(Reuters) – Team by team review of Formula One’s season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday (listed in their current championship order):
RED BULL (Max Verstappen 1, Sergio Perez 2)
Verstappen began the season with a perfect race, securing pole position, the fastest lap, and leading every lap. This marked the 55th victory of his career and his fifth grand slam. This win put Red Bull on par with Williams in fourth place on the all-time lists with 114 wins. Verstappen’s lead over Perez increased to 22.457 seconds compared to last year’s 11.987 second lead. Verstappen has now led the championship for 40 consecutive races. Perez started fifth and managed to climb up to second place after passing Sainz and Leclerc.
FERRARI (Carlos Sainz 3, Charles Leclerc 4)
Leclerc, who started on the front row, lost his position to Mercedes’ Russell on lap three. He struggled with oversteer and an issue with his car pulling to the right while braking. Despite these challenges, he managed to regain fourth place. Sainz, on the other hand, dropped from fourth to fifth at the start but fought back to finish just three seconds behind Perez at the end of the race.
MERCEDES (George Russell 5, Lewis Hamilton 7)
Russell, who started third, dropped back after running as high as second early in the race. Hamilton, who started ninth, had to deal with power unit overheating issues due to a miscalculation in the cooling configuration by the team.
MCLAREN (Lando Norris 6, Oscar Piastri 8)
Norris started in seventh place with Piastri in eighth. Both drivers made two pit stops during the race. Norris mentioned that the windy conditions posed challenges, especially in certain corners at the Bahrain circuit.
ASTON MARTIN (Fernando Alonso 9, Lance Stroll 10)
Stroll had a setback at the start of the race after spinning at the first corner following a collision with Haas’s Hulkenberg. Alonso, starting in sixth place, had a quiet race and focused on managing his tires while hoping for a safety car opportunity.
SAUBER (Guanyu Zhou 11, Valtteri Bottas 19)
Zhou, who had a strong performance last year, started in 17th place this time and had to pit twice during the race. Bottas faced front wing damage after being involved in an incident at Turn One and experienced a delay during one of his pit stops.
HAAS (Kevin Magnussen 12, Nico Hulkenberg 16)
Haas showed more competitiveness than anticipated, with Hulkenberg qualifying in 10th place but facing an early setback in the race. Magnussen, starting in 15th place, moved up to 12th after holding off challenges from other drivers.
RB (Daniel Ricciardo 13, Yuki Tsunoda 14)
Tsunoda was asked to swap positions with Ricciardo towards the end of the race, a request that he did not take well. Ricciardo reported issues with his car’s front axle midway through the race.
WILLIAMS (Alexander Albon 15, Logan Sargeant 20)
Sargeant had to change his steering wheel during a pit stop due to electronics issues that arose during qualifying. Albon faced power unit overheating problems, causing a decrease in power output.
ALPINE (Esteban Ocon 17, Pierre Gasly 18)
Both French drivers had a challenging race, as expected, starting from the back row. Gasly had a promising start but got caught up in the Turn One incident.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Christian Radnedge)
