Bahrain Grand Prix: Verstappen – Perez – Sainz

Clearly. Dry. Air +18С, highway +24…22С

The last season ended at the end of November, it seemed that winter would last a long time, but no – it is already spring and the first race of the new season. New Year’s holidays, news of Hamilton’s transfer to Ferrari, Steiner’s dismissal and Horner’s romance brightened the anticipation, time flew by quickly. The first race of the new season took place on March 2, which will last until almost mid-December.

The balance of power remained virtually unchanged, but almost everyone except Alpine closed the gap with Red Bull Racing. Two teams, AlphaTauri and Alfa Romeo, changed their names. Now it’s RB and Sauber with a plethora of title partners and sponsors.

The race weekend was moved a day earlier so that there would be at least a week between stages and to allow time to complete the first two Grand Prix before Ramadan. The race took place on Saturday.

In training on Thursday, Ricciardo and Hamilton were in the lead, on Friday afternoon Sainz showed the best time and Verstappen won qualifying.

On the formation lap, Ricciardo seriously blocked his tires, Norris and Hamilton drove off the track, but without consequences for the cars.

Pirelli brought three tough compounds to the podium: C1, C2 and C3 in the Hard, Medium and Soft roles. For the first part of the race everyone chose Soft.

Verstappen retained his lead at the start. Hulkenberg got off to a bad start and caught Stroll in the first corner. Perez stayed ahead of Sainz in the battle for fourth place. Bottas let the Alpine drivers pass. Hulkenberg went to the pits to replace the front wing – and switched to Hard.

On lap 3, Russell overtook Leclerc for second place. Norris was ahead of Alonso.

Top ten in round 4: Verstappen – Russell – Leclerc – Perez – Sainz – Norris – Alonso – Piastri – Hamilton – Tsunoda.

On lap 5, Piastri overtook Alonso.

In seventh place, Magnussen passed Zhou for twelfth, and Perez beat Leclerc, who made a mistake, for third.

On lap 9, Hamilton passed Alonso for eighth place.

On the 10th lap, Sargent stopped the car in the safety zone in turn four, but after a break he continued driving. Zhou and Stroll turned into the pits.

On lap 11, Sainz overtook Leclerc for fourth place. Ocon, Russell, Leclerc and Sargent changed their tires.

On lap 12, Magnussen, Perez, Piastri, Hamilton, Gasly and Bottas made a pit stop. In 14th place are Norris and Ricciardo.

On lap 15, Perez passed Russell for sixth place. Sainz and Tsunoda swapped tires.

Hamilton complained about the loss of power from the hybrid part of the power plant, Leclerc complained about the constant blocking of the tires.

On lap 16, Alonso and Albon made a pit stop.

On the 17th lap, Sainz was again ahead of Leclerc in the battle for fourth place.

On lap 18, Verstappen changed tires and retained the lead. Sainz beat Russell for third place.

Everyone switched to Hard.

Top ten in round 19: Verstappen – Perez – Sainz – Russell – Leclerc – Norris – Piastri – Hamilton – Alonso – Zhou.

On lap 21 Hulkenberg made his second pit stop.

On lap 22, Ricciardo overtook Ocon for 15th place.

On the 28th lap Stroll changed tires, on the 29th by Zhou, on the 31st by Sargent, on the 32nd by Ocon, Bottas, Russell and Gasly. There was a long disruption during the maintenance of Bottas’ car.

On lap 33 Magnussen made a pit stop. Stroll overtook Zhou for 13th, Russell overtook Alonso for sixth.

On the 34th lap Norris and Hamilton changed tires, on the 35th lap Leclerc, Piastri and Tsunoda. After leaving the pit lane, Piastri battled with Hamilton on cold tires – and Lewis took the lead.

On lap 36 Sainz and Ricciardo made a pit stop. Leclerc and Norris overtook Alonso.

On the 37th lap Perez and Albon changed tires, on the 38th – Verstappen.

On lap 39, Hamilton passed Alonso for seventh place. On lap 40 Piastri overtook Alonso.

Top ten in lap 40: Verstappen – Perez – Sainz – Russell – Leclerc – Norris – Hamilton – Piastri – Alonso – Stroll.

On lap 42, Alonso, Sargent and Hulkenberg changed tires.

On lap 45, Alonso passed Zhou for 10th place. Gasly changed tires.

On the 47th lap, Russell made a mistake and Leclerc overtook him in the battle for fourth place.

In 49th place, Alonso overtook Stroll for ninth place.

On the 53rd lap, Tsunoda was asked to let Ricciardo pass, who had the speed advantage, Yuki didn’t answer very politely, but in the end he let his teammate pass.

Max Verstappen won the first race of the season for his 55th career victory and the fifth Grand Slam of his career.

Sergio Perez finished second: Red Bull Racing’s 29th victory. Carlos Sainz took the third step of the podium.

The top ten includes two cars each from Red Bull Racing, Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren and Aston Martin.

The battle continues next week in Jeddah, where the race will take place again on Saturday.

Race results

Best round: Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing) – 1:32.608 (lap 40)

Championship Position: Individual Competition

Championship position: Constructors’ Championship