Max Verstappen second in Bahrain Grand Prix: 'A good result'

Published on 29 November 2020 by Kees-Jan Koster

Max Verstappen finished second in the Bahrain Grand Prix. Everyone was startled at the beginning of the race by a horror crash of Romain Grosjean. The Frenchmen plunged full speed into the barriers, causing the car to break in two and catch fire. Miraculously Grosjean was able to escape from the wreckage with only minor burns. After the race was restarted Max was not able to challenge Lewis Hamilton, so finishing in second position. Hamilton took his eleventh victory of the season while Sergio Perez, driving in third position, with only three laps to go had to stop his smoking car at the side of the track. Alexander Albon taking over third position making it a double podium for Red Bull Aston Martin Racing.

Firstly, Max looks back at Grosjean’s crash: “It was scary. We saw the red flag and a lot of fire which is a bad thing. Luckily, he is okay and hopefully he will recover quickly. He was lucky and it shows how strong Formula 1 cars really are. In the beginning I was not really a fan of the Halo, but today it saved someone’s life.”

On his own race Verstappen says: “I am happy with P2. It is a good result. We are lacking a bit. I tried to keep close to Hamilton, but they always had an answer. I think we were not aggressive enough with the strategy, and we had a slow pitstop. It is what it is, second is not bad.”

Answering the question if he thinks that next week’s race on a different Bahrain track will suit him better, the Dutchman answers: “Normally not, with the extra straights, we will see. Hopefully, we will find a little bit more pace around the corners.”

Artificially lit, the Bahrain Grand Prix gets underway. Max has a good start from third position on the grid and moves up into P2 before the first corner. Valtteri Bottas has a bad start and falls back into sixth position. Further back Romain Grosjean and Daniil Kvyat touch and the Frenchmen plunges into the barriers. The Haas breaks in two and turns into a huge fireball. Miraculously, Grosjean can escape the wreckage and fire. He is brought to the medical centre with only minor burns on his hands and feet, begin lucky that it did not end up much worse. Immediately the race is stopped.

After a delay of almost one and a half hours to replace the barriers, the race is restarted. Max can fight of Sergio Perez in the first corner and stays in P2, while Hamilton continues in the lead. In turn eight Lance Stroll is hit by Daniil Kvyat at his right rear tyre. The Canadian is launched and the Racing Point lands upside down on the track. Stroll escapes unharmed and the Safety Car comes out.

In lap nine the Safety Car comes back in and the race is restarted. Max cannot challenge Hamilton and stays in second position. Behind him Perez in third. Hamilton goes into the pits in lap 20 and changed to a new set of medium tyres. Verstappen follows a lap later and comes out in second position with hard tyres on his RB16. Max is then five seconds behind Hamilton.

The gap between the two drivers stays around five seconds until Max decides to go in for a second pitstop in lap 35. The Red Bull mechanics put a new set of the hard tyre on the car and the Dutchman comes out in third position. Hamilton also comes in a lap later and changes to a new set of the hard tyre and stays in the lead. A lap later Perez makes his stop, so Verstappen moves back up into second position.

Max cannot close the gap to Hamilton and makes another pitstop in lap 47. He changes to a new set of the medium tyre, to try and set the fastest lap, he stays in second position.

With only three laps to go the Racing Point of Sergio Perez starts to smoke. The Mexican must stop his car next to the track and sees his podium literally go up in smoke. Albon moves up into third position. The Safety Car comes out again and because there are only a limited number of laps to go, the race finishes behind the Safety Car.

Hamilton takes his eleventh victory of the season. Max finished second, he also sets the fastest lap, scoring a total of 19 points. Albon takes his second podium in his Formula 1 career and makes that for the first time since the Japanese Grand Prix of 2017 there are two Red Bull drivers on the podium. McLaren takes over third place in the constructor’s championship with a fourth place for Lando Norris and fifth for Carlos Sainz. Pierre Gasly finishes sixth, with Daniel Ricciardo, Valtteri Bottas, Esteban Ocon and Charles Leclerc complete the top ten.

Results Grand Prix Bahrain: