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Formula 1 Bahrain GP

F1 Bahrain GP Live Commentary and Updates - Race day

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B, Pierre Gasly, AlphaTauri AT02

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Pit stop
Norris comes in to pit from fourth, taking the medium compound tyres. We missed the getaway, but he rejoins ahead of Leclerc who also stopped.
Norris has dropped Leclerc now, which has brought Ricciardo right behind the Ferrari driver. The camera cut away mid-battle, but there wasn't a change in position either way...
Pit stop

Alonso, who started on the softs, pits on lap 12 to take a fresh set of mediums. The Alpine driver returns to the action in P17.

The battle at the front is separated by 1.8s - Verstappen over Hamilton, with Bottas a further five seconds back.

Perez is up to P12 after getting ahead of Ocon and he is now hunting down Raikkonen. A Red Bull charging through the pack feels very 2020.

Norris hasn't been able to scamper up the road from Leclerc, which is keeping the Ferrari driver's foot in the battle for fourth with DRS.

The clash involving Gasly at Turn 4 - when he lost his front wing - will not be investigated by the stewards. Nor will the battle between Norris and Leclerc earlier. As you were.

Stroll, whose Aston Martin appears unaffected by that close attention from Sainz earlier, gets by Alonso at the first corner to claim seventh place.
Norris stuffs it past Leclerc into Turn 1 this time around, and holds the place into the following DRS stretch. Nice and clean.

Perez, who went from last place to win the Sakhir GP a few months back, is already up to P13 having started from the pitlane. Can lightning strike twice in Bahrain?

Here's Norris on Leclerc, grabbing DRS - but can't clear the Ferrari into turn 1! He tried again into turn 4, hanging on around the outside, but couldn't keep with him into the following corners.

That young whippersnapper Alonso has kept his Alpine's nose clean amid the action and is up to seventh behind the two McLarens. TV replays catch a clash between Sainz and Stroll on lap 4, with the Spaniard banging against the Aston Martin at Turn 8.

Stopwatch
Verstappen seems to have an issue with his differential, but he's just logged the fastest lap - a 1m35.982s.

The incident involving Gasly at Turn 4 has been noted, according to race control, with the French driver still in the race but down in P19 having pitted for a new front wing and fresh hard tyres.

Bottas cruises past Leclerc on the DRS into turn 1, but Leclerc gets a run into turn 4! Bottas holds third, but Leclerc gave that a good go...

Tsunoda also lost a handful of places in the bumping and barging and is down in P16 for AlphaTauri. Vettel has profited in all of it and is P14 right behind Russell in P13.

Green flag
...and we're back, VSC over!
Safety car
And it's a VSC now! This is quite something...

Messy restart in the midfield, as Schumacher spins off at Turn 4, while Gasly has lost his front wing in a battle with Ricciardo.

Gasly's lost his front wing at turn 7!
Verstappen backed everyone up, trying to deny Hamilton the tow, and that let Leclerc trickle past Bottas and give Hamilton a bit of a run for his money!
Green flag
We're back underway!
Is Perez going to do this from the back again?

While all that was going on at the start, Perez did start the race from the pitlane and is duly in last place but right on the rear wing of Schumacher.

Safety car
Safety car coming in at the end of the lap.
No changes among the top five, although Norris snuck past Ricciardo in those opening corners. Meanwhile, Verstappen is told not to worry too much about his weird throttle.

TV replays show Mazepin crashing all on his own, chasing the back of the pack at the start. He lights up the rears and gets it all out of shape exiting the third corner and that creates a meeting with the barrier.

Quote
"I feel something weird on the throttle," Verstappen reports. Quoth Scooby-Doo, "ruh-roh"...

Horrible deja vu moment of seeing a Haas going off at Turn 3 on the opening lap of the Bahrain GP. Thankfully Mazepin is OK and out of the car, but his F1 debut is over.

Safety car

A Haas has gone off at Turn 3! It is Mazepin, who went off to the left of the track. The safety car is out.

Verstappen holds the line into the first corner, as Leclerc is hounding Bottas!
Lights green
After all that, we're away for the Bahrain Grand Prix!
We're coming round again, hopefully to kick the race off once more...we'll now run to 56 laps.

Perez's Red Bull appears to shut off completely on the formation lap and he crawls to a halt. After a shutdown and restart, Perez gets going again and heads to the end of the pitlane, where he will start the race.

Mechanical problem
An aborted start, then, as Perez stopped towards the end of the lap...

Oh no, that's not how you want to start the season. Perez has stopped on the formation lap!

The cars begin to line up on the grid...
Green flag
We're on the formation lap. The tension is palpable...
A fair mix of tyre strategies. Medium runners are Verstappen, Hamilton, Bottas, Gasly, Perez, Giovinazzi, Tsunoda, Raikkonen, Schumacher, Mazepin and Vettel. Everyone else on softs.
Much like the earlier F2 race, there's a headwind into Turn 1 - so that might make the slipstream a little more potent.

By: Jake Boxall-Legge, Haydn Cobb, Stephen Lickorish

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