Bahrain Grand Prix: Winners and Losers

Charles Leclerc might have been the man to lose out at the Bahrain Grand Prix, but he remains a winner in the eyes of GPFans! The Ferrari man dominated in Sakhir, but was undone by engine failure to open the door for Lewis Hamilton.

With the desert dust settling on a thrilling race, Rob Watts picks out who shone, and who struggled.

THE WINNERS

Charles Leclerc (3rd)

In only his second race for Ferrari, Leclerc laid down a marker for the rest of the season and has already given team boss Mattia Binotto the ‘headache’ he spoke of during pre-season.

Not only was Leclerc’s performance this weekend a reminder of his speed - he was quickest in all three qualifying sessions - but also, a strong declaration of maturity, composure and skill.

When Leclerc dropped from first to third on the opening lap, drivers with considerably more experience than the Monegasque may well have overdriven or made unforced errors in a desperate bid to regain the positions they’d lost. But not Leclerc.

He had the maturity to accept his position, the composure to line up Valtteri Bottas for a pass at the beginning of the next lap, and then a few laps later, demonstrated remarkable skill (and confidence) to pass team-mate Vettel around the outside of Turn 1.

To have lost the race in the manner that he did was cruel, and even eventual race winner Lewis Hamilton conceded that Leclerc had fully deserved the win.

His day will come, but in Bahrain, Leclerc injected life into the 2019 title fight in a way that is impossible to ignore. With Vettel once again blowing his chance at victory, the dynamic within Ferrari may now change if their young hotshot continues in this way.

It almost feels similar to the early races of 2007 when McLaren were caught off by Hamilton, then a 22-year-old rookie, outpacing their distinguished double world champion Fernando Alonso. Come to think of it, that didn’t end well, did it?

Lewis Hamilton (1st)

Following team-mate Bottas’ dominant win in the Australia, Hamilton would have headed to Bahrain to show that his team’s advantage in Melbourne was real and not purely down to Ferrari having an off day.

Unfortunately for him, Ferrari did bounce back and were at least on par with Mercedes in terms of pace, but Hamilton comes away from round two as a winner in more than one sense of the word.

Firstly, he had the edge on Bottas across qualifying and the race, silencing those who predicted the Finn could go on to beat him this season for the first time following his impressive display in Melbourne. Fortunately for Hamilton, whenever he needs to bounce back or to recover from a setback and deliver a big performance, that’s just when he’s often at his most dangerous.

There may well have been a rather huge slick of luck to Hamilton’s win - and he admitted as much himself - but the fact is, he was quicker than his team-mate all weekend, arguably the second quickest driver in the race behind Leclerc, and played a huge role in Vettel’s spin when his bold overtake caught the German off-guard.

He’ll leave Bahrain slightly concerned by Ferrari’s upturn in pace, but as for his own performance, there was little more Hamilton could have done across the weekend to maximise his and his team’s result.

Lando Norris (6th)

McLaren have started the season with reasonable optimism regarding the competitiveness of their 2019 car, and rookie Norris has already caught the eye with two stellar race weekends.

After qualifying eighth on his debut in Melbourne, Norris followed that up with another top 10 qualifying in Bahrain and a strong drive in the race to finish sixth.

This wasn’t a race where Norris was rewarded simply keeping his nose clean either, as the young Brit recover from an early skirmish with Nico Hulkenberg that dropped him to 14th and later demonstrated his skills in combat by overtaking the likes of Kimi Raikkonen and Daniel Ricciardo on track.

Easy to forget this is only Norris’ second ever grand prix, but if is first two are anything to go by, McLaren potentially have a very exciting talent on their hands this season.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Kimi Raikkonen delivered a solid points-scoring drive for the second race in a row. Seventh for the Finn leaves Alfa Romeo with 10 points on the board already, in fourth in the constructors’ championship and his signing looks to be a masterstroke.

GPFans F1 Podcast #3 - Leclerc luckless, Vettel spins, Schumacher's debut and more!Read more

A disappointing mechanical failure spoiled his day, but Nico Hulkenberg delivered an eye-catching performance nonetheless. For the second race in a row, he put Ricciardo in the shade and appeared on course to finish ahead of him despite starting several places lower on the grid.

THE LOSERS

Sebastian Vettel (5th)

Another costly error, and another race where he potentially threw away a race win.

Being outpaced by Leclerc aside, this was another very poor weekend from Vettel and it does make you begin to wonder if Vettel is simply no longer able to handle the pressure that comes with driving for Ferrari.

If you’re being generous, you could forgive Vettel for being out-qualified by Leclerc as the rookie’s lap was superb, but in the race, Vettel simply should have performed better. He was not slower than his team-mate but made a catastrophic error while being passed by his main title rival.

Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto defended him after the race, but you wonder how long his patience will last if these sort of performances become a regular occurrence.

Pierre Gasly (8th)

He may only be two races into his Red Bull career, but already Gasly looks to be under pressure. A Q1 exit in Melbourne was followed up by a Q2 exit in Bahrain, and while he did manage to score his first points in eighth place, the reality is he was miles off the pace of team-mate Max Verstappen and that will be a concern for the team.

Gasly looks to have no confidence in the car at present and explained to the press in Bahrain that the RB15 car is ‘too unpredictable’ for his liking and that he’s unable to drive it how he wants to.

With Verstappen seemingly being able to drive around the car’s sensitive balance issues, Gasly will soon also be expected to find a way to adapt once he’s had a few races to settle in. It’s just a good job Red Bull have a reputation for being patience with their drivers...

Daniel Ricciardo (DNF)

Ricciardo might have got the better of Hulkenberg in qualifying, but he fell short of his team-mate’s performance in the race after a gamble on a bold one-stop strategy failed to pay off.

By opting to run long in the opening stint, Ricciardo was able to climb up the order and briefly ran ahead of his team-mate before he stopped, His pace faded though in the second half of the race and he was clinging on to 10th place as Hulkenberg remained in the fight for sixth.

Neither Renault driver finished the race, but it was another poor weekend for Ricciardo as Hulkenberg always looked the more likely to score points despite starting six places behind his team-mate.

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