A race marked by flames and a catastrophic collision, it was a crazy Bahrain GP

Not only Formula 1 fans were certainly shocked at the sight of Romain Grosjean’s car colliding with the car, which subsequently spent several terrifying seconds in flames. But there was a lot more going on in Bahrain, as it wasn’t the only fire on the track!

The Bahrain International Circuit has been known to the Formula 1 world since 2004, when it was first run on this circuit. However, Sunday’s race will undoubtedly go down in history, mainly because of Romain Grosjean’s horrific accident.

Sergio Pérez noted before Sunday’s race that in his opinion, the qualifying order does not carry the desired weight for several reasons. Mercedes took the front row for themselves, Red Bulls the second, with the aforementioned Sergio Pérez starting fifth. Behind him on the grid were the two Renaults and Lando Norris started in ninth position between the two Alpha Tauri cars.

However, on the very first lap, the TV viewers were treated to a terrifying moment. Romain Grosjean failed to see Daniil Kvyat driving alongside him, contact was made and the French driver crashed into the barriers at around 200km/h. His Haas was literally torn apart by the force of the impact, and even worse – his formula started a massive fire!

One hundred litres of fuel suddenly burst into flames and Grosjean had only a few moments to get away from the fire, which he thankfully managed. We can also talk about luck in relation to Romain’s health. According to the latest information, it doesn’t look like any fractures, the pilot suffered only light burns on his limbs and his ribs are bruised.

Let’s wish him a speedy recovery. The race was brought to a screeching halt at that point with the use of red flags. We had to wait almost an hour to restart the race due to repairs and clearing dirt from the course.

This was done from fixed positions in the order the drivers pitted after the race was stopped. The top ten looked like this – Hamilton, Verstappen, Pérez, Bottas, Albon, Ricciardo, Norris, Ocon, Gasly, Vettel.

Bottas got off to a very bad start. The Finnish driver not only lost his second position in the bowels of the Mercedes, he also apparently ran into a wing fragment of one of the other cars and pitted later for a potential tyre puncture.

Shortly after the restart we witnessed another collision. Daniil Kvyat was there again, catapulting Racing Point’s Lance Stroll into the air. His car spun on the roof and the Canadian driver had a very difficult time getting out.

During the race, Kvyat’s misconduct was punished with a ten-second penalty. A somewhat interesting fact at this point was that we didn’t see a complete lap in an hour and a half, as the Safety Car came out on the track.

It finished its work on the track on the eighth lap and the race was finally on. Thanks to the condensed midfield, there were some beautiful and fierce battles on the circuit. Carlos Sainz bravely overcame Ricciardo, while Norris handled Esteban Ocon with aplomb.

Charles Leclerc and the Spaniard Sainz had a fierce battle. It was Leclerc who was taken out by Ricciardo in the Renault. The sad story of the Ferrari simply has no end, a very frustrated Sebastian Vettel was on the radio, literally saying that the car was completely undrivable.

Great race pace was shown by the McLarens. Lando Norris moved up to fifth place in the following laps, while his teammate Sainz again had no more trouble in the interplay with the two Renaults.

After half of the race, the order of the top ten was as follows: Hamilton, Verstappen, Pérez, Albon, Gasly, Norris, Sainz, Ricciardo, Ocon, Bottas.

Pierre Gasly dropped two places down the order. On his old tyres he had lost almost all grip, and it was Norris and Sainz who passed him without much trouble.

Sergio Pérez went for his second podium in a row, only to have power unit problems at his Racing Point with two laps to go. The whole situation subsequently escalated with a fire at the rear of his formula and the Mexican was forced to retire his car immediately!

These last two laps were completed behind the Safety Car. The other Racing Point car didn’t finish the race either – the aforementioned Pérez also retired after Stroll. Grosjean’s teammate Kevin Magnussen did finish the race, but in 17th place ahead of both Alfa Romeo cars.

The nightmare continues for Ferrari, with Vettel crossing the line in 13th position and Leclerc finishing 10th with just a single point. George Russell in the Williams, on the other hand, came through for a nice result.

Valtteri Bottas was unlucky to finish the race in eighth place, at least squeezing in between the Ricciardo – Ocon pairing in the Renault. The Mclaren drivers scored a great result and very important points. Norris can rejoice in fourth place, Carlos Sainz in fifth.

For the first time in the season we also saw both Red Bull drivers side by side on the podium. Alex Albon moved up to third place thanks to Pérez’s retirement, with Verstappen in second. It was the young Dutchman in the service of Red Bull who pointed out in his post-race interview that second place is the best he can currently achieve.

Needless to say, Alex Albon, who is still fighting for a place in the Austrian team for next season, was very happy with his result. Lewis Hamilton clearly dominated the race and deservedly won the Bahrain Grand Prix.

“I had a great start, we had a perfect strategy and thanks to this honest work we got a result like today,” said Lewis Hamilton in an interview. The British driver also answered a question about the start of the Grand Prix itself.

“It was very shocking to see this, it’s at this moment that you realise what a dangerous sport Formula 1 is and you have to respect that fact. We have to be extremely grateful to the Halo system. It is certain that this whole thing will be investigated and there is a lot of work to be done by everyone around here.”

On this point, we can’t help but agree with Hamilton. Drivers very often push to the very limit and it is fair to say that Grosjean’s Halo system saved his life today.

Sources: F1 Live, twitter.com