By Gustavo Castilho
Racing Poin’s Lance Stoll overturned his car and left the race. Romain Grosjean, from Haas, suffers from burns on his hands and is taken to hospital after a car fire.
The Bahrain GP had a spooky start. In an attempt to recover in the race, after starting from 19th place, Romain Grosjean, from Haas, touched Danil Kvyat’s AlphaTauri and hit a protective barrier after leaving the track. The impact was so intense that it caused an explosion. The fire spread through the Frenchman’s car, which split in two. Despite the violence of the crash and the fire, the pilot managed to get out of the vehicle alone. He burned his hands and was immediately taken to the hospital. The race had to be stopped with a red flag. A second scary restart, again with Danil Kvyat involved. Lance Stroll crashed the car on the front wheel of the AlphaTauri driver and ended up flipping with his Racing Point. Stroll came out unscathed.
The race ended with another victory by Lewis Hamilton, the 95th of his career. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen came in second. Alex Albon, also from Red Bull, completed the podium in third place. The Thai took the third position after an engine burst on Sérgio Pérez’s car, in an unfortunate race for Racing Point. Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas arrived in seventh place.
With one more stage completed, the dispute for the racers’ championship runner-up remains fierce. Second place left Verstappen only 12 points behind Bottas, who is second with 201 points. For the teams, the fight for third place keeps the engines roaring. McLaren reached 170 points and surpassed Racing Point to 154. Renault remains in fifth place with 144, followed by Ferrari with 131 points.
Formula 1 returns next Sunday at the Sakhir GP, also in the Middle East. This will be the penultimate race of the season.
