With the 2023 season getting underway at the Bahrain International Circuit, a somewhat comical clip has resurfaced from the 2021 Bahrain Grand Prix, where Red Bull somewhat shot themselves in the foot.
The 2021 Bahrain GP was the first taste of Lewis Hamilton’s and Max Verstappen’s 2021 title battle, with the duo having enjoyed an incredible, yet highly controversial, fight for the first victory of the season.
Verstappen started the race on pole in what was the first message from Red Bull to Mercedes that they were going to be a threat in 2021, with the Germans having claimed the 2020 title with relative ease.
Verstappen led the opening stages of the race from Hamilton, before Mercedes pulled a successful undercut on the Austrians, which elevated the seven-time World Champion into the lead.
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Verstappen was back in the lead, though, when Hamilton pitted for his second stop, before the Brit once again regained the lead when the Dutchman made his second stop of the race.
The Dutchman quickly closed down Hamilton, though, in the closing stages, due to having fresher tyres.
It resulted in a great scrap in the final few laps of the race, with Verstappen having attempted a move around the outside of the Mercedes driver at Turn Four.
Verstappen made the move stick and got himself into the race lead, before being instructed to hand the lead back to Hamilton, due to having exceeded track limits whilst overtaking him.
Interestingly, track limits at Turn Four hadn’t really been looked into by the FIA during the race, with Hamilton having exceeded the limits 29 times during the race at that corner whilst behind Verstappen.
As a result, Red Bull complained about Hamilton during the race, which resulted in the governing body then taking a stricter approach to the track limits at that corner.
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What made the situation somewhat comical, is that had Red Bull not complained, then Verstappen’s move for the race lead may have been allowed to stand, although, the likelihood is that the FIA would’ve still forced Verstappen to give the place back.
A Twitter user by the name of Tonto shared the clip of Hamilton exceeding track limits at Turn Four, along with the fact that the FIA suddenly changed the rules mid-race.
“Craaazyyy that someone actually took the time to edit every single time Hamilton took T4 despite the fact that it was literally legal to do this all weekend until Red Bull complained mid-race and all of a sudden the FIA went back on their decision,” wrote the Twitter user.