A Mercedes 1-2, with Lewis Hamilton beating Valtteri Bottas, doesn’t sound like anything new, but Bahrain was all about Charles Leclerc.

He became Ferrari’s youngest-ever F1 pole winner on Saturday, and then looked set to win Sunday’s race – until his Ferrari’s engine lost a cylinder.

Despite the huge power loss, Leclerc clung on valiantly – giving up a 30s to Hamilton, and then Bottas passed him too. But he was saved by Renault’s double disaster with a couple of laps remaining, which meant the race ended under the safety car.

After the race, Leclerc took the punch on the chin , but admitted he might not have even finished the race without the safety car, as he was also struggling with his fuel level as the car was running so rich.

Hamilton admitted that Leclerc had the race won unt

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