2020 Sakhir Grand Prix

The 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix is a Grand Prix that took place at Bahrain, Sakhir 1 week after the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix.

The race was won by Sergio Pérez of Racing Point, who took his first Formula One victory and Racing Point's only win as a constructor. Esteban Ocon finished second for the Renault team to claim his first podium in Formula One, while Pérez's teammate Lance Stroll finished third, giving Racing Point their only double podium finish as a constructor. Pérez became the first Mexican Formula One driver to win a race since Pedro Rodríguez won the 1970 Belgian Grand Prix. Racing Point became the first British constructor to win a race since Lotus F1 at the 2013 Australian Grand Prix. Recovering from a first-lap spin, Pérez won having inherited the lead on lap 64 of the race after longtime race leader George Russell fell foul of a pitstop error when Mercedes brought in both of their drivers under the Safety Car which was deployed on lap 62 after Jack Aitken who was substituting for him at Williams for this weekend spun and slammed into the wall on the main straight on the previous lap lap 61 which broke his front wing off and left debris on the circuit which initially forced the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) to be deployed so that the marshals could remove the debris safely, but on the following lap after the VSC had been deployed for roughly a minute, because a convenient gap in the on-circuit traffic could not be found in order to allow the marshals to come out onto the circuit to in order to remove the debris safely the Virtual Safety Car was then upgraded to a full Safety Car in order to create a convenient gap in the on-circuit traffic to allow the marshals to remove the debris safely before he then suffered a late puncture.

With his win Perez also became the 1st ever Formula 1 driver to win a world championship grand prix after running in last place at the end of the opening lap of a world championship grand prix.

Also as the race lasted for 87 laps the event had the highest lap count of a world championship grand prix since the Australian Grand Prix in 1995 which lasted for 81 laps.

Russell drove for Mercedes at this event rather than for his usual team Williams because he substituted for World Champion Lewis Hamilton who was ruled out of the event 4 days before the event started because he was legally required to self-isolate for 7 days after he tested positive for COVID-19 just 1 day after he won the Bahrain Grand Prix on the previous day.

The race also had 1 other Safety Car deployment which lasted from lap 1 to lap 6 after Charles Leclerc collided with Sergio Pérez as he tried to pass him at turn 4 and Max Verstappen then went off and slammed into the wall as he tried to avoid the damaged Ferrari and 1 other Virtual Safety Car (VSC) deployment which lasted for 90 seconds after it was deployed on lap 54 after Nicholas Latifi suffered electrical problems and stopped his car by a access road on the straight after turn 9 and ended on lap 55.

Because of his enforced absence from this event after he tested positive for COVID-19, this was the first race without Lewis Hamilton since the 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix and it was also the first race without Romain Grosjean since the 2012 Italian Grand Prix after he suffered severe burns to his hands and feet in a massive crash on the opening lap of the Bahrain Grand Prix which took place 7 days earlier when he collided with Daniil Kvyat as he tried to pass him coming out of turn 3 and he slammed heavily into the wall and the force of the impact with the armco barrier severed the barrier and tore his car in half before it then caught fire which forced the race to be red flagged for 81 minutes.

Because of his injuries which also ruled him out of the season-closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on the following weekend Haas's reserve driver Pietro Fittipaldi substituted for him at both this event and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix thus this meant that the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix would turn out to be his final Formula One Grand Prix before he announced his retirement from Formula 1 as he moved to compete in the IndyCar Series from 2021 onwards initially on a partial schedule for Dale Coyne Racing which excluded the oval events because of the negative memories of his massive crash at the Bahrain Grand Prix in 2020 which left him with severe burns to his hands and feet.

By substituting for the injured Grosjean at Haas for this event Pietro Fittipaldi became the fifth different member of his family to have started a world championship Formula One Grand Prix after his maternal grandfather and 2 time Formula 1 world champion Emerson Fittipaldi, his great-uncle Wilson Fittipaldi (Emerson's brother), his second cousin Christian Fittipaldi (Wilson's son) and his uncle Max Papis (Emerson's son-in-law because he is married to his youngest daughter from his first marriage Tatiana).

At this event Russell's Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas who took pole position at this event with a time of 53.377 seconds broke the record for the fastest ever pole position lap time at any world championship grand prix in Formula 1 which was previously held by Niki Lauda at the French Grand Prix in 1974 when he took pole position at that event with a time of 58.79 seconds.

This marked only the 2nd time in Formula 1 history since the Formula 1 World Championship started in 1950 that a driver took pole position for a world championship grand prix with a lap time of less than 1 minute.

 Qualifying classification 
DriverConstructorQ1Q2Q3177 Valtteri BottasMercedes0:53.9040:53.8030:53.3771263 George RussellMercedes0:54.1600:53.8190:53.4032333 Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing-Honda0:54.0370:53.6470:53.4333416 Charles LeclercFerrari0:54.2490:53.8250:53.6134511 Sergio Pérez0:54.2360:53.7870:53.7905626 Daniil KvyatAlphaTauri-Honda0:54.3460:53.8560:53.906673 Daniel RicciardoRenault0:54.3880:53.8710:53.9577855 Carlos Sainz Jr.McLaren-Renault0:54.4500:53.8180:54.0108910 Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri-Honda0:54.2070:53.9410:54.15491018 Lance Stroll0:54.5950:53.8400:54.200101131 Esteban OconRenault0:54.3090:53.995N/A111223 Alex AlbonRed Bull Racing-Honda0:54.6200:54.026N/A12135 Sebastian VettelFerrari0:54.3010:54.175N/A131499Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari0:54.5230:54.377N/A14154 Lando NorrisMcLaren-Renault0:54.1940:54.693N/A191620 Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari0:54.705N/AN/A15176 Nicholas LatifiWilliams-Mercedes0:54.796N/AN/A161889 Jack AitkenWilliams-Mercedes0:54.892N/AN/A17197 Kimi RäikkönenAlfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari0:54.963N/AN/A182051 Pietro FittipaldiHaas-Ferrari0:55.426N/AN/A20107% time: 0:57.677Source:

 Race classification 

DriverConstructorTime/RetiredPoints111 Sergio Pérez871:31:15.114525231 Esteban OconRenault87+10.5181118318 Lance Stroll87+11.8691015455 Carlos Sainz Jr.McLaren-Renault87+12.58081253 Daniel RicciardoRenault87+13.330710623 Alex AlbonRed Bull Racing-Honda87+13.842128726 Daniil KvyatAlphaTauri-Honda87+14.53466877 Valtteri BottasMercedes87+15.38914963 George RussellMercedes87+18.55623104 Lando NorrisMcLaren-Renault87+19.5411911110 Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri-Honda87+20.5279125 Sebastian VettelFerrari87+22.611131399Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari87+24.11114147 Kimi RäikkönenAlfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari87+26.153181520 Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari87+32.370151689 Jack AitkenWilliams-Mercedes87+33.674171751 Pietro FittipaldiHaas-Ferrari87+36.85820 Ret6 Nicholas LatifiWilliams-Mercedes52Oil leak16 Ret33 Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing-Honda0Accident3 Ret16 Charles LeclercFerrari0Collision4Fastest lap:  George Russell (Mercedes) – 0:55.404 (lap 80)Source:
 Notes:
 – Includes one point for fastest lap.

 References 

 Notes 

Category:Formula One Grands Prix
Category:2020 in sports
Category:2020s in motorsport