Lewis takes thrilling victory for Mercedes-AMG Petronas in Bahrain

Lewis secured his 75^th win for the Mercedes F1 Team this evening with a stunning drive in Bahrain.

A slow pit-stop on lap 30 cost Valtteri the chance to fight for the win, with the Finn coming home P3 in his 80^th race with the Silver Arrows.

This evening, Lewis broke Michael Schumacher’s record of most laps led in F1, which previously stood at 5,111.

Valtteri scored an additional point for the fastest lap of 1:32.090 on the final lap of the race.

P1 and P3 secures the 15th podium place at the Bahrain Grand Prix for the Mercedes F1 Team, a new record.

This victory was Lewis’ fifth in Bahrain making him the most successful driver at this race.

Russell Braithwaite, Chief Financial Officer, accepted the Constructors’ trophy on behalf of the team.

Lewis Hamilton

Firstly, can I just say it’s the first time I have seen fans in a long time, it’s so good to see people out here and everyone keeping their distance and staying safe. I’m so proud of what Formula One has been able to do, to start on a normal schedule this year and wow, what a difficult race that was! Definitely by stopping early, we knew it would be difficult, but we had to cover Max and keep the track position in the lead. They have had an amazing performance all weekend, so it was going to take something pretty special to get the win tonight. We stopped for that last stint and trying to find the right balance between pushing hard and saving tyre performance for the end of the race was difficult. And Max was all over me right at the end but I just about managed to hold him off. It was one of the hardest races I’ve had for a while so I’m really grateful for it and massively thankful for the men and the women back at the factory and here, for continuously pushing the boundaries and never giving up, even if we do feel we’re behind. But we love the challenge, I love the challenge, I love what I do.

Valtteri Bottas

We lost a lot of time on the slow pit stop otherwise it was a close race with Red Bull. The cars were quite close on pace but if you lose 10 seconds like that, racing against Max and Lewis, you are not going to get that back. On a personal level it’s not satisfying but at least as a team, we have more points than Red Bull. It was the right thing at the end to stop for new tyres and set the fastest lap so we have an extra point. The car was more drivable today, it was better than yesterday and we are continuing to make steps forward. Hopefully we can make further progress. We have three weeks of work ahead of us before Imola. If you had said at testing that we would have two drivers on the podium and be top of the Constructors’ table after the first race, we would have taken it.

Toto Wolff

If somebody had predicted this would be the result on Sunday, I wouldn’t have believed it. If you are 100% honest with yourself, we are still lacking pace in qualifying. Today we were definitely competitive, and the strategy made all the difference. We made a bold call in the beginning to take track position and the lead of the race, then at the end the racing gods were on our side.

Bahrain was never the strongest race for Red Bull and they have never traditionally been the quickest out the blocks, so after today I have no doubt that they are going to be extremely difficult to beat in 2021. We have a real fight on our hands – and we’re all excited about the prospect of a really close battle for these championships!

Andrew Shovlin

Days like today remind us why we do this! Everyone in Brackley and Brixworth have been working flat out since the test; we knew that we had our work cut out but today was a great reward for all the extra hours that everyone has been putting in. Our hope going into the race was that we’d be able to put Max under a bit of pressure. Lewis did that brilliantly and was able to stay within undercut range which enabled him to take the lead at the first stop. He pushed the tyres pretty hard at the start of that second stint to gain the position and we were starting to drop too early. That’s what forced us to come in when we did. It was earlier than we’d have liked but Max was close enough to try and undercut Lewis so we had to make a move. A few seconds behind, Valtteri was having a strong middle stint, and although we didn’t have the gap to undercut Max,  we boxed at a point where we thought they may be afraid to go to the end and wondered if they would let us undercut them and take P2. Unfortunately, we had a problem at the stop and lost precious seconds and places which prevented Valtteri from being in the mix at the end, but it also allowed Max to offset his strategy to Lewis. Honestly, once that had happened, we didn’t think we’d win, but Lewis did an amazing job with the tyre management and defending. We’re well aware this championship will be close so when we had an opportunity to go for fastest lap with Valtteri we took it, earning him and the team the extra point. It’s great to walk away from here leading the championship but we’re under no illusions that this will anything other than an incredibly difficult championship to win. We’ve made good progress in the last week or so, but Red Bull have the better package at the moment and if we don’t improve, our lead may be short-lived.

MAX VERSTAPPEN, Finish Position: 2nd, Start Position: 1st

“We definitely made good steps forward today but it’s of course a shame not to get the win. We were having to manage a couple of issues throughout the race which I had to drive around so we will have to look into that but there are positives to take from today and the whole weekend. Mercedes did the undercut but we stuck to our strategy which was working fine, the problem is that with these cars, it’s so hard to pass and once you have that track position it’s pretty powerful. As soon as I got close enough to Lewis I had one shot and I just went outside of the track at Turn 4 so I gave the position back, but by then my tyres weren’t in a good state anymore to put the pressure on. We have to look at the positives, we are taking the fight to Mercedes and I think that’s great, it’s good to start the season this way and we managed to score some good points for the Team. We will analyse what we can do better as there are always things you can improve and it’s great to get Honda’s 200th podium this weekend. Now it’s full focus on the next race.”

SERGIO PEREZ, Finish Position: 5th, Start Position: Pit lane

“Considering my race almost didn’t happen today, I think overall we can be pleased with today and take away the positives as the pace was really good and the potential is there. On the formation lap, all of a sudden the car shut down and I was so close to jumping out but I stayed in and somehow the car got going again which was a miracle really. That meant we had to start from the pit lane which wasn’t ideal but we managed to recover and I was just happy to complete the race and get that important mileage under my belt. It was really important to get that and of course it is a shame that Max didn’t win the race for the Team but it will come I’m sure and we will get there. We’ve got a lot of data to analyse now so that we understand everything and make sure we come back stronger at the next race in Imola.”

CHRISTIAN HORNER, Team Principal

“First of all, congratulations to Mercedes, it was a great race today. We are all racers in this Team and to lose by such a small margin obviously hurts but the positive is that we have put in a strong performance all weekend and pushed Mercedes all the way. Max was nursing an issue from early on, how much of an affect that had during the race I’m not sure but he drove his heart out as always and we can’t ask for anything more than that. He got the pass done to re-gain the lead but ran out wide and was instructed to give the place back, which he did immediately and then he pushed Lewis to the line. Hats off to Sergio as well in what was a great comeback drive for him, especially after starting in the pit lane. He kept a cool calm head after the issue on the Formation Lap and was able to deliver a strong points haul. I think the biggest winner today is the fans, this race sets up a great season and I really hope we see Lewis and Max have many more battles. The fact that we’ve been so competitive this weekend is a good signal for the championship. If we’re frustrated with second place, then that’s not a bad place to be and shows the determination within the Team. We’re certainly in the fight and ready to take on the season.”

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