Charles Leclerc win in Bahrain, Max Verstappen Retires, Lewis Hamilton grabs P3

Charles Leclerc put in a brilliant drive at the Bahrain GP. He started the race on pole following a blistering qualifying lap on Saturday and he kept on the pace throughout Sunday as the Ferrari driver nailed every corner of the tricky night race circuit. 

Leclerc was constantly pressured by Max Verstappen in a charging Redbull. The world champion tried to undercut the Ferrari drive thrice, but Leclerc held his cool and managed to keep the World Champion behind despite Max overtaking him at the end of the DRS Zones. 

Max was sitting comfortably in P2 for most of the race until the final laps when engine issues forced him and his teammate Sergio Perez ( who was running in P 4) to retire the cars. This meant that Lewis Hamilton grabbed the final podium spot after a tough weekend for Mercedes. 

 

Perez spun in dramatic fashion mid-corner as he was later heard on the radio saying that his engine locked up. Interestingly, Verstappen reported engine issues as early as the 6th lap saying that there was an issue with his engine braking. 

 

The final results 

1 Charles Leclerc – Ferrari 

2 Carlos Sainz Jr. – Ferrari

3 Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes-AMG

4 George Russell – Mercedes-AMG

5 Kevin Magnussen – Haas-Ferrari

6 Valtteri Bottas – Alfa Romeo Racing 

7 Esteban Ocon – Alpine-Renault

8 Yuki Tsunoda – AlphaTauri-Red Bull

9 Fernando Alonso – Alpine-Renault

10 Guanyu Zhou – Alfa Romeo Racing

11 Mick Schumacher – Haas-Ferrari

12 Lance Stroll – Aston Martin

13 Alex Albon – Williams-Mercedes

14 Daniel Ricciardo – McLaren-Mercedes

15 Lando Norris – McLaren-Mercedes

16 Nicholas Latifi  – Williams-Mercedes

17 Nico Hulkenburg – Aston Martin

18 Pierre Gasly – AlphaTauri-Red Bull             DNF

19 Max Verstappen – Red Bull Racing       DNF 

20 Sergio Pérez – Red Bull Racing                   DNF

 

The retirements of Perez and Max meant that HAAS Driver Kevin Magnussen finished in the top 5! A truly remarkable day for the American based team that was struggling to get into Q2 just last season. It also saw a super comeback from Bottas who started the race on a terrible foot and ended up down in P 13.  But the Alfa Romeo Driver produced a stunning drive and finished the race in p6. His teammate Zhou even managed to break into the top 10 on his Formula 1 debut after a remarkable drive.

 

Mercedes looked to be in contention for a podium spot at the start of the race when Hamilton powered his way to P3 during the initial laps. However, as the race progressed it became more clear that the team still had a lot to do as their cars could not keep up with the pace of the Ferrari and Redbull Machines and he fell behind the teams. George Russell managed to go up 3 places since the start of the race a further 2 places when the Redbulls retired and he finished P4. A result that will leave Mercedes smiling.

Lance stroll put in a stellar performance as the Canadian driver managed a respectable P12 following a disappointing p19 in Qualifying yesterday. The Aston Martin team showed glimpses of pace however Nico Hulkenburg found himself at the bottom of the timesheets.

 

Yuki Tsunoda climbed up 8 places and finished in P8 as the Japanese driver looked like a different driver than last season. His teammate however faced a power unit failure and had a very sudden fire on his car. Gasly was safely out of the car but he was also out of the race. 

 

The Orange McLarens struggled all night with the cars just refusing to find the pace until the end with their cars finishing in 14th and 15th. 

 

The Dawn of a new season 

The inaugural race of the 2022 season was everything that the fans wished for. The driving between cars was closer than ever and with higher tyre degradation, we saw the teams make a series of pitstops to avoid getting caught out. Mercedes sampled with the Hard Compound Tyre in lap 12 when they sent both of their drivers out on a Hard Compound tyre. but they quickly abandoned the project when the tyres failed to give them the required pace.

Throughout the race, we saw intense battles amongst various teams and drivers right from the thrilling fight for Pole to the battles of the midfield. 

We also saw the first penalty of the season that went to Esteban Ocon for bumping into the Haas of Mick which resulted in him doing a full 360 spin.

 

The opener told us what we had doubts about since testing, that Ferrari is fast and that Ferrari is back! 

With the next race taking place in Saudi Arabia in just 7 days, Teams such as Redbull, Mclaren, Mercedes and Aston Martin are all hoping to get their cars sorted out.