Last night’s Formula One win was a decade in the making for Sergio “Checo” Perez, as the Racing Point driver recovered from a collision early in the race to take his first ever Grand Prix title at the floodlit Bahrain International Circuit (BIC), Sakhir.
The Mexican driver was the first past the chequered flag being waved by National Taskforce for Combating the Coronavirus member and Salmaniya Medical Complex Infectious and Internal Diseases consultant Dr Jameela Salman.
Perez’s stunning win in the Rolex Sakhir Grand Prix came after a calamitous Mercedes pitstop and then a puncture cost long-time leader George Russell.
Esteban Ocon finished second ahead of Perez team mate Lance Stroll, with the Mercedes cars down in eighth and ninth – Valtteri Bottas, also delayed significantly in the pitstop fiasco, in front of Russell, a disappointing finish for the Silver Arrows.
Perez emerged victorious after 87 hotly contested laps around BIC’s 3.543-kilometre Outer Track, featuring incredible drama throughout.
He powered to victory in one hour 31 minutes 15.114 seconds for his first triumph in F1.
Ocon followed 10.518 seconds behind for his first career podium, while Stroll claimed his second podium of 2020 11.869s back.
Carlos Sainz was fourth for McLaren, Daniel Ricciardo fifth for Renault, Alexander Albon sixth for Red Bull, and Daniil Kvyat seventh for AlphaTauri.
Bottas, Russell and Lando Norris in the second McLaren rounded out the top 10 and the race’s points scorers.
The classification from 11th to 17th, respectively, featured AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, the Alfa Romeo pair of Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen, Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, Williams’ Jack Aitken, and Pietro Fittipaldi in the other Haas.
Nicholas Latifi in the second Williams car, along with Verstappen and Leclerc, were all not classified.
Perez faces a post-race investigation over the lap one incident that eliminated Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen, in which Perez was spun around and fell to the rear of the field.
For the second successive weekend at BIC, there was some drama at the race start.
Leclerc collided with Perez at turn four, causing significant damage to the Ferrari.
Verstappen, in trying to avoid contact with the pair, ran wide and slid into the wall, while Perez was lucky not to be taken out in the clash.
Mercedes’ two crucial pit-stop errors proved disastrous in their bid for victory.
Russell, driving in place of seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, was leading with Bottas behind him when the safety car was deployed on lap 63.
The team called both drivers in for new tyres, but had inadvertently put on a mixed set for Russell, which required him to pit once more later on.
The team also had trouble replacing Bottas’s tyres in his stop, which lasted nearly 30 seconds, costing him valuable time.
However, it was a night of celebration for Racing Point especially after the series of unfortunate events last weekend – a crash for Stroll and a fire in the car for Perez in the final laps – saw the team bow out of the Formula One Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix without finishing.
naman@gulfweekly.com
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