Luck shines on Hamilton

Five times world champion Lewis Hamilton took a lucky Bahrain Grand Prix win for Mercedes yesterday after engine trouble in the dying stages denied Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc a first Formula One victory. HRH the Crown Prince presented the race trophies to the winner, Lewis Hamilton from the Mercedes Petronas team, runner-up Valtteri Bottas from the Mercedes Petronas team, and third-placed Charles Leclerc from the Scuderia Ferrari team.

The luckless Leclerc had looked like becoming Ferrari’s youngest ever race winner, at 21, after starting on pole position and leading comfortably. Instead, the Monegasque ended up third. Hamilton and teammate Valtteri Bottas, lapping far faster than the stricken Ferrari, reeled him in and breezed past to secure the team’s second one-two finish in as many races and against the odds. “That was extremely unfortunate for Charles,” said Hamilton after starting in third place and behind the Ferraris.

“He drove such a great race. We’ve got work to do to keep these guys off our tails,” added the Briton, who embraced Leclerc after they stepped out of their cars and offered commiserations.

The race finished with the field following the safety car, deployed as marshals removed Daniel Ricciardo’s stranded Renault. “I was not expecting that result,” added Hamilton, who had complained earlier of feeling like a sitting duck with his fading tires. Hamilton’s win was the 74th of his career but first this season.

He is now 17 wins short of Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of 91. The Briton stayed second in the championship but is now just one point shy of overall leader Bottas, who won and scored the extra point for fastest lap in the season-opener in Australia two weeks ago. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said it was always a balance between performance and reliability.