Here’s the thing about Formula 1’s unforgiving midfield: when the rain throws a curveball and hands you a golden opening, you have to nail every single detail. For Williams and Haas, a rare chance to snatch points during the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia went completely up in smoke after a stunning opening lap.
Carlos Sainz, Alex Albon, and Esteban Ocon played it brilliantly when the weather hit. While others floundered on slicks, Ocon and Haas opted for intermediates while splitting their cars, and Williams made the exact same optimum call for both of their drivers. What followed on the opening tour looked straight out of a video game. Sainz rocketed from 13th to P6, Albon vaulted from 18th to P7, and Ocon charged from 17th to P8. The Haas driver was absolutely flying, soon slicing past both FW48s to grab P6 for himself.
I was up to P6. It was really good. And then from the first time we boxed, we started moving rearwards... So 100% the start of the race, 0% at the end part of the race, of success.
Unfortunately, the dream lasted only as long as the damp track did. When the first Safety Car brought the field into the pit lane for slicks, Albon suffered on a double-stack behind his teammate and began bleeding positions while wrestling with brake issues. At the restart, Sainz got nudged into a spin at Turn 2 by Gabriel Bortoleto. As the cars on starting slicks finally woke up under the intervention, both Williams machines tumbled down the order. Sainz ultimately dragged his car home to P17 at the flag.
"We were having the race and doing everything right to score a point or two today," said Sainz. "But then the race went away from us, obviously with the touch with Gabi taking us off... It was dry from there on, and it's not like our pace was amazing. Our pit stops were also not good." To compound the misery, Albon didn’t even see the chequered flag, forced into a late retirement due to a gearbox problem.
Meanwhile, Ocon initially weathered the first Safety Car period much better, holding firm in P6 before yielding a place to Lewis Hamilton to run P7. But timing is everything, and an early second stop proved costly. Drivers who gambled on staying out longer reaped the rewards of a second Safety Car—triggered by Albon's stricken car—leaving the Haas driver tumbling down to P15 at the finish.
"We had a mega first lap on the inter, I was overtaking cars," Ocon said. "I was up to P6. It was really good. And then from the first time we boxed, we started moving rearwards... So 100% the start of the race, 0% at the end part of the race, of success."
