Lewis Hamilton found something special to hold out Verstappen. Photo / Done Kennedy
Fans of F1 have got what they wanted, as Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen battled it out in the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.
And it was defending world champion Hamilton who came out on top after an enthralling battle during which Verstappen ran wide and exceeded the track limits as he overtook Hamilton, with three laps to go. Having to give the lead back, Verstappen's tyres started to give way and in the end he managed to clutch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Verstappen's Red Bull had dominated practice, taken pole position from Hamilton by nearly four-10ths of a second, and had led the race until the first round of pit-stops and generally had the fastest car.
The record books, however, will show it was yet another Hamilton victory, his 96th, and gives him the perfect start towards claiming an eighth Drivers' title that will put him in a league of his own (if he isn't already there). But despite Verstappen's narrow loss, the performance of the Red Bull will give that team hope that Mercedes will not run away with another championship.
Exceeding the track limit was something the FIA was rather inconsistent about. It was only during the race that technical director Michael Masi began to warn drivers about going over the track limit at Turn 4 in particular. Hamilton himself got such a warning, after he had done so 29 times - which means every second lap - and it was at that corner with three laps to go that Verstappen attacked Hamilton and got past him but then Verstappen's team told him immediately to give the place back, which he did.
A few corners later he had understeer and took the remaining life out of his tyres.
So how was it that Hamilton could exceed the track limits 29 times, yet when Verstappen did it when overtaking him,he had to give the lead back, effectively being penalised by losing the race?
Masi explained that Verstappen wasn't told to give the place back because he had exceeded track limits. Rather, it was because he had gained a lasting advantage by passing another car while off the track, even though that other car forced him wide. It seems although Hamilton repeatedly exceeded track limits, the FIA don't see that as gaining an advantage. Which seems nonsense, because the reason a driver will exceed the track limits is because they want to take the corner faster.
Hamilton was understandably ecstatic to win the race, having thought after qualifying that it might be difficult to do so.
"I'm so proud of what Formula 1 has been able to do to have us start on a normal schedule this year. And wow, what a difficult race that was," Hamilton exclaimed.
"Definitely stopping early we knew was going to be difficult, but we had to cover Max. They've had amazing performances all weekend, so it was going to take something pretty special.
"We suffered that last stint and tried to find the balance between not pushing too much and having tyres left at the end of the race. It was difficult and Max was all over me at the end. But I just, 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."
Hamilton believes he is currently at his peak but added that "we love the challenge, I love the challenge, I still love what I do."
He also had a few words for the critics that suggest he is only winning because he has the best car, as qualifying suggested Red Bull may be quicker.
"There are always opportunities to prove people wrong and today is definitely one of them," he added. "We don't have the fastest car at the moment, that's all good for me. I don't mind having to pull out extra in order to make the difference," he said, pouring salt onto the wounds of Verstappen.
"It's one race, we don't know what the future holds. With the pace they have they could be ahead a lot more but we are going to work as hard as we can to stay close in this battle and I hope for a lot more races with Max. It's a long way to go, 22 races. Holy crap, I will be grey by the end of it."
If Red Bull don't improve on their race strategy, though, chances are Verstappen will go grey before Hamilton does. The team made a huge mistake to allow Hamilton to undercut Verstappen at the first pit stop.
While Verstappen didn't criticise his team for its race strategy as such, he did lament the team asking him to give the lead back to Hamilton, suggesting it would have been better to ignore it and incur a five-second time penalty, because he was confident once past Hamilton, that he could negate such a penalty.
"Why didn't you let me go? I could have easily got the five seconds," he told his team. "I prefer to lose like that than to be second like this," he said over the team radio.
After the race he was still concerned about losing track position.
"They [Mercedes] undercut us so we were just sticking to our strategy, which I think was working fine, but the problem is these cars are so hard to pass," he noted.
"Once you have that track position it showed me again today that it's just super-powerful. As soon as I got close I had that one shot because Lewis got held up a bit with a backmarker, and I went outside of the track. I of course then gave the position back, tried again, but my tyres were not in a good state anymore to really put the pressure on, so that was a shame."
Third place went to Valtteri Bottas but the Finn was never really in the hunt for victory, not helped by a slow pitstop. He was critical of his team's strategy, indicating they were "more passive rather than aggressive" because he "wanted to stay out longer in the middle stint on fresher tyres.'
But then he indicated that it probably wouldn't have made much difference in the end.
"If you had told us after winter testing that we would have got more points than Red Bull today we would have taken it."
The reason for that is Sergio Perez, in the other Red Bull, came to a halt on the way to the formation grid and had to start from the pit lane once he got the car re-started. From there he still managed to finish fifth, just behind McLaren driver Lando Norris.
The other McLaren driven by Daniel Ricciardo came seventh, so it was a good start for the team that looks to be the third quickest, although Ferrari has made gains, as Charles Leclerc was sixth and Carlos Sainz came eighth.
Hamilton aside, it was not a good day for former world champions. Kimi Raikkonen was 11th in the Alfa Romeo, while Sebastian Vettel incurred two penalties, one after qualifying for ignoring a double waved yellow flag, and a time penalty in the race after rear-ending the Alpine of Esteban Ocon at the end of the main straight. Fernando Alonso, in the other Apline, qualified relatively high in ninth place and was running 10th when he had to retire from the race with brake problems.
Of the rookies, Yuki Tsunoda did best, finishing ninth, while Mick Schumacher finished last of those who finished the race, after a spin in the Haas.
His teammate Nikita Mazepin feared much worse, going off into the barrier at the first corner. It may not have been his fault as he was able to blame a brake by wire issue for causing two spins during qualifying. Whatever the cause of the race spin, Mazepin has unfortunately been nicknamed "Mazespin" on social media.
The second race on the 23-race schedule is the Emilia Romagna GP at the Imola circuit in San Marino. That gives Mercedes three weeks to close the "tiny edge in front of us" that Mercedes boss Toto Wolff claims Red Bull has, while claiming that "it was just the good Gods with us" that led to their 1-3 finish in Bahrain.
As a season opener, the Bahrain race delivered in terms of providing excitement and intrigue, but it didn't provide a different winner, as Hamilton has now won the race for the last three years. He will say he won it rather than Verstappen losing it, but the latter may struggle to see it that way.
Kiwi F1 fans will have taken special pleasure of seeing Liam Lawson win his first start in an F2 race in Bahrain. Lawson has been part of the Red Bull young driver programme for a number of years, and after winning races in F3 his graduation to F2 has started in spectacular fashion. His goal is F1, and at this rate the 19-year old is well on his way to meeting that goal.