Max Verstappen cruised to victory to win the Bahrain grand prix, picking up right where he left off in 2023.
Verstappen managed to get off the grid well, and was able to see off the faint challenge from Leclerc round the outside of turn 1. Further down the grid, Lance Stroll found himself getting spun around by Nico Hulkenberg, who had to change his front wing as a result, though Stroll picked up no damage from the incident. Valtteri Bottas was an unintended victim of the incident, with Hulkenberg’s sudden deceleration meaning that he picked up some minor front wing damage after making small contact with the Haas in front.
Verstappen had already pulled out of DRS range by the end of the first lap, and it became clear rather quickly that Leclerc didn’t have the best race pace. This would later be revealed to be brake temperature issues, but in the meantime he was being put under pressure by George Russell, who would pull off a great move around the outside of turn 4 to move into the podium places.
Leclerc’s woes would continue as just a few laps later he would lock up and go deep into turn 10, which would open the door for Sergio Perez to pass. Sainz was next in line behind Leclerc, and whilst he wanted team orders to be deployed to swap the two of them around, he ultimately would not need to wait for this, as he got the move done down at turn 1, getting awfully close to making contact in the process.
It almost looked as though Logan Sargeant was about to become the first driver to retire from a race this season after his car was stopped at the exit run off at turn 4. This threatened a safety car, but the American was able to eventually get back underway, though had lost a significant chunk of time in the process, and was practically doomed to finish last without any future safety car intervention.
Russell and Leclerc became the first to perform pit stops during this race, swapping to the hards on lap 12. This triggered an undercut that, whilst initially effective, did not stave off the likes of Perez or Sainz for long. Perez was able to perform a switchback manoeuvre to overtake Russell into effective P2 on lap 14, whilst Sainz would once again dive down the inside of Leclerc at turn 1 on lap 17.
Sainz would convert the momentum he gained from double overtaking his teammate to move into the podium spots just one lap later. Whilst Russell had reported an overheating issue on his car, Sainz had clearly been the quicker driver as well, and soared into the distance as a result.
The race had begun to plateau by this point. The podium positions were clearly defined, Leclerc and Russell were both nursing issues and thus weren’t able to fight effectively, and neither the McLaren’s or Hamilton were able to make significant inroads forward for the most part.
The mid point of the race provided some difficulties for Hamilton. First he reported that his seat had broke, and then he had ran wide at turn 10, costing him some time as he looked to catch up to Piastri.
However, the worst luck for any of the drivers came at the expense of Valtteri Bottas. When he came in for his second stop, it appeared that his team were unable to fit his front left tyre on. They were eventually able to give him all four tyres, but the stop took 52 seconds, leaving him adrift of the rest of the pack alongside Sargeant.
The second pit window created an opportunity for Hamilton to utilise an undercut and take Piastri’s place in 8th. Whilst McLaren would have hoped that their tyre offset might have been able to be used to catch back up, they ultimately weren’t able to.
The Leclerc – Russell battle continued into the later stages of the race, and it would be Leclerc who would now take advantage of another driver screwing up at turn 10. Russell had appeared to simply overshoot the corner, allowing Leclerc to get alongside and eventually make the move stick by turn 11 to move back into P4.
Aston Martin’s race pace didn’t look terribly promising following on from Alonso’s 6th place qualifying performance yesterday. Stroll had done well to recover from his lap 1 spin to get into the points paying positions, whilst poor strategy meant that Alonso continued to fall backwards. After the latest stop of anybody in the race, Alonso was able to recover to 9th place, denying his teammate of scoring more than a singular point.
An RB civil war began to brew in the dying moments of the race. Tsunoda had been struggling to overtake Kevin Magnussen for P12, but was maintaining a close distance and was confident that he could make the move eventually. However, his teammate Ricciardo was right behind him, and on softer tyres. The team ordered the drivers to swap, and whilst initially aggrieved, Tsunoda eventually relented.
Tsunoda’s frustration would not subside though when Ricciardo himself was unable to overtake Magnussen by the end of the race, nor had he been asked to give the position back. This saw a frustrated Tsunoda divebomb Ricciardo on the cooldown lap, a move that did not impress the Australian in the slightest.
Verstappen was able to win with a margin of 22 seconds, 10 seconds larger than the gap he had to P2 at this race last year. This is his 8th victory in a row, and will only need to win the next two races to match his own record for most consecutive grand prix wins. The next race takes place on the streets of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia next Saturday.
