THE SAKHIR GP IN 3 KEY MOMENTS
1 Mercedes tyre blunder costs Russell victory
George Russell’s mother couldn’t speak, such were the overwhelming emotions of the night, but the family was full of pride, despite terrible disappointment at the outcome. “That was yours today” is what Russell said his father told him on the phone, and of course he was right.
For 63 of this race’s 87 laps Russell had everything under control. Pending a final stint showdown with Valtteri Bottas, who was chipping away at the gap, Russell looked set to cap an outstanding debut for Mercedes in place of unwell world champion Lewis Hamilton with victory.
That it all fell apart so spectacularly was principally down to a communication error in the pits. It was the sort of pitstop – servicing both cars consecutively on the same lap under Safety Car conditions – that was wholly unnecessary but which Mercedes usually performs faultlessly.
But this time Russell’s crew failed to receive instructions telling them he was coming in before Bottas, because Russell, in the stewards’ words, “transmitted over the top of that message” from the pitwall. A glitch in Mercedes’ radio system prioritised the wrong message, explained track engineering director Andrew Shovlin. Thus, Bottas’ new front tyres were fitted to Russell’s car by mistake. “It was just a colossal fuck up,” said team boss Toto Wolff.
The moment of realisation came while attending Bottas. He was stationary for 27.4 seconds while the crew refitted his ageing hard tyres, leaving him a “sitting duck” as he struggled to regenerate temperature for the final sprint to the flag.
Russell was called straight back in to correct the mistake, dropping him to fifth. But all the cars ahead, Sergio Pérez’s Racing Point, Esteban Ocon’s
Renault, Lance Stroll’s Racing Point, and Bottas, were on much older tyres for the restart.
Russell still had 19 laps to win this race for a second time. He picked off Bottas with a gutsy move at the Turn 7/8 chicane, DRS’D past Stroll at Turn 1 and overtook Ocon at Turn 4 to lie second with 14 laps to go. With 10 to go, Russell had Pérez’s 3.4s lead cut to 2.3s.
Then disaster struck again. A left-rear puncture, most likely a result of running off-line to overtake, meant another pitstop, which dropped Russell to 15th. He fought back to ninth, behind Bottas, then survived a post-race investigation by the stewards that resulted in a €20,000 fine for Mercedes.
But it’s Russell’s outstanding performance that will live long in the memory. He was shoehorned into Hamilton’s car at short notice, had to wear boots a size too small, and learned an unfamiliar car on
the fly. He topped Friday practice, came within 0.03s of stealing pole from Bottas (two tenths off was Russell’s target), made a great start and had the race seemingly in the bag, until disaster struck…
“This is not a sad day,” Wolff insisted. “We learned that George is somebody to count on in the future. He has all the ingredients a future star needs.”
Too right.
2 Pérez lucks in but also stakes Red Bull claim
Sergio Pérez was the other outstanding performer in this race, and should probably now be in pole position to take the second Red Bull seat away from Alex Albon, who endured yet another disappointing weekend.
Pérez would have finished third had Mercedes not imploded, while Albon laboured to a top six finish after a “scrappy” race in a car that was again good enough to fight at the front in Max Verstappen’s hands.
The seminal moment came when Pérez passed Albon round the outside having been speared off the track by Charles Leclerc at Turn 4 on the first lap. Pérez’s recovery from the back of the pack was outstanding, and he also made decisive moves on Stroll and Ocon, which put him in prime position to win the race when luck finally came his way.
Racing Point learned from its Imola mistake and this time left Pérez out on hard tyres for the restart, and he arguably deserved his slice of good fortune after engine failure the previous Sunday robbed him of third and handed that podium finish to Albon.
Mercedes was not certain Russell would have passed Pérez had their showdown materialised, and Pérez’s performance was all the more remarkable given suspected ERS failure at the previous race meant he felt his older replacement engine was down on power.
Most telling of all was Christian Horner’s slow shake of the head when Albon failed to escape Q2 while Verstappen qualified within a tenth of pole…
3 Leclerc penalised for ‘reckless’ accident
Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc should have been in prime position to capitalise on Mercedes’ pit blunder, but both were eliminated in a first-lap accident for which Leclerc was handed a threeplace grid penalty.
Having been often criticised for driving too aggressively, this time Verstappen was circumspect after briefly going three-wide with Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Pérez on the run to Turn 4.
Verstappen backed off, Pérez dived for Bottas’ inside, while Leclerc – who qualified an outstanding fourth in a Ferrari Sebastian Vettel couldn’t carry out of Q2 – attempted to go inside Verstappen.
Leclerc locked brakes and clattered into Pérez, forcing Verstappen wide to avoid a crash. Unfortunately, that avoidance carried Verstappen into a gravel trap, which in turn put him into a wall. Verstappen kicked out in frustration after alighting his broken Red Bull.
“I don’t know why they were being so aggressive and so reckless,” he fumed as another potentially big result for Red Bull-honda went begging.