At the next round in Bahrain, Mercedes did not top any of the timing sheets in the free practice sessions and both cars qualified on the second row behind both Ferraris, with Hamilton in third and Bottas in fourth. On race day, Vettel won the start ahead of Bottas who got past the struggling polesitter Leclerc and Hamilton. However, Bottas made a mistake on his second lap which dropped him behind Leclerc and Hamilton once more. During the first round of pitstops, Hamilton got the jump on Vettel after a well executed undercut. Yet, the German managed to overtake Hamilton soon after due to suffering from a lack of grip on his soft tyres. Hamilton became much more competitive after fitting on the medium tyres during his second stop. Subsequently, the Briton overtook Vettel on the outside of turn 4 on lap 38. Meanwhile, Vettel got caught out by the overtake and spun on his own. He was forced to pit which allowed Bottas into P3. More misfortune hit Ferrari a couple of laps later as Leclerc reported an engine issue with his car. Both Mercedes drivers overtook his wounded Ferrari and Hamilton led home a surprising second consecutive 1–2 finish for Mercedes.