Verstappen Takes The Weekend Grand Slam as Red Bull Racing Goes 1-2 On The Podium.
Max Verstappen coasted to victory in the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday, laying down an ominous marker for the rest of the field in the opening race of this F1 season.
Teammate Sergio Perez completed yet another 1-2 finish, a repeat result of last season’s opening race. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz rounded out the podium in third.
Verstappen and Red Bull enjoyed one of the most commanding seasons ever last year, and the three-time world champion continued that utter dominance in Bahrain, albeit in a newly designed car, picking up as many points as possible in the drivers’ championship by also recording the fastest lap.
“Unbelievable, I think today went even better than expected,” Verstappen said after the race. “I think we had a lot of pace and it was just super enjoyable to drive today. We stayed out of trouble and it’s a great start of the year, it couldn’t have been better.”
“It was a special one today. These kind of days don’t happen that often where the car feels spot on, including the balance and feeling of the car and everything went really well. The start was good and then we also looked after the car really well, so it was an enjoyable race for me. We managed to find a good rhythm and pace on this track and the wind strength and direction helped me extract a bit more from the car. This is one of our strongest circuits and looking to Jeddah we know that the track there is very different, with a lot of high speed corners and less degradation. I am hoping we can bring the same performance to next week: it’s going to be a challenge but I am looking forward to it. We have to thank everyone at the factory who has contributed to a great start of the year. It is always a big challenge to build a new car and follow up such an unbelievable season, but I’m excited to kick things off this season with a win.”
Verstappen held off a challenge from Charles Leclerc on the first corner and simply coasted away from the rest of the field, opening up a 1.2 second gap by the start of the second lap.
Eventually, he finished more than 22 seconds ahead of Perez as he cruised clear of all the track position racing unfolding behind him.
Elsewhere on the circuit, podium finisher Carlos Sainz, capitalized on problems for both teammate Charles Leclerc and Mercedes’s George Russell.
Sainz had to battle past the sister Ferrari twice — before and after the first pit stop — with a pair of robust moves into the first turn while Leclerc suffered with a brake temperature imbalance between his front wheels, leaving him weak on the brakes.
Russell was easier pickings, with both Mercedes drivers hamstrung by overheating cars.
Sainz was quick enough to keep Perez honest in the middle of the race, but the Spaniard didn’t have a set of softs to go with the Red Bull Racing driver in the final stint, leaving him confined to third.
“It’s a solid start to the season and very good points for the team,” said Sainz post race. “I felt really good in the car all race long, being able to control the pace and doing good overtakes. I tried everything to manage the tyres on the last stint to try and attack Checo (Perez) at the end of the race, but they are still faster than us. However, I think we have a very good baseline to work on and we need to keep pushing to close the gap. On to Jeddah!”
Leclerc followed Sainz home in fourth after passing the limping Russell for the place with 10 laps to go, the Briton making a mistake and running off the road at turn 10 to make himself an easy pass.
Lando Norris survived a late pursuit from Lewis Hamilton to hold on for sixth place. Teammate Oscar Piastri finished eighth after being undercut by Hamilton at the stops.
Fernando Alonso took two points for ninth after a late second stop required him to charge past Zhou Guanyu and then teammate Lance Stroll, the Canadian backing him up in 10th in a remarkable recovery from the back of the pack after being spun around at the first turn.
Zhou finished a strong 11th for Sauber ahead of Kevin Magnussen and RB teammates Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda.
Ricciardo was ordered past Tsunoda in the final five laps — much to the frustration of the Japanese driver, who was within a second of Magnussen and attempting to size up a pass at the time of the instruction. Verstappen lapped all three of them shortly afterwards, breaking up the pursuit, and the Australian ran out of laps to try to break the Dane’s defenses, leaving the order fixed.
Alex Albon finished ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, whose top-10 start was undone at the first turn, where he damaged his front wing tipping Stroll into a spin on the apex. It forced the German into a first-lap unscheduled stop, from which his race never recovered.
The unhappy Alpine pair of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly trundled home 17th and 18th, spared the blushes of finishing last only by misfortune for others.
Valtteri Bottas toiled in the lower reaches of the midfield but had his race obliterated by a stuck left-front wheel at his second stop that held him stationary in his box for almost 60s.
Logan Sargeant finished two laps down after a steering wheel issue spat him off the road at Turn 4 on lap 10. He limped back to pit lane for an unplanned stop and steering wheel change and spent a lonely evening at the back of the pack thereafter.