team-mate. Charles had a better pace and passed Sebastian on lap 5 to take the lead.
On lap 13, Charles came in for his first pit stop, switching from the Soft to the Medium tyres, as did Sebastian on the following lap, the German rejoining behind Hamilton in the Mercedes who had stopped one lap earlier. The German took eight laps to attack and overtake his rival at Turn 4.
On lap 35, Sebastian made his second stop, once again duelling with the Englishman. The German ended up spinning and flatspotted his tyres which resulted in the front wing coming off due to the strong vibrations. He then had to pit again for a new one. Charles also came in again, on lap 36, but kept the lead setting the fastest lap with 1:33.411.
After his unscheduled stop, Sebastian rejoined ninth and charged up the order, passing Kimi Raikkonen then Lando Norris, Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg, to claim fifth place.
With 15 laps remaining, Charles' car suffered a power unit problem which meant his pace slowed dramatically, The two Mercedes thus managed to pass him, but with two laps to go, the Safety Car came out to deal with two cars stopping on track at the same time, which froze the positions, so that Leclerc was at least able to enjoy the satisfaction of his first ever F1 podium finish. He thus equals Louis Chiron, the only other driver from Monaco to have made it to a Formula 1 podium, which he did in his home race in 1950, the race in which Scuderia Ferrari first took part in the World Championship.
Mattia Binotto, Team Principal: "It was a shame for Charles. He was in the lead for much of the race and showed that he was particularly comfortable here in Bahrain, also setting the race fastest lap. He deserved to win and it was only the reliability problem, which we must now investigate, which prevented him from doing so. That is something unacceptable from us and it shows how important it is to get every last detail right in order to win. With regards to Sebastian, these things can happen in racing when you are on the limit, therefore it is more important to consider the car, which today performed well. The team also did an excellent job, producing some really good pit stops. We head home with many positives on which to build for the rest of the season, such as our performance level and the way the team reacted. Clearly there are still various things that we have to learn and we will continue to work on them."
Christian Horner: "It was a tough race this evening in Bahrain in extremely windy conditions. We seem to have struggled to get the tyres to work at their optimum all weekend and we experienced the same challenge during the race today. Nonetheless, Max made a good recovery at the first corner and raced very hard, but we just didn't have the pace to go with Mercedes or Ferrari. He was unfortunate to miss out on what would have been an opportunistic podium following Charles Leclerc's bad luck but hopefully there will be more podiums to come soon. Pierre drove a solid race to score his first points for the Team, finishing eighth, and making good progress through the pack. He displayed his race craft with a couple of bold overtaking moves, which will be good for his confidence, but the Safety Car at the end prevented him from progressing further as he was rapidly closing in on the cars ahead."
Renault F1 Team faced bitter disappointment in the 2019 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix with both Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo retiring from points-scoring positions, three laps short of the finish.
Nico, who started from seventeenth on the grid, enjoyed an excellent start and climbed to eleventh by the end of the opening lap. On a two-stop strategy, he worked his way up to sixth before his retirement on lap 54 of 57.
Daniel too was running in the points throughout the race on his one-stop strategy. The Australian was in tenth and set to clinch the final point, but he also retired on lap 54.
Nico started from P17 on Pirelli's Soft (red) tyres, before pitting from sixth position on lap 12 for Soft tyres and again on lap 32 for Medium (yellow) tyres. Daniel started from P10 on Soft tyres and pitted on lap 24 for Medium tyres.
Cyril Abiteboul, Team Principal: "After a very intense winter, it's been a very bad start to our racing season. Similar to Melbourne, our qualifying in Bahrain was massively compromised by minor electronics issues, which impacted both cars. Our race today came to a sudden stop so close to the finish. These are issues we have previously encountered but something we were unable to rectify in Bahrain. These problems are increasingly frustrating and unacceptable as both cars have shown very good competitiveness both over one-lap and race runs. Nico delivered another outstanding drive from seventeenth to sixth. Daniel is building on precious experience in the car, and despite good race pace, his strategy gamble didn't work out. Daniel will continue his familiarisation in the car during this week's test conducting performance-related work. We must react and shift our focus on reliability."
Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix at Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, the second round of 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship, proved to be a problematic one for the Rich Energy Haas F1 team, whose Kevin Magnussen struggled to find pace all evening but salvaged a 13th-place finish while teammate Romain Grosjean could not overcome the effects of opening-lap contact and was forced to retire just 16 laps into the 57-lap race.
From his strong sixth-place position on the starting grid, Magnussen was looking to equal or better his fifth-place finish in last year's Bahrain Grand Prix, as well as his solid sixth-place finish in this year's opening round in Australia two weekends ago. But finding all-important grip on what is arguably the most abrasive track surface on the F1 schedule was a challenge from the very start. Using Pirelli P Zero Red soft tires to start the race as did the rest of the field, he lost a position on the opening lap to the McLaren of Carlos Sainz and, seven laps later, lost a handful of positions after drifting wide in turn 10 of the 5.412-kilometer (3.363-mile), 15-turn track, falling back to 10th place.
Magnussen pitted for the first time on lap 11, switching to the Yellow medium tire compound in search of better tire wear as did the rest of the field during their respective opening stops. He resumed in 14th place but continued to find the pace he needed to enable forward movement into the points-paying positions.
Magnussen worked his way up to as high as 11th place on laps 27 and 35, trading positions back and forth in a four-way battle with Sainz, Alexander Albon and Daniel Ricciardo. But, as he continued to lose ground to the top-10, the team decided to bring Magnussen back to the pits on lap 39 while running 14th for a set of used soft tires. He resumed in 15th, one lap down to the leaders, and held that position until two laps from the end, when the Renaults of Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg ahead of him in the order both stopped on track with issues, giving Magnussen his final finishing position of 13th.
For Grosjean, who started 11th, his race was essentially over when Racing Point driver Lance Stroll made heavy contact with his VF-19 while screaming forward from the 18th starting position on the opening lap. The contact punctured Grosjean's left-rear tire, forcing him to the pits for a set of medium tires and he resumed at the back of the 20-car field. After completing his 16th lap, the team called him to the pits with significant damage to the floorboard, leading to his second consecutive retirement to start the season.
Tonight's results dropped the Rich Energy Haas F1 Team one position in the constructors' standings, tied with McLaren for fifth with eight points apiece as Alfa Romeo Racing moved up to fourth with 10 points on Kimi Raikkonen's seventh-place finish. In seventh place, two points back of Haas F1 and McLaren, is Renault.
Guenther Steiner: "It was a very disappointing race, not least with Romain (Grosjean) effectively going out on the first lap, having been run into by somebody. The performance was just not good enough today to get into the points. We need to investigate why this happened, especially after a strong qualifying. We'll try to find the cause of it. On the plus side, at least we now have two days of testing here, so we can maybe try to learn what happened. We go back to square one and start afresh in China."
Gil de Ferran, Sporting Director: "On one hand we are elated but on the other are left wondering what could have been. What happened to Carlos, who showed very strong pace early on and throughout the race, was a real shame. The contact ruined his chances of a good result. Meanwhile Lando was nothing short of spectacular today. After getting tangled up early in the race and losing some positions, his drive to sixth place was perfectly judged with the right blend of determination, aggression, pace and tyre management.
"Today's Bahrain GP was certainly exciting and a difficult one to determine the best strategy for, as the conditions really played a part in the behaviour of the tyres, not to mention how close the competition was. We managed to execute good pit-stops and strategy to bring our first points of the season. We leave Bahrain pleased and encouraged with our result, while at the same time remaining totally focused - there still is a lot of work ahead."
Otmar Szafnauer: "It feels good to come away with a point from a pretty tough weekend. Things didn't go our way in the early part of the race with Lance having to pit on lap one [after contact with Grosjean] and Sergio pitting on lap eight to remove debris that was causing the brakes to overheat. From that position, with our strategy compromised, recovering to the points with either car looked challenging. It was a shame because both cars made strong starts, gaining places, but all that good work was undone. As the race settled down we showed competitive race pace and just tried to recover the lost ground. We were a bit fortunate with the late retirements allowing Sergio to squeeze into the top ten, but that's all part of racing and we were there to pick up the pieces."
Frederic Vasseur: "It was a solid race for us, with both drivers putting up a good fight. Kimi stayed steady throughout and brought home some more points for our team. Antonio showed a strong performance, gaining 5 positions and finishing in P11, very close to the points. Our pace was good and the team worked well together. It has been a positive start to the season for us and we look forward to seeing what we will achieve at the next Grand Prix in China."
Jody Egginton (Deputy Technical Director): "Tonight's race has been eventful for us and a number of other teams but everyone has worked hard and we will gladly accept the points. Both drivers did not have a fantastic start so at the end of the first lap we found ourselves towards the rear of the midfield train. From this point on, it was just a case of pushing as much as possible and managing when required, trying to move forwards. Dany's race was a bit more eventful with the contact with Giovinazzi and then paying a pitlane speeding penalty. This meant that, although his pace was quite strong, it was not possible to recover from these two incidents to get himself back into points contention. Alex worked hard and should be pleased with his race and his first points, especially in what were tricky race conditions. We now switch our thoughts to China, where we expect another close midfield battle both in qualifying and the race."
Franz Tost (Team Principal): "First of all congratulations to Alex Albon for having scored his first points in his only second race in Formula 1. He showed fantastic performance, especially in managing the tyres towards the end of the race. He did a really good job and he deserved his ninth position. Daniil was involved in a couple of incidents, first with Giovinazzi - where he spun and lost a lot of time - then he was caught speeding in the pitlane, which meant he lost another five seconds. As a consequence, he couldn't fight for points in the race. In general, during the weekend here in Bahrain, we were consistently hovering between P7 and P10 but, unfortunately, we didn't get everything together in Qualifying because of a few mistakes. However, in the race we got our speed back, which means we need to remain positive as the package is good. Now we have a quick turnaround to get ready for the 1000th Grand Prix in China."
Toyoharu Tanabe (Honda F1 Technical Director): "It was a tough race today, although it was positive that we managed to get all four of our cars to the flag, with three of them in the points. On the PU side, it was a trouble-free weekend across both teams and that played a part in our final result in Bahrain. Congratulations to Alex Albon on scoring his first points in only his second Grand Prix. He drove well, producing some good overtaking moves. Daniil Kvyat was unlucky to be involved in a collision, but he showed a good turn of speed and never gave up. We will now see what lessons we can learn from this weekend as we prepare for the next round in China."
George Russell finished 15th and Robert Kubica 16th in the Bahrain Grand Prix. George started 19th on the soft Pirelli tyre, with Robert lining up 20th on the grid using the medium tyre. George and Robert made clean starts picking up several positions, with the pair battling each other in the early stages of the race. Both drivers ran a two-stop race, with George pitting on laps 12 and 26 for the medium tyre, and Robert stopping on lap 11 for the soft before switching back to the medium on lap 27.
Dave Robson, Senior Race Engineer: It has been another tough evening in Bahrain. The wind has been incredibly strong and very gusty which made driving the cars very difficult, and this was true for all drivers. We ran largely the strategy that we intended, and both cars were able to fight each other quite a lot, particularly in the first stint using DRS to attack and defend from each other. Credit to Robert and George as they drove extremely well and fought each other cleanly. Once the order settled down we continued to follow our strategy, we worked well to get both cars home, and we benefited from a few retirements at the end of the race.
Lewis Hamilton led home a Mercedes one-two following a dramatic weekend, taking the lead in the closing stages of the race after Ferrari's polesitter Charles Leclerc hit problems. The top three all used different two-stop strategies, in a thrilling race that was characterised by plenty of tactical variation, with high levels of tyre degradation.
Before his issue, Leclerc's advantage had been such that he was able to complete his second pit stop without losing the lead. He still took the point for fastest lap.
Sebastian Vettel finished fifth with three visits to the pits, the final one following an incident.
There was a tense strategic battle between Mercedes and Ferrari, with both teams attempting to undercut each other during both rounds of pit stops.
Although there were many different strategies at work, all the drivers started on the soft tyre apart from Williams driver Robert Kubica.
The only driver to attempt a one-stopper was Renault's Daniel Ricciardo, who retired with just a couple of laps to go.
The hard was used by only one driver - McLaren's Carlos Sainz - but with nearly everyone targeting two stops, it ended up being less relevant today.
The mediumwas a key element to the pace of Leclerc, running his two final stints on the medium, as well as other drivers such as Red Bull's Max Verstappen. Hamilton only used the medium tyre once, at the end of the race.
Ricciardo used the soft compound for nearly half the race: championship leader Valtteri Bottas was the only podium finisher to use it at the end of the race.
Mario Isola: "As Lewis Hamilton said, Charles Leclerc deserved to win today and his problems were part of a truly dramatic and unpredictable grand prix, in which tyre strategy played a key part. Both Ferrari and Mercedes timed their stops to try and undercut each other, but Leclerc's performance advantage meant that he was able to make his second stop without losing the lead. There was an ample range of strategies: in fact, only two teams ran exactly the same strategies for both their drivers. Outside the immediate frontrunners there were also some stand-out performances from drivers such as Lando Norris, who scored his first points for McLaren."
