Why the Safety Car Stayed Out for So Long at the End of the Bahrain Grand Prix

The closing stages of yesterday's Bahrain Grand Prix, held in Malaysia, were heavily disrupted by a prolonged Safety Car neutralization.

The intervention was triggered midway through lap 43 when Alex Albon pulled off at the exit of Turn 2 with a gearbox failure. The Thai driver came to a halt just meters away from an opening in the barrier, and with marshals initially expected to clear the car quickly, race control originally called for a Virtual Safety Car.

However, after more than two laps at a reduced pace, the full Safety Car was deployed when it became clear marshals required heavy recovery equipment. The machinery was needed because Albon's car was stuck in gear, and even the external neutral emergency release button failed to disengage the transmission.

The deployment of the Safety Car triggered standard protocols, including the instruction for lapped cars—Carlos Sainz, Gabriel Bortoleto, and Sergio Perez—to unlap themselves. The unlapping procedure began at the end of lap 47, with Sainz and Bortoleto immediately passing the leaders and the Safety Car. Perez, however, was stranded half a lap behind the pack, taking a full lap to catch up before finally passing the Safety Car at the start of lap 49.

Under the regulations, the race was scheduled to restart at the end of the following lap. However, right at the start of that tour, George Russell pulled over at the end of the main straight to retire from the race. With Russell's car also needing to be cleared away, the restart was postponed, and the Safety Car completed another tour before finally peeling into the pit lane at the end of lap 51 of 55.

As a result, Albon's retirement—despite occurring in an apparently accessible spot—sparked a chain reaction that led to an overall slow-speed neutralization lasting nearly eight laps.