SAKHIR: World champion Max Verstappen claimed his maiden season-opening victory and first at the Sakhir circuit on Sunday when he led Sergio Perez home in a dominant Red Bull one-two at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The defending double world champion led from start to finish, bar the pit stops, to establish himself as a strong favorite for a third consecutive drivers’ crown this year.
It was his first win in the Gulf state at the 10th attempt.
Behind the two Red Bulls, two-time champion Fernando Alonso continued to make light of his 41 years by storming his way to a rousing third place for Aston Martin in his first appearance with the team since succeeding the retired four-time champion Sebastian Vettel.
It was his record-increasing 356th race in Formula One in a career that started 22 years earlier, to the weekend, in Melbourne at the 2001 Australian Grand Prix.
Fellow Spaniard Carlos Sainz, who he passed in a late scrap for a podium finish, finished fourth in the second Ferrari ahead of seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes and Lance Stroll, racing in the second Aston Martin just weeks after cracking both wrists and breaking a toe in a pre-season cycling accident.
George Russell took seventh for Mercedes ahead of Valtteri Bottas of Alfa Romeo, Pierre Gasly of Alpine, who had started last, and Alex Albon who claimed a point for Williams finishing 10th.
Charles Leclerc, who won the race in 2022, failed to finish after engine failure on his Ferrari on the 41st lap.
“Thank you, guys,” said 25-year-old Verstappen. “It’s exactly the start we needed. I had a good start and first stint and then had a gap and just looked after the tires.”
Verstappen made a clean, quick start to pull clear as Leclerc passed Perez for second while, behind them, Stroll hit his Aston Martin team-mate Alonso, under braking at Turn Four.
Both Mercedes had good starts and passed Alonso, Hamilton climbing to fifth ahead of Russell in pursuit of Sainz as Verstappen opened up a commanding lead.
By lap five, he was four seconds clear as Leclerc kept Perez at bay.
Gasly began the pit stops on lap 10, switching his Alpine from softs to hards, followed quickly by Lando Norris and Yuki Tsunoda with tire degradation taking early effect.
Hamilton pitted from fifth on lap 13, prompting a classic scrap as Alonso battled past Russell to regain his original grid slot and climb to third when both Ferraris pitted. Russell followed.
Verstappen came in a lap later, switching to more softs and handing the lead to Perez, while luckless Australian rookie Oscar Piastri’s McLaren debut ended early with electrical problems.
The champion re-joined in second place and regained his lead on lap 18 when Perez pitted, elevating Leclerc to second until the Mexican passed him into Turn One on lap 26.
Hamilton pitted again on lap 31, for more hards, followed by Sainz and Russell, as the leaders prepared for their final stint while, at the back, a beleaguered Esteban Ocon of Alpine, hit with three time penalties for minor infringements, stopped again.
Perez and Verstappen then completed their second stops, the Dutchman re-joining with a 12-second lead.
Leclerc’s Ferrari lost power on the straight. He parked it safely, prompting a brief virtual safety car intervention, with 15 laps remaining, handing Red Bull the prospect of a cosy one-two, 23 seconds clear of third-placed Sainz in the second Ferrari.
“No, no, no,” wailed Leclerc. “Come on! What happened, guys? No power.”
All this left the two Spaniards scrapping for third, the old master squeezing through on lap 45 after the pair appeared to touch in a frantic and dramatic tussle ahead of the watching fifth man Hamilton.
Verstappen wins season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix as Alonso shines
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Verstappen wins season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix as Alonso shines
- The defending double world champion led from start to finish, bar the pit stops, to establish himself as a strong favorite for a third consecutive drivers’ crown this year
Teams on edge as F1 reset faces litmus test in Australia
- Formula One’s new era faces first test in Melbourne
MELBOURNE: Formula One’s new era starts at this weekend’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix, where teams will leap into the unknown and grapple with sweeping technical changes under race conditions for the first time.
F1 has simultaneously overhauled chassis and power unit regulations for the first time in decades, posing a challenge for drivers and engineers alike while raising concerns about the quality of racing.
With near-parity between electrical and combustion engines and cars running on 100 percent advanced sustainable fuel, drivers gained some insight into the changes during winter testing. But all are in the dark about how the reset will play out when going wheel-to-wheel on race-day.
“I’m certainly more comfortable now than I was a couple of months ago, with how to drive these cars and how to try and get the most out of them,” McLaren’s Oscar Piastri told reporters on Wednesday.
“But I think there’s still the saying of, ‘You don’t know what you don’t know.’”
Australian Piastri said McLaren thought they had the cars worked out two months ago, only to find they had “a whole bunch of stuff” they did not understand during winter testing.
With more power generated by electricity than last year’s engines, there is more emphasis on drivers needing to be tactical with energy deployment and regeneration.
The old drag reduction system has been replaced by a new overtake mode giving extra power for overtaking.
Four-time world champion Max Verstappen described the changes as “like Formula E on steroids” and “anti-racing.”
Formula One chief executive Stefano Domenicali defended them and assured fans there will still be plenty of thrills.
‘Unnatural’ driving
The changes may have different effects at different circuits, leaving all teams to learn on the fly, week by week.
Piastri said Sunday’s race at Albert Park would probably showcase the more “unnatural” parts of driving.
“You know, a lot more lift and coast, a lot more kind of just driving to maximize the power unit,” he said.
“You’ve got power units that are reducing in power down the straights at different points. And there’s a lot of unknowns, a lot of challenges in there.”
The new regulations raised hopes of a more open championship and the prospect of a disruptor team emerging to force change at the top.
But pre-season testing in Bahrain hinted at a familiar top four, with Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren all performing.
Audi team principal Jonathan Wheatley said the gap between the “best and the rest” might only widen.
“I think it’s going to be a very different year in terms of the competitiveness in the sport,” he told Reuters. “We’re already seeing the gap between the fastest teams and the slowest teams, but larger than it’s been in the last few years.”
Whatever the pecking order, F1 race tracks will be more crowded with the addition of the new Cadillac team although there may be more breathing room at Albert Park given Aston Martin’s pre-season troubles.
Despite the technical guidance of Adrian Newey, who joined from Red Bull, the Honda-powered team completed few laps during winter testing and have reliability problems.
The AMR26 cars will be in Australia — something of a relief for F1 management — but may only race for a few laps before retiring.
