KartCMP1: "Uh oh"s and "Way to go"s from Bahrain

Let's have a look.

Max Verstappen gets first mention as he thumped the field in qualifying despite Lewis Hamilton's claims of a near perfect lap on his end. Ultimately it was another race where poor strategy from his team ("Uh Oh") would see him fall out of position for the majority of the race constantly chasing down a distant Hamilton. Verstappen once again delivered a spectacular drive and resilience, taking the fight to both Mercedes cars as has become a normal and a repeating theme during his time at Red Bull.

A spectacular qualifying performance would see the young Monegasque start fourth on the grid. Charles Leclerc went on to jump Valtteri Bottas on opening lap of the grand prix in his signature early race aggressive style. The SF21 would go on to show some race pace weakness, but overall a stand out performance.

One of the worst rookie showings to date.

Of the 41 available laps to make a direct comparison to his race winning teammate Lewis Hamilton, Bottas was faster 24 laps or 58.5% over Hamilton. That's an achievement in itself. Bottas had pace to win and was arguably the fastest car on Sunday, but a disastrous first lap which saw him concede third position to Leclerc regulated the Finn to a third at best finish. During his second pit stop his race was further compromised when his right front tire did not come off as expected resulting in a loss of eight full seconds to the leaders.

A terrible qualifying session compounded by a five place grid penalty for not acknowledging a double waved yellow. Lance Stroll was significantly faster during qualifying, and again throughout the race and worse yet, Stroll was faster than Sebastian Vettel on every possible comparable lap between pair with the exception of three laps. Vettel would go on to crash into the rear of Esteban Ocon and receive another penalty. One of his worst race weekends overall to date.

The Japanese rookie scoring points in his first race? Impressive.

Another poor representation of their duty in race control as the governing body of Formula 1, far too much involvement in the outcome of this race and a bizarre and inconsistent application of rules that change from week to week, session to session and even lap to lap depending who you ask.

The Bahrain Grand Prix Turn 4 disaster will not soon be forgotten.

A steady race, a forth place finish and 19 seconds up the road from seventh place finisher and very fast new teammate Daniel Ricciardo. Hmm, noted.

After having arguably the third fastest car in 2020 under the Racing Point banner, Aston Martin have gotten out of the gate slower than expected in 2021 looking about sixth fastest. The three day pre-season test in Bahrain highlighted a potential issue with reliability and overall performance of their 2021 challenger. While reliability was not a concern during the Bahrain Grand Prix, qualifying and race pace and performance was abysmal and did not meet off-season expectations.

Hamilton was pit on lap 13 and the sum of time Verstappen lost to Hamilton on lap 15 and 16 alone was 4.796 seconds. It was at this moment Red Bull realized they screwed up and called Verstappen in. Hamilton's execution of the undercut put Red Bull in a position to break from their strategy and force them to make a decision. It was a mistake that goes on to haunt them as by the time Verstappen is able to close the gap back to Hamilton, Mercedes pits Hamilton again.

Red Bull allowed a gap to form to Hamilton that became so severe it allowed Mercedes to run without any pressure during Hamilton's second stint. By the time Verstappen arrives to the rear of Hamilton its too late, and Mercedes immediately negate a potential under cut from Red Bull. It's at this moment it becomes clear that Red Bull had just allowed Hamilton to get to his second and final pit window without pressure of an undercut. Strategic mastery from Mercedes, supreme execution form Hamilton, absolutely brilliant. Hamilton would also go on to set the all time laps led record and record the 300th win for a British driver in F1.