Formula One driver-turned pundit and columnist David Coulthard didn’t hold back his hard-hitting questions after Lewis Hamilton won an enthralling Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday.

The Mercedes star ended up comfortably steering home to his first victory of the 2019 season following Charles Leclerc’s devastating loss of battery power in the latter stages.

Leclerc, during just his second race for Ferrari, dominated the weekend, but was cruelly denied a first ever Grand Prix win when his engine failed in the closing stages of the race.

Leclerc had a positive weekend on the whole, though, and it goes without saying that he out-performed his experienced teammate Sebastian Vettel in the Middle East all weekend long.

After his win, Hamilton was interviewed by ex-Williams, McLaren and Red Bull driver Coulthard, who claimed he has never been in the position Vettel finds himself in, with Leclerc pressuring his place as Ferrari’s main man.

The 2018 World Drivers’ Champion was quick to shut Coulthard down though, stating: “Did you not remember what happened in the last race?

"I don’t think you can say I’ve not been in that position.

"I have been in that position many times with Nico [Rosberg] and with Jenson [Button] and with Valtteri [Bottas].

“It is what it is,” Hamilton added.

“You just have to take the tough with the smooth. Of course there are weekends when you are not on it.

"[Bahrain] is one of my worst circuits. It doesn’t suit my drive style with the late-breaking and you have got all these long straights afterwards, so you don’t get the exits. It is really, really tricky with the tyres and the sand.”

The Brit will look to push forward in his bid to lift another World Championship when the F1 tour rolls into Shanghai, China later this month on a course where he finished in a lackadaisical fifth last season.

It was also a race to forget for rival Vettel, mind, as a collision with Max Verstappen helped Fernando Alonso overtake the German and left him finishing in eighth.