MOTORSPORT: Perez wins, Mercedes stuffs Sakhir F1

Veteran Sergio Perez has capitalised on uncharacteristic pit stop confusion at Mercedes-AMG to claim his first Formula 1 victory under lights in Bahrain.

The young Englishman George Russell appeared set to claim his first win subbing in for coronavirus quarantining world champion Lewis Hamilton, but could not overcome both the botched stop and a puncture and came home ninth.

He had to settle for his first F1 points, including one for fastest lap.

‘Checo’, driving for the second last time for Racing Point-Mercedes, cut through the field from last place after being tipped into a spin by the locked up Ferrari of Charles Leclerc on the first lap.

Sadly, the Frenchman was out on the spot with suspension damage after qualifying a brilliant fourth.

Even worse, Red Bull-Honda’s Max Verstappen, a bona fide contender for the race win, ended up in the wall trying to avoid the incident. 

Russell, promoted from backmarker Williams-Mercedes for the Sakhir Grand Prix on the Bahrain circuit’s 3.5km outer-loop track, had qualified second behind teammate Valterri Bottas, took the lead at the first corner and led confidently until the team accidentally put Bottas’ front tyres on his car at his second pit stop on lap 62 of 87.

At the same stop during a safety car period that erased a comfortable Mercedes 1-2, Bottas ended up being sent back out on the hard tyres he had arrived on.

“We had a radio problem, which meant we didn’t have the right tyres in the box. Which is why George exited with the wrong tyres and Valtteri left the pits on the same tyres he’d arrived with,” revealed team boss Toto Wolff. 

“Then we had to pit George again to correct the mistake. By then, the race was not lost and he battled back in an impressive way; but then he had the slow puncture and that dropped him back.

“It was heart-breaking for George after a monumental drive in his first race with Mercedes and he should have won.”

Post-race the FIA rubbed salt into the wound with a €20,000 ($A32,630) fine for the team.

After Russell pitted for the right tyres he was fifth behind Bottas at the restart. But while the Finn went backwards on his aged tyres, Russell charged forward and was within two seconds of Perez when he was forced to pit again.

Russell rejoined 15th and finished ninth, immediately behind Bottas. As an audition to replace him as Hamilton’s teammate in 2022, it was a pretty impressive effort.

Russell will stay in the Mercedes for next week’s final race in Abu Dhabi if Hamilton again tests positive, or will revert to his Williams if he is negative.

Perez was also advertising his talents most impressively to the Red Bull team which is tossing up between signing him or sticking with Alex Albon as Verstappen’s teammate. The Thai driver managed a sixth-place finish.

Still only 30, Perez took a record 190 race starts to record his first win. He is being replaced at Racing Point by Sebastian Vettel in 2021, as the team morphs into Aston Martin Racing.

The result comes just a week after he lost a third-place finish in the Bahrain GP because of an engine failure.

“I’m speechless,” the Mexican said. “I hope I’m not dreaming, because I’ve dreamt for so many years of being in this moment, 10 years it took me – incredible.

“I think we won today on merit. The Mercedes had some issues, but I think in the end my pace was strong enough to hold George, who did a fantastic race today.”

Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo finished the race fifth in his Renault. He qualified seventh and was running fourth early only to have the timing of two pits stops backfire. He dropped back as far as eighth.

Esteban Ocon outshone Ricciardo for once with second place, while Perez’s teammate Lance Stroll was third.

McLaren-Renault’s Carlos Sainz, who was comfortably in third for many laps, was also hurt by a bad pit stop call and dropped back as far as seventh before finishing fourth.

The 1-3 result has delivered Racing Point the advantage in the fight for third in the constructors’ championship, 10 points ahead of McLaren and 22 points ahead of Renault.

Perez also has a 13-point advantage over Ricciardo in the battle for fourth in the drivers’ standings.

Bottas’ poor results also mean Verstappen still has a small chance of snatching second in the championship next weekend.