What a rollercoaster of a race! The season opener at Bahrain had it all, great racing, lots of action and controversy.

Practices and qualifying had been dominated by Red Bull's Max Verstappen and started the race as favorite for the win, but in the end it was won by Sir Lewis Hamilton in one of his better performances in a racing car, defending as he could from a very feisty Max Verstappen, who a few laps from the end was able to pass Hamilton for the lead and possible win but took a wide line at turn four, something Hamilton had done several times during the race until he was warned by Race Control not to continue, albeit many, many laps after. Nevertheless, Verstappen was asked to give the place back to Hamilton and that was it, he had used his tires and was not able to catch the Briton again. Hamilton crossed the finish line just 0.745 seconds ahead of Verstappen. Valtteri Bottas crossed the line in third, albeit 37.383 seconds behind Hamilton to claim third and final podium place.

Hamilton’s win was the 300th Grand Prix victory for a British driver, his 75th win for Mercedes, and took the all-time laps led record from Michael Schumacher, with 5,126.

Here are the best 100 images from that weekend in the desert: