Pole: Max Verstappen
Winner: Max Verstappen
Fastest Lap: Zhou Guanyu 1:33.996
1-10
Sergio Perez did not have a good start as the cars set off the line. At the end of lap 1, everyone seems to be clean apart from the two Aston Martins who appear to have made contact. Stroll went too fast into the corner and clipped the back of Alonso who is lucky to not get a puncture on his right rear. Lap 5 the Alfa Romeo of Bottas makes an excellent move to take p9 from Ocon. Lap 6 Verstappen has gained a good lead with a 4-second gap to Leclerc followed by Perez then Sainz and the two Mercedes. Lap 8 Russell goes wide who is pursuing his teammate Hamilton who is struggling with his tyres. Lap 10 Gasly is into
the pits with his new team, Alpine to try the undercut and is on fresh hard tyres.
10-20
In lap 11 Alonso is closing in on Russell as Norris has an engine issue in the pits which causes him to have a 5-second put stop. Lap 12 Russell is struggling with his tyres as Alonso is putting on intense pressure whilst numerous drivers enter the pits for new tyres. Lap 13 Hamilton pits and Russell moves to the inside of turn 1 to fend off Alonso but as we move into sector 2 Russell fights back but cannot take the position back from Alonso. Lap 14 and there is a double stack for Ferrari followed by Russell who has a slow stop as we hear reports of struggles for rookie Piastri who has to change his steering wheel but Piastri is
unable to get out of the pits. Lap 15 Ocon has a 5-second time penalty for a starting grid infringement. Red bull and Ferrari are still locking out the top 4 spots as Perez is leading on the soft tyres and Verstappen is on the hard tyres. In lap 17, Bottas is running a decent race for Alfa Romeo in 7th who is under pressure from Alonso and Russell. Lap 18 Russell goes on the outside of turn 4 to take 7th from Bottas.
20-30
Stroll fight for 8th with Bottas but pulls away past turn 2 as Ocon is noted for not serving his time penalty correctly. Albon is running a good race in p10 whilst his rookie teammate is running in p13. Lap26 Perez takes second place from Leclerc into turn 2 as Leclerc tries to fight back with DRS but has been struggling. Lap 27 Hamilton has been managing his tyres well and is now able to push more to try and catch the Ferraris. Ocon is again under investigation for speeding in the pit lane after taking a 10-second penalty.
30-40
Bottas enter the pits for new hard tyres. In lap 31 Hamilton has to come into the pits along with Stroll to cover off Alonso. Lap 32 Sainz and Russell come into the pits, as Russell leaves the pits Stroll overtakes Russell into turn 4. Lap 34 Leclerc pits for new hard tyres as the Red Bull cars seem to be clear from everyone else. Lap 37 Verstappen pits for new tyres as we see Alonso closing the gap to Hamilton as he goes down the inside of turn 2 but Hamilton takes the position back as Alonso loses the rear end of the car. Alonso makes the move into turn 10 on Hamilton with a brilliant move against his old rival. Lap 39 Hamilton is still keeping up with Alonso.
40-50
Lap 40 Norris who is a lap down almost went into the back of Hamilton as he locks up in turn 10. Leclerc loses power and the VSC is released Albon Gasly, Tsunoda and Magnussen all pit under the VSC. Lap 42racing resumes as Leclerc’s car is cleared, as we enter the closing stages of the race we have Verstappen leading and Perez Sainz. In 11th and 12th the Alpha Tauris are battling well as Zhou is following closely to De Vries. Good, overtake from Gasly as he overtakes Albon to take p9. Ocon retires on lap 44. In lap 45 Alonso is closing in on the Ferrari of Sainz in turn 8 and takes Sainz into turn 10 as the Ferrari locks up. Hamilton is now brought into play as we see a replay of the battle with Alonso and Sainz who almost touch into turn 3. Lap 49 Norris pits for the 5th time to sort out his engine problems.
50-57
Hulkenberg has been shown a black and white flag for track limits who is running in p16. Verstappen has now built a 10-second lead to his teammate as Alonso is still keeping a solid p3 for the Aston Martin team. Lap 53 Alonso is complementing the Aston Martin car as he is asking about his teammate who has suffered numerous injuries before the season started. Lap 54, Hulkenberg gets a 5-second penalty for track limits as Gasly is closing in on Bottas who is running p8 as Gasly has made up 11 places. Red bull have taken a front-row lockout in qualifying and continues that momentum as Verstappen wins the opening race of the season in Bahrain. Fernando Alonso finishes p3 and picks up driver of the day for
the Aston Martin team followed by Sainz, Hamilton, Stroll and Russell.
Summary:
Formula 1 returns for the 2023 season and it started with a night race in Bahrain. Verstappen and Perez locked out the front row in qualifying on Saturday which continued through to Sunday where Verstappen dominated the field pulling an 11-second gap to his teammate in the final results. One major talking point from the weekend is Aston Martin. Fernando Alonso finished on the podium after some entertaining battles with Hamilton in the Mercedes, Alonso looked incredibly strong all testing and was oozing with confidence throughout the race weekend. Post-race analysis suggests that the Aston Martin team could even be stronger than their engine supplier Mercedes who had lots of questions asked of them after Hamilton finished 5th behind a Ferrari that was struggling to retain grip with the tyres and Russell finished 7th behind Lance Stroll in the Aston Martin. This year Mercedes has decided to continue with their "no side pods" philosophy which so far, for this race, seems to not be working an emergency meeting was held in Brackley after the grand prix and seemed to last 'late into the night' which has resulted in the technical director Mike Elliot being given an ultimatum. Mercedes is now hoping to bring upgrades for the car throughout the season to try and catch up with the astonishing pace of the Red Bulls.
Elsewhere on the grid, McLaren was another big talking point of the weekend. Lando Norris and new rookie Oscar Piastri didn’t have the best start to the season that they had hoped for. Oscar Piastri retired on lap 13 due to an electrical issue with his steering wheel and in the other half of the garage, Lando Norris had to pit 6 times during the race due to a loss of pressure in the hydraulic system. Hence, the team had to add air into the car whenever Norris came into the pits. The Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas finished a solid race in the points in p8 whilst his teammate Zhou Guanyu finished p16 but took the fastest lap on the last lap of the race. Both Williams cars had a good race under the new team principal James Vowels, Alex Albon rounded off the final points finishing position in p10 and his new rookie teammate Logan Sergeant held his own finishing p12.
Pierre Gasly made amends for a poor qualifying finishing in p9 from the back of the grid whilst his teammate picked up 15 seconds worth of penalties in the Alpine after being out of position in the grid box led to 2 other infringements which led to a disastrous day for Ocon who ended up retiring on lap 44. Ferrari suffered a retirement with Leclerc retiring on lap 41 whilst Sainz brought it home in p4.
Next race: Saudi Arabia.
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