Hamilton holds off Verstappen to win tense F1 season-opener

SAKHIR, Bahrain (AP) — Lewis Hamilton just managed to hold off Max Verstappen to win the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix and clinch the 96th F1 win of his career. The race was effectively decided when Verstappen overtook Hamilton but went too wide on a turn and off track limits. He was told by his team to give Hamilton the position back as he risked a time penalty. Verstappen still had a few laps to catch Hamilton and he almost did. He finished .74 seconds behind the Mercedes driver. Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas took third but was way behind the front two. Fernando Alonso failed to finish the race on his F1 comeback with Alpine.