Heartbreak for Leclerc as Hamilton wins in Bahrain

TIL Desk Sports/ Five-time world champion Lewis Hamilton took a lucky Bahrain Grand Prix win for Mercedes on Sunday after engine trouble in the dying stages denied Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc a first Formula One victory.

The luckless Leclerc had looked like becoming Ferrari’s youngest ever race winner, at 21, after starting on pole position and leading comfortably. Instead, the Monegasque ended up third.

Hamilton and teammate Valtteri Bottas, lapping far faster than the stricken Ferrari, reeled him in and breezed past to secure the team’s second one-two finish in as many races and against the odds.”That was extremely unfortunate for Charles,” said Hamilton after starting in third place and behind the Ferraris.

“He drove such a great race. We’ve got work to do to keep these guys off our tails,” added the Briton, who embraced Leclerc after they stepped out of their cars and offered commiserations. The race finished with the field following the safety car, deployed as marshals removed Daniel Ricciardo’s stranded Renault.