Clearly. Dry. Air +27C, rail +31C
Never before has the Bahrain Grand Prix been held so early. At the end of February, Sakhir did a three-day test and on March 5, the riders started the first race of the season. It was not as warm as late March – April, but the riders complained about the wind.
Not everyone could handle the new cars in a few days, the Bahrain circuit was not for everyone, but certain trends were already outlined during the tests and confirmed over the weekend.
The leaders remained the same – the Red Bull Racing cars were fast and reliable, in Ferrari they were quite behind. Everyone was impressed with Aston Martin’s progress, and Mercedes got rid of the build-up, but failed to reach the required speed and started the season even worse than a year ago, it openly admitted.
Lance Stroll broke his right wrist before testing started after falling off his bike during practice. He had an operation, he missed the tests, but he came to the Grand Prix and drove the car, using his left hand more.
Sergio Perez was fastest in first practice, Fernando Alonso in second and third and Max Verstappen won qualifying. Perez showed the second fastest time – Red Bull Racing cars occupied the entire front row of the grid. The two Ferraris started from second, while third was shared by Alonso and Russell. The arrangement behind it turned out to be very curious – in many teams, the partners started far from each other.
Pirelli brought a “hard” trio of compositions – an all new C1 and the usual C2 and C3 were used as Hard, Medium and Soft. In the race Magnussen started on Hard, the others chose Soft for the first stint.
On the warm-up lap, Stroll went off the track, but kept moving.
Verstappen kept the lead at the start, Leclerc was ahead of Perez, Hamilton overtook Russell and Alonso. Bottas moved up to eighth after gaining back four positions.
In turn four, Stroll crashed into Alonso from behind, both kept moving – the stewards noted the incident, but did not penalize anyone. Hulkenberg hit Okon’s car from behind and lost part of the front wing.
Top ten in round 2: Verstappen – Leclerc – Perez – Sainz – Hamilton – Russell – Alonso – Bottas – Stroll – Norris.
By lap 4, Gasly was ahead of Magnussen for 18th.
On lap 5, Ocon and Albon overtook Norris, who dropped to 12th.
On lap 6, Stroll overtook Bottas for eighth. De Vries overtook Magnussen.
On lap 7, Tsunoda passed Hulkenberg for 14th.
On lap 11 Gasly changed tyres, on lap 12 Norris and Tsunoda, on lap 13 Bottas, Elbon, Hulkenberg and de Vries, on lap 14 Hamilton, Ocon, Sargent and Zhou.
On lap 14, Alonso overtook Russell for fifth.
On lap 15, Leclerc, Sainz and Russell pitted while servicing George’s car, there was a hitch when changing the left rear wheel.
Piastri pulled into the pits, took the wheel out of the car, restarted the system, but Oskar was unable to continue and took off due to electrical problems.
On lap 16 Verstappen and Alonso swapped tyres, on lap 17 Stroll, Magnussen and Okon swapped tyres. Esteban was given a five-second penalty for a wrong position at the start, served it at the pit stop, but made a mistake – and was fined again for ten seconds.
On lap 19, Perez pitted.
Top ten in round 20: Verstappen – Leclerc – Perez – Sainz – Hamilton – Alonso – Russell – Bottas – Stroll – Albon.
On lap 20 there was a long breakdown during maintenance on Norris’ car, he returned to the track last.
On lap 21, Stroll overtook Bottas into the first corner for eighth.
On lap 25, Norris passed Ocon at turn four for 18th.
After getting soft tires at the pit stop, Pérez gradually closed the gap on Leclerc, who was riding hard – and on the 27th lap took the lead and moved up to second. Charles tried to counterattack but was left behind.
On lap 27 Gasly changed tyres, on lap 28 Albon, Tsunoda and Hulkenberg, on lap 29 de Vries and Norris.
On top of the two penalties already received, Okon received a third – five seconds for speeding in the pit lane.
On lap 31 Bottas and Magnussen pitted, on lap 32 Hamilton, Stroll and Sargent, on lap 33 Sainz and Russell, George dropped Lance and lost position.
On lap 34 Zhou changed tires, Okon pitted after serving a 15 second penalty before changing tires.
On lap 35 Leclerc made a pit stop, on lap 36 – Alonso and Perez, on lap 38 – Verstappen, who kept the lead.
On lap 38 Alonso attacked Hamilton but the car was pulled to the side and Lewis remained ahead. The Spaniard made several more attack attempts and on the 39th lap he took the lead in the battle for fifth place.
Top ten in round 40: Verstappen – Perez – Leclerc – Sainz – Alonso – Hamilton – Stroll – Russell – Bottas and Albon.
On lap 40, Norris changed tires.
On lap 42, Charles Leclerc retired the car in the third sector due to a power plant failure. The Race Directorate has announced a virtual safety car mode.
Albon, Gasley, Tsunoda, Sargent, Magnussen and Hulkenberg switched tires.
The reboot was announced almost immediately. Gasley beat Albon for ninth.
Top ten in round 43: Verstappen – Perez – Sainz – Alonso – Hamilton – Stroll – Russell – Bottas – Gasley – Albon.
On lap 44, Alpine decided to withdraw Okon from the race, he pitted and exited the car.
On lap 46, Sargent overtook de Vries for 13th.
Alonso attacked Sainz in the battle for third place. The riders almost collided, but eventually Fernando took the lead and moved up to third – and quickly broke away.
On lap 50, Norris changed tires.
Hulkenberg was shown a black and white flag for repeatedly violating the boundaries of the track, and a five-second penalty was given for the next violation.
Stroll went off the track in turn 10 but continued.
On lap 57, Zhou and Norris swapped tires.
==
Max Verstappen won the Bahrain Grand Prix with his 36th career victory. Sergio Perez finished second – the first race of the season ended with a double victory for Red Bull Racing. Fernando Alonso finished the race in third, taking the podium for the 99th time in his career.
Racing results
| Pilot | Team | Time | Speed | Pete |
| 1. M. Verstappen | Red Bull | 2 | ||
| 2. C. Perez | Red Bull | +11,987 | 2 | |
| 3. F. Alonso | Aston Martin | +38,637 | 2 | |
| 4.K Sainz | Ferrari | +48.052 | 2 | |
| 5. L Hamilton | Mercedes | +50,977 | 2 | |
| 6. L. Walk | Aston Martin | +54,502 | 2 | |
| 7.D Russell | Mercedes | +55,873 | 2 | |
| 8. V. Bottas | Alfa Romeo | +72,647 | 2 | |
| 9.P Gasly | Alps | +73,753 | 3 | |
| 10. A. Albon | Willems | +89,774 | 3 | |
| 11. Y. Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | +90,870 | 3 | |
| 12. L. Sargent | Willems | +1 circle | 3 | |
| 13. K. Magnussen | hare | +1 circle | 3 | |
| 14.N. deVries | AlphaTauri | +1 circle | 2 | |
| 15. N. Hulkenberg | hare | +1 circle | 3 | |
| 16.G Zhou | Alfa Romeo | +1 circle | 3 | |
| 17. L. Norris | McLaren | +2 rounds | 6 |
best round: Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo) – 1:33.996 (lap 57)
Reasons for leaving
| Pilot | Team | circles | Cause |
| O. Piastri | McLaren | 15 | electrician |
| Sh.Lecler | Ferrari | 40 | PowerPoint |
| E. okon | Alps | 43 | mechanical problems |
Championship position : Individual
Championship Position: Constructors’ Championship
| Team | Engine | Glasses | |
| = | 1 Oracle Red Bull Racing | Honda RBPT | 43 |
| = | 2. Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team | Mercedes | 23 |
| = | 3. Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula 1 Team | Mercedes | 16 |
| = | 4 Scuderia Ferrari | Ferrari | 12 |
| = | 5. Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN | Ferrari | 4 |
| = | 6 Alpine F1 team | Renault | 2 |
| = | 7Williams Racing | Mercedes | 1 |
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
