Sergio Perez claims first Grand Prix win at 190th attempt; Mercedes pit stop error and puncture cost George Russell, who finishes ninth; Esteban Ocon second for Renault with Lance Stroll completing podium
Monday 7 December 2020 06:07, UK
Racing Point's Sergio Perez claimed the first Grand Prix win of his career at the 190th attempt in an astonishing Sakhir GP after a Mercedes tyre mix-up and puncture cost George Russell a fairy-tale victory on his debut for the team.
Completing a dramatic week in Formula 1, Russell appeared to be heading for a remarkable success as stand in for Lewis Hamilton after overtaking Valtteri Bottas at the first corner and then holding a commanding lead of five seconds over his new team-mate, with Mercedes dominant.
But a late-race Safety Car pushed F1's champions into making an extra pit stop for both their cars - a precautionary move that backfired in a botched service and which triggered a sequence of events that, ultimately, resulted in an agonising race-losing result for Russell.
"I've had races where I've had victories taken away from me, but twice? I just couldn't believe it. I gave it everything I had," said the luckless Russell, who eventually finished ninth for what was his first F1 points finish after 37 races but scant reward for a stunning first weekend at the sport's top table.
In what Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff bluntly described as "a colossal **** up", their pit crew incorrectly fitted a set of Bottas' front tyres to Russell's car in contravention of F1's rules.
The Englishman had to pit again a lap later to change to his own set, dropping to fifth behind his team-mate who had also been delayed in Mercedes' pit box as the world champions 'double-stacked' their cars.
When the race restarted, Russell looked as though he may yet salvage victory as he raced back up to second place in the space of five laps.
But in one agonising final twist, his Mercedes then suffered a slow puncture with nine laps and 20 miles of racing to go just as he had closed to within two seconds of Perez's lead.
Forced to pit for a fourth time, the fairy-tale result denied.
Russell's woes instead opened the door for Perez to secure the most unlikely of triumphs.
The Mexican - who remains without a drive for 2021 despite playing a starring role this season - qualified fifth here but dropped to 18th and last on the race's first lap after being spun around by Ferrari's Charles Leclerc in a Turn Four incident that also saw Red Bull's Max Verstappen, a likely victory contender, crash out.
Pitting at the end of that first lap, Perez brilliantly brought himself into play with a surging 46-lap stint on medium tyres. Into third before he second pit stop, he passed several rivals on his return to the track - including team-mate Lance Stroll - and inherited the lead when the Mercedes drivers hit trouble.
"I hope I'm not dreaming because I've been dreaming of this moment for 10 years!" said an emotional Perez, who had claimed nine previous podium finishes but never stood on the top step in F1.
Racing Point celebrated wildly, the Silverstone-based team achieving their first win since 2003 they were known as Jordan. Stroll joined team-mate Perez on the podium in third place for his second rostrum visit of the year.
Esteban Ocon was second for Renault for his first podium in Formula 1, with the Frenchman bursting in to tears on the radio on his cool-down lap.
Carlos Sainz was fourth for McLaren to continue his run of good form, with Daniel Ricciardo fifth in the second Renault. Unusually, none of the sport's three biggest teams - Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari - finished with cars in the top five.
Sakhir GP result: Top 10
1. Sergio Perez, Racing Point
2. Esteban Ocon, Renault
3. Lance Stroll, Racing Point
4. Carlos Sainz, McLaren
5. Daniel Ricciardo, Renault
6. Alexander Albon, Red Bull
7. Daniil Kvyat, AlphaTauri
8. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes
9. George Russell, Mercedes
10. Lando Norris, McLaren
FULL SAKHIR GP RACE RESULT
LATEST CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
Despite missing seven-time champion Hamilton for the first time since he joined them in 2013, Mercedes seemed set to be heading for a very familiar one-two.
That was until lap 62.
The Safety Car - which in the ultimate irony for Russell, was called when Jack Aitken, his weekend replacement at Williams, spun and his car deposited its front wing on Sakhir's main straight - presented Mercedes with the chance to complete a so-called 'free' pit stop to fit fresher tyres on both their cars and cover off any threat from rivals behind for the race restart when the field would be bunched up.
But a pit stop is only truly 'free' if nothing untoward happens in the service of the car - and that certainly did not prove the case for Mercedes here.
Race leader Russell arrived in the box first but radio mix-up with his car's pit crew meant a set of Bottas' front tyres were incorrectly fitted to his W11. Bottas was then delayed in the box as Mercedes's crew tried to work out what had gone wrong.
The Finn was ultimately released with the same tyres on his car that he arrived with, hampering his prospects when the race restarted. He finished eighth.
Once clear what had happened, Russell pitted again on the following lap to change to the correct set. Mercedes were later fined €20,000 by race stewards for the mix-up.
Yet, for all that, it was ultimately the punctured Russell picked up by running over debris with eight laps to go that ultimately ended his hopes of a stunning maiden F1 victory.
"I can't really put it into words to be honest," reflected a disappointed and disbelieving Englishman to Sky F1 immediately after the race. "Jumping out of the car... it wasn't a nice feeling."
The footage of Russell slumping back on a grass verge in the paddock is likely to be the defining image of Sunday, as the realisation of what could and should have been set in for the 22-year-old.
Up to the pit-stop dramas, Russell - who only first drove Mercedes' 2020 car on Friday and, until Sunday, had never scored a point nor led a race in F1 - had looked like a seasoned veteran leading the experienced Bottas at the head of the field.
He overtook the poles-sitting Mercedes with a sharp move on the brakes into Turn One and quickly set about building a small, but steady lead over Bottas through the first stint.
Navigating the first pit stops without a hitch, and building his advantage over Bottas to a race-high of eight seconds, he overcame initial post-stop issues with a sensor issue on his car and appeared in complete control of proceedings as the lap count ticked down on Bahrain's short but fast Outer loop.
That is until those tyre dramas intervened.
But his performance through the weekend in a car that was not optimised for his 6ft1 frame sent a powerful message about his long-term potential.
"It's not going to be his last attempt to win a race, it's just the beginning of a fairy-tale that didn't work out today," said Wolff. "I would say a new star is born."
Wolff also said Russell would race for the world champions again in the Abu Dhabi season finale this coming week if Hamilton was not ready to return from coronavirus.
As is often the case in F1, one driver's misfortune is another's gain and so it proved with Russell and Perez.
The Mexican could point to his own bad luck last Sunday when he lost a certain third place after a Mercedes engine fault struck his Racing Point in the race's closing stages.
Qualifying fifth here, he battled Leclerc and Verstappen on the first lap towards Turn Four. But a botched overtake from the Ferrari spun Perez around into the run-off area. Leclerc was later handed a three-place grid penalty for next week's final race in Abu Dhabi.
But while Leclerc retired on the spot with damage, and Verstappen crashed while trying to take avoiding action, Perez was fortunate to be able to continue - although his race prospects still appeared bleak as a pit stop for fresh tyres dropped him to 18th and last place.
But a long stint on medium tyres brought the Mexican back into play in superb fashion. He took on the hard-compound tyres at his lap-47 stop and was back into third behind the Mercedes', crucially passing Ocon and Stroll, inside 10 laps.
"After the first lap, the race was gone. But it was all about not giving up, recovering," reflected Perez.
"This season, the luck hasn't been with us but I think today we won on merit."
A first win in any category for 10 years, and the first for a Mexican driver in F1 for half a century, Perez ended long waits all around with a very popular triumph. Now he faces what will be a short but nervy one to discover once and for all whether Red Bull will provide him with a lifeline to remain on the grid beyond next week's 2020 season finale.
