Lewis Hamilton made the best decision of his Ferrari career during Bahrain GP as key exchange revealed

Lewis Hamilton secured his sixth podium of the 2026 Formula 1 season at the Bahrain Grand Prix - and it ended up being his own decision which sealed it.

The seven-time champion battled back from as low as 18th in the early stages to finish in third, having been one of several cars who were on dry tyres following the red flag restart. The race was won by Max Verstappen, with championship leader Kimi Antonelli finishing second.

On a Sepang circuit which has traditionally promoted overtaking, Hamilton quickly made his way through the field in a way which often hasn't been seen since the introduction of the 2026 regulations. And Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur admitted Hamilton's contribution to his podium wasn't just his driving.

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'We let him have the choice...' - Ferrari on Lewis Hamilton's Bahrain GP podium

One of the primary reasons behind Hamilton's push through the field was the fact that he opted to stay out on used soft tyres when the safety car was brought out following Valtteri Bottas' retirement on lap 9. At the time, he was 83 seconds behind leader Verstappen, who was on intermediates.

It seemed like a risk worth taking at the time; Hamilton was running 15th and would have dropped behind the likes of Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc had he pitted. Leclerc, unlike Hamilton, came in early for intermediates and abandoned his dry tyre strategy after suffering a broken front wing.

But at other circuits, staying out would have carried the risk of Hamilton's tyres going off, allowing the cars behind him on fresher rubber to capitalise and move ahead.

In the event, the exact opposite happened. Hamilton made use of his warmer yet used tyres to make his way relatively easily through the field, while Norris and Leclerc were both stuck in traffic.

His tyre management skills were such that he managed to stretch out his first stint in line with the other drivers, enabling him to pit on the same lap as Isack Hadjar - who he was battling for fourth.

Hamilton then overtook Hadjar on the final safety car restart to move up to third, with George Russell having retired before the restart after a power unit failure.

"We let him [have] the choice," Vasseur told F1TV post-race about Hamilton's initial decision to stay out. "At the end, in this situation, they are in the car. When we are telling him that we are ready, it's just to tell him that he can pit if he thinks that it's the right call.

"He did a very good race, very smooth strategy. He was able to do a mega long stint with a very good tyre management with the soft."

What Lewis Hamilton said after Bahrain GP podium

All in all, Hamilton's performance over the weekend will live long in the memory for F1 fans - particularly as he defied a straight line speed deficit on Saturday to qualify in second.

READ MORE: Lewis Hamilton's Bahrain GP qualifying lap just became even more impressive as new data emerges

Ferrari's race pace was such that, had the Grand Prix been ran without issue for both their drivers, Hamilton could potentially have challenged Max Verstappen for the win.

For that reason, Hamilton described the result as 'bittersweet' but added: "After the race got going and I managed to keep it on track - which, I'm telling you, was so, so hard - I didn't think that I'd be able to get back to third place. So I'm very, very grateful for that and very happy with it.

"Obviously we had the wrong call in the beginning, which was so difficult and I could see everyone just pulling away. I could see on the screen it was a minute down, and I thought that was kind of race over for us. But I just kept my head down. The guys did a great job with the pit stops - obviously lots of tyre changes and lots of chasing."