The season opener in Bahrain delivered all the thrill F1 fans had been longing for. After a long time, fans got to witness a proper battle for the win, with Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen giving it everything in a nail-biting finish. The former took the win and got a lot of plaudits for his immense drive.

Indeed, this was not his race to win. Yet he managed to do so by sheer virtue of his speed, talent, and expertise. The race in Bahrain demonstrated exactly why Lewis is the best in the business, and the Briton himself viewed it as a blessing in disguise.

Winning the race despite not having the fastest car on the grid, Hamilton certainly proved a lot of critics wrong. And the seven-time world champion hopes he can keep repeating these kinds of performances to shut his critics once and for all.

Speaking at the post-race press conference, the Mercedes man said, “I think today was definitely a blessing, perhaps in disguise. I think there’s always a chance, opportunities to prove people wrong, and I like to think that today is definitely one of them.

“But I think there have been several in the past – there have been many in the past, obviously, I’ve been around a long time – but I hope there are many opportunities in the future to be able to show what I was able to do today also.”

Lewis Hamilton thanks his lucky stars and knows he’ll have to dig deep in the future too

Verstappen had been gaining on Lewis and eventually passed him with a couple of laps to go at Turn 4. However, he was deemed to have done so having gone off the track. Thus, Max had to concede track position back to Lewis.

Speaking on the incident, Lewis knew he got a bit lucky there. He said, “Of course, we were fortunate today with Max going wide in Turn 4 but that won’t happen again.

“I’m pretty sure so we’ve got to do better, we’ve got to be smarter and how we navigate through our weekends with the fact that we don’t have the fastest car at the moment but that’s all good for me. I don’t mind having to pull out extra in order to make the difference.”

Verstappen wasn’t the happiest man to yield track position. However, he was far more accepting of the FIA’s orders after the race. Nevertheless, he’d see this as a missed opportunity to gain an advantage in the championship.

But things are far from done yet. For the first time since 2016, we may have a proper title challenge on our hands.

Also Read: Bahrain GP: Max Verstappen Highlights Silver Lining in Crushing Defeat To Hamilton