It's a new F1 season, but it was the same Max Verstappen as the Dutchman raced from stoplight to flag in Bahrain to take the season-opening win over Sergio Perez.
Behind them, there was considerable intrigue as Carlos Sainz went wheel-to-wheel twice with Charles Leclerc as Ferrari battled Mercedes and McLaren. Sainz joined his Red Bull teammate on the podium.
New season, former Max Verstappen
Lights out for the 2024 F1 season… Max Verstappen got off to a good start and Charles Leclerc tried to challenge Turn 1, but was threatened by George Russell, who had Sergio Perez spread across the rear wing. , the Ferrari driver was forced to retreat. , the Mexican driver overtook Carlos Sainz.
Lance Stroll made contact with Nico Hulkenberg and spun, with Nico Hulkenberg pitting with front wing damage and Valtteri Bottas chasing Haas.
With DRS available at the end of the first lap, drivers were not given the freedom to jump out of range, with Leclerc losing to Russell, Lando Norris overtaking Fernando Alonso and Oscar Piastri overtaking Aston Martin. I felt that way after passing.
As Verstappen pulled away from the pack, Russell, Leclerc, Perez and Sainz all ran within DRS range of each other. Going further back, Alex Albon, Kevin Magnussen, Guanyu Chou, Logan Sargent and Daniel Ricciardo also played in the DRS game ahead of the Alpens.
After 10 laps, Alonso had lost eighth place to Lewis Hamilton, and the yellow flag was waved shortly after Sargent went straight into Turn 4 with the American roaring. He was able to set Williams up and continued, but dropped to 20th. He pitted for a new steering wheel.
After one lap, Sainz thought he would give the Ferrari driver priority over Leclerc, but that idea disappeared when the Monegasque driver, who had lost third place to Perez, was overtaken by his teammate. Wheel-to-wheel, the Spaniard moved very close to the Ferrari pit wall and moved up to fourth place.
Ferrari pitted Leclerc and Russell one lap later, followed by Perez, Piastri and Hamilton. Norris and Sainz were next as the drivers changed to hard tires. The white-walled Pirelli worked well against the Red Bulls, with Perez using switchbacks to take positions away from Russell. Sainz came out behind Leclerc. Albon and Alonso pitted, leaving Verstappen the only driver yet to stop.
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Lap 17 saw another Ferrari battle, but this time Leclerc held firm and was able to keep his teammate at bay. Later in the corner, Sainz tried again and he held out despite Leclerc reporting a “dangerous” brake problem that caused the car to veer to the right. Verstappen then pitted, starting in 1st place and going out in 1st place.
Sainz then quickly overtook Russell and moved into third place behind the Red Bull. There were reports that Mercedes drivers were having engine problems. Russell was told not to press the overtake button, for Hamilton it was the battery. Hamilton's troubles continued. “The seat broke.” Bono: “Okay, copy it.”
In the lull before the second round pit stop, Bottas' long 52-second pit stop, which suffered a left front nut problem and a lap overtaking by Lance Stroll, resulted in just two points of note.
Then the pit stops began, with Russell using fresh tires to overtake Alonso and Hamilton jumping on Piastri, with the Australian pitting a lap later. Leclerc and Norris also overtook Alonso. Alonso was the only driver yet to finish inside the top 10 since the arrival of the Red Bulls. He was in first place again, Verstappen was out in first place, but there was no other car in sight.
Alonso finally pitted on lap 42 to fit a shiny new set of hard Pirellis to his Aston Martin. This dropped him to 11th place, outside the points, and he overtook Zhou for 10th place.
Approaching the front, Leclerc closed the gap on Russell in the battle for fourth place, and the battle heated up as he closed the gap to sit on the W15's rear wing. The decision was made after Russell went off the track at Turn 10, giving Leclerc the advantage going into Turn 11.
RB ordered Hiroki Tsunoda and Ricardo to swap drivers. Mr. Tsunoda asked, “Are you kidding me?'' He then conceded 13th place to Ricciardo, but told the team that he was not satisfied.
Verstappen scored a perfect 26 in fastest lap points and won by 22.5 seconds, ahead of the rest of the pack, better than last year's 12 seconds. Perez and Sainz also joined him on the podium at the season opener.
Leclerc finished fourth behind Russell and Norris, with points taken by Hamilton, Piastri, Alonso and Stroll.
Bahrain Grand Prix 2024 Results
1 Max Verstappen 1:31:44.742 57 laps
2 Sergio Perez +22.457
3 Carlos Sainz +25.110
4 Charles Leclerc +39.669
5 George Russell +46.788
6 Lando Norris +48.458
7 Lewis Hamilton +50.324
8 Oscar Piastri +56.082
9 Fernando Alonso +74.887
10 Lance Stroll +92.900
11 Zhou Guanyu +1 lap
12 Kevin Magnussen +1 lap
13 Daniel Ricciardo +1 lap
14 Yuki Tsunoda +1 lap
15 Alexander Albon +1 lap
16 Nico Hulkenberg +1 lap
17 Esteban OCON +1 lap
18 Pierre Gasly +1 lap
19 Valtteri Bottas +1 lap
20 Logan Sargent +2 laps
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