Why Verstappen was frustrated to lose the race that followed Grosjean's escape

Once it was clear that Romain Grosjean had emerged thankfully and relatively unscathed from what was a truly horrifying crash at the start of the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix - and the barrier his Haas VF-20 had pierced through had been replaced - someone had to actually win it.

In the end it was Lewis Hamilton who came away with his 11th win of the 2020 campaign, but in his wake came an unusually and vocally frustrated Max Verstappen. The Dutchman's reaction stood out because on the previous occasions he has split the Mercedes duo so far this season, including in that famous finish to the British GP where he might've won had it not been for a late pitstop, he has generally been happy to simply pick up a better result than third.

Not so last weekend, in a race that quickly boiled down to a two-horse race between Hamilton and Verstappen, who had started in the third place he has generally occupied this season behind the Black Arrows.

But the event only reached that stage nearly 90 minutes after it had first begun, mainly due to the shocking accident at the initial start. As is so often the case in motorsport, one incident set off several more and, although these were not directly interlinked, the end result was Grosjean's car spearing into the barrier where it was ripped in half and ignited.

It all started with Valtteri Bottas. For the fourth time this season, the Finn made a poor getaway. He said he was "slightly cautious on the clutch start", which left him "1-2% more shallow than I was supposed to be to try to avoid wheelspin" - although Mercedes later insisted he had done little wrong and attributed his slow getaway to low grip on his grid spot. But the result was a slow launch that was followed by wheelspin, which cost Bottas momentum and meant he was passed by Verstappen and Sergio Perez on the run to Turn 1. He was then swamped by Alex Albon and Daniel Ricciardo going through the tight right-hander.

As a result, McLaren's Lando Norris had to check up, which brought him into a line alongside Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, which pinched at Turn 2, causing Norris to slow again and leaving him with front wing damage as he was caught between the Renault and AlphaTauri.

The Ferrari pair and Lance Stroll were following, and they had to go wide in avoidance as they came up to Norris's rear, which sent the Racing Point wide. The pack then concertinaed together again going through the Turn 3 right kink, which slowed the group at the back of the midfield again. The drivers at the rear of the pack - including Grosjean - therefore quickly gained on those running ahead. In reaction, the Frenchman moved right across the track and struck Danill Kvyat's AlphaTauri right-rear to left-front, which sent him straight into the barriers.

What followed was "like something from a movie", according to Williams driver George Russell, who was following the pack after making an "atrocious" start that followed him escaping Q1 for the ninth time in 2020. The front end of Grosjean's car went through the metal barrier, with the rear of the chassis completely severed.

The impact immediately caused both parts of the wreckage to erupt in flames and the red flags were quickly flown, the race clock officially stopping just 36 seconds after starting.

"Once Romain was high enough then we could get him over the barrier and away. But it's a very small window because as soon as the extinguisher powder went forward, the flames were coming back pretty soon afterwards" Dr Ian Roberts

For a horrible 2m30s, the TV screens showed no replay of the accident nor broadcast any action from the aftermath, but finally Grosjean was captured sitting in the medical car - his helmet off, scorched but, most importantly, alive. He'd been forced to fight his way out of the wreckage as the blaze roared around him - a stream of fire extinguisher fluid beating back the flames just enough for him to leap out of the car, back over the barrier and into the arms of F1 deputy medical delegate Dr Ian Roberts, who had run towards the inferno after arriving on the scene seconds after the crash had occurred.

"Not to put too fine a point on it, but it looked like an oven - it was red with flame," said Roberts, who was dowsed with extinguisher by medical car driver Alan van der Merwe as he helped Grosjean scramble clear - his visor melted - away from the scene.

"You could see him trying to get out, and he was gradually getting himself further and further out. Once Romain was high enough then we could get him over the barrier and away. But it's a very small window because as soon as the extinguisher powder went forward, the flames were coming back pretty soon afterwards."

Haas quickly explained Grosjean had suffered minor burns on his hands and ankles and then gave a further update that he had suffered suspected broken ribs, which was revealed not to be the case once he had been fully assessed after being flown to the nearby BDF Military Hospital.

Back at the track, the FIA quickly moved to assess the damage to the barrier and decide how best to replace it. F1 race director Michael Masi went to the scene and discussed the options with the track's engineers. The solution was to cut away the deformed and destroyed metal barrier and replace it with seven concrete blocks.

"You have to consider each circuit, each level of terrain, on its own merits," explained Masi. "Here by nature, it's quite sandy ground and so forth. So structural integrity [was a consideration for the repair work]. They had concrete barriers that were available. So, the first part was, effectively, 'OK, this would be the best, most efficient', but obviously the best repair that could happen at that area. And the safest, most importantly."

Considering how serious the situation initially appeared, it was a tremendous achievement by all of the officials and marshals involved that Grosjean was able to escape the incident and that the race was able to resume.

When it did, it didn't for very long. The second start was slightly contentious - an equal testament to F1's fierce competitive spirit and the triviality of sport in the face of danger - as the second grid's positions were decided by the order the cars were running in when they had passed the second safety car line. This was at a few metres before the apex of Turn 1 - where the pitlane exit line ends - and ultimately meant Hamilton lined up on pole ahead of Verstappen, Perez and Bottas. Albon and Ricciardo were demoted behind the second Mercedes as its nose was just ahead at the safety car line.

Only Hamilton, Bottas, Norris and Ricciardo opted not to change tyres during the stoppage - instead sticking with the mediums they had taken the first start on, while Verstappen, Perez and Albon switched to a different used set of the same compound. Red Bull had considered changing Verstappen to the hard tyre, its pre-race strength over Mercedes, but did not want to risk the harder rubber giving poorer grip for the second launch.

Hamilton again led away with ease, with Bottas challenging Perez and Verstappen ahead, before the Racing Point gave the Red Bull a firmer contest at the first corner. But Verstappen was able to repulse Perez out wide and follow Hamilton before the race was suspended again when Kvyat and Stroll came together at the Turn 8 hairpin. The clash flipped Stroll's car and put him out on the spot - with Kvyat later given a 10s stop/go penalty for causing the collision.

This time the safety car was called, and it stayed out for the next five laps, which was a critical factor in both Verstappen's defeat and his initial post-race reaction.

Once the race got under way for a third time, Hamilton aced the restart and had pulled a 0.772s lead over the line at the start of lap nine. Just two tours later, Perez had fallen over two seconds behind Verstappen, and 10 laps after the safety car had come in he was over six seconds in arrears.

But Verstappen was gamely hanging onto Hamilton. This was despite his car "hopping around a lot on throttle, on low speed and medium speed - it was very odd [and] did get better throughout the race but it didn't feel so nice at the beginning". However, the leader looked to be irresistibly strengthening his advantage, as across the first stint Hamilton lapped 0.391s faster on average.

"I'm not sure what else we could have done really. He would've had a couple of cars to pass, and we wouldn't have been within the undercut. They would have been easily able to cover it" Christian Horner

The Mercedes driver came in at the end of lap 19, with Verstappen and Perez following him in at the end of the next tour. This perplexed Verstappen, who felt "we should have pulled Lewis in, instead of Lewis pulling me in". But Red Bull team boss Christian Horner explained how the early laps spent running behind the safety car had had a knock-on effect.

"The field didn't spread out as much as you would have wanted in the first stint because of losing those eight laps," he said. "So, if we'd have pitted [first], we'd have pitted into traffic. I'm not sure what else we could have done really. He would've had a couple of cars to pass, and we wouldn't have been within the undercut. They would have been easily able to cover it."

But at this point Red Bull had at least been able to go after what Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin described as "a bit of a weakness" - Hamilton and Bottas both lacking a second set of new hard tyres coming into the race.

Verstappen took his first set of hards at the first stop, while Hamilton fitted another set of used mediums. Over his second stint, Verstappen matched Hamilton's pace. Although he never got within 4.26s, the Red Bull driver was clearly in the hunt.

They pitted again on laps 34 and 35 - this time with Verstappen getting his wish and coming in first. But the pitstop lasted 3.044s longer than his quickest (based on total time in the pitlane) due to a problem at the rear. Even so, when things shook out following Hamilton's stop, Verstappen was just 3.776s behind at the end of lap 36, having been 5.738s adrift at the end of the tour before he came in for the slow service - without which he'd surely have emerged within striking distance.

But leaving aside such speculation, the third stint unfolded in a very similar way to the second. Verstappen gained on Hamilton and then they traded fastest times, the gap relatively stable before the Briton began to pull away. Their averages for the third stint (or, more accurately, Verstappen's whole third stint before his final stop and the opening to Hamilton's final stint) came out at 1m33.224s vs 1m33.248s, with Hamilton barely edging it by 0.024s.

It was remarkable, really. Verstappen had demonstrated the power of the undercut with his pace to close in despite his slow second stop, and this perhaps explains some of his anger at not coming in first on the opening stint too. He was driving in such a way that he hoped to pile pressure on Hamilton - sacrifice tyre life early on in a stint in the hope of forcing Hamilton to do likewise, from where Verstappen could pounce or at least force the Mercedes into tactical difficulty.

"That's what you have to do when they stop earlier than you, or you have a bad stop," Verstappen explained. "In the end, I had nothing to lose, so even if it wouldn't work out [it was worth trying]. As you could see, I could do another stop, [and] still [retain] second."

Before we get to Verstappen's third and final stop and the race's conclusion, it's worth considering how Hamilton had to approach this race.

Despite the W11's pace advantage over the RB16, he knew of Verstappen's weapon with the extra set of more durable hard tyres (last year's mediums) going into the race and was also wary of the Red Bull's race pace threat after Mercedes had decided to reduce its long-run data gathering in Friday practice to better understand Pirelli's prototype 2021 rubber. His race was ultimately another example of his deftness with the tyres, executed in the face of relentless pressure.

PLUS: The sacrifice Mercedes made in Bahrain to find an extra edge for 2021

"I had to make sure I looked after my tyres the best way that I could," Hamilton explained. "There are certain ways I try to do that. Max was really quick, particularly at the get-go from every time he had a pitstop, and tyre-wise I had a slightly not as good [position] in the sense that he had the two hards, which can push more and go further.

"I was definitely, particularly in the second stint, quite conscious of trying to match the tyre life - and that's not necessarily having to do the same speed early on. I didn't want to tail off too much at the end [of each stint] and then him close the gap and undercut me. I tried to be as tactical as I could be."

Red Bull brought Verstappen in for a third stop on lap 46, after which Hamilton had a 27.518s advantage. Verstappen chomped this down to 17.392s by the end of lap 54, which works out at an average gain of 1.447s per lap. His pace was certainly scintillating - it was during this phase that he set the race's fastest lap - but it also seemed as though Hamilton had enough in hand to manage to the finish.

If just a few things had worked out differently for Verstappen and he had been able to make a pass on Hamilton stick, there's no guarantee the Mercedes would have been able to recover the lead

The biggest danger to Hamilton's lead was if there was a late safety car, coming with the threat of a final dash to the flag during which he'd have had a tyre disadvantage. And this so nearly came to be when Perez's engine expired in flames on lap 54 as the result of an MGU-K electric issue.

That cost Perez, who had fallen to 40.564s behind Hamilton the lap before his problem struck, a second successive podium (out of a possible three in a row considering his Imola performance).

Mercedes considered pitting Hamilton during the resulting safety car, but judged it to be too fine a call, and in the end realised the incident would take too long to clear and the race would finish behind the safety car. Albon was the main benefactor of Perez's problems, as he inherited a second F1 career podium.

There's a final element to consider in regard to Verstappen's post-race frustrations. This concerns Bottas and his recovery drive from a puncture under the first safety car, which dropped him from fourth to 16th at the end of lap five of 57.

Although Bottas eventually recovered to eighth by the flag, the early phase of his attempts to get back up the order was characterised by his struggles to pass the much slower cars of Kimi Raikkonen and Russell. It must be noted that he was initially trying to make a one-stopper work, but Shovlin revealed Mercedes "clearly carrying a bigger wing than most" was also a factor.

This applies to the battle for the lead because if just a few things had worked out differently for Verstappen and he had been able to make a pass on Hamilton stick, there's no guarantee the Mercedes would have been able to recover the lead, given Bottas's problems and the W11's historical issues when running in dirty air. That said, Hamilton can generally cope better with that and the Bahrain track lends itself well to overtaking.

No matter, this race should go down in F1 folklore. It was a day where the championship's soul was on full display. This could be seen in the tremendous skill it took for Hamilton to win the race, Verstappen's ferocious will to somehow prevail, the danger and bravery the drivers face and need in Grosjean's crash - and the community's collective sense of relief that he managed to escape.