Lewis Hamilton controlled the Bahrain Grand Prix to claim his fifth consecutive win, from Max Verstappen in a race which was overshadowed by Romain Grosjean who suffered a horrific crash, which saw his Haas catch fire before being engulfed into the barrier.
Grosjean made contact with the AlphaTauri of Daniil Kvyat and found himself soaring headfirst towards the barrier at turn 3, his Haas car split into two and caught fire instantly with the front of the car being engulfed in the barrier.
Marshalls, as well as the medical car staff, instantly ran towards the incident as they tried to help Grosjean get out of the car as soon as possible.
Grosjean was able to climb out of the incident within 18 seconds with the help of medical doctor Ian Roberts and a marshal who was spraying the extinguisher towards the incident.
The survival cell is the only aspect of the car that survived the impact of the collision, as well as Grosjean, the halo had a huge impact in saving the life of Grosjean who is currently at the local hospital after supposedly picking up minor burns on his arms and feet as few as a few broken ribs.
This incident caused a red flag, as the FIA had to rebuild the barrier that was now split in half.
The incident occurred just three corners into the Grand Prix, and as the race looked to get restarted, they took the grid from the second safety car line.
Bottas lost second place as Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez pounded on what was a poor start by the Finn, a number of other drivers upon the second restart lost and gained positions after the run down to turn one on the official race start.
The race got back underway just over an hour since the incident had occurred, Hamilton was had no challengers down into turn one yet again as Perez looked to of got the jump on Verstappen before the Dutchman was later on the breaks squeezing the Mexican out on the exit of turn one.
Just seven corners later the safety car was brought out as Kvyat flipped Lance Stroll’s Racing Point upside down, ending the Canadians’ afternoon of racing.
Hamilton, who was faultless all afternoon was unfazed by the restart and was able to pull clear of Verstappen despite his best efforts of attempting an undercut to put the Brit under some pressure.
Verstappen came closes to mounting some pressure on Lap 34 where the dutchman looked to undercut Hamilton but efforts were cut short when Red Bull had a slow stop, Hamilton was able to pit next lap coming out easily ahead of his competitor.
Sergio Perez had a quiet afternoon until the dying embers of the race when his Racing Point caught fire three laps from the chequered flag gifting Alexander Albon his second podium at Red Bull.
Racing Point suffered a huge blow in their bid to secure third place in the constructors as both cars failed to finish the race compared to the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz who took fourth and fifth, giving the Woking-based team some breathing room in the battle for third with Racing Point and Renault.
Pierre Gasly was able to claim sixth place for AlphaTauri ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas with some help from a late safety car which meant the Frenchman was able to pull off a successful one-stop strategy despite the two behind looking certain to overtake in the coming laps.
Bottas lost a whole host of positions when he was forced to pit in the early stages with a puncture under the safety car, the Finn went on to pick up another puncture with a few laps to go in the race, luckily enough the grid was following the safety car.
Esteban Ocon claimed another points finish for Renault in ninth despite a strong start to the race, Charles Leclerc claimed the final point on offer in 10th for Ferrari in what was a hard weekend for the Italian team.
By Cameron Anderson-Jones
