Verstappen on the run in Bahrain

news7g03/05/2023

1 2 minutes read

The first race of the Formula 1 season was not a race at all.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen opened his world championship defense with a dominant performance on Sunday at the Bahrain Grand Prix, sending a message to the rest of the series that he will not easily give up his championship.

Starting on the post, Verstappen went far beyond the starting line, beating top rival and teammate Sergio Perez in the first leg and never looked back. His lead rose slowly at first, two seconds, then four, then five, but eventually rose to more than 25: an eternity in a sport where teams measure progress and advantage. in every hundredth of a second.

Perez followed Verstappen to complete a banner day for Red Bull. However, the big surprise was right behind: Fernando Alonso, the oldest driver in the field at 41, finished third to give Aston Martin a surprise ride to the podium in its first race. his for the team.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner expressed some skepticism ahead of the race, calling the start of the first season of any season “a bit of a trip into the unknown.” And Verstappen’s ride wasn’t perfect: He grumbled about some gear glitches on his radio, worried about the condition of the tires and then, assumed Red Bull could still improve. .

“No big deal,” Verstappen said. “Just the little things that you always want to tweak.”

Race Turned Case

This worked the moment Max Verstappen hit the gas. Starting from the pole, he was the fastest to the first corner, then the second, then the third… you get it. Charles Leclerc gave Ferrari a few seconds of hope when he overcame Red Bull’s Sergio Perez in the opening sprint. But it wasn’t long before he was behind both the Red Bulls and, like everyone else, wondering where Verstappen had gone.

The worst days, ranked

Esteban Ocon. The winner is a landslide in this contest. The Alpine driver lined up in the wrong place on the starting line, was penalized for 5 seconds and then served incorrectly, put in a second one. The third penalty – for speeding in the pit lane as he tried to make up for the seconds he just lost – seemed funny. Honestly, if there was a way to lock the keys in an F1 car, Ocon probably did it on Sunday.
Oscar Piastri. His move to the much-discussed McLaren last year, after Alpine announced him as driver for 2023, created one of the more exciting moments of the new “Drive To Survive” season. But Piasti’s first race for McLaren was a disaster: He was knocked out after just 15 laps, part of a miserable day for his team.
Charles Leclerc. He was running in third place when the electrical in his car suddenly turned off. (Basically, the car just stalled after he was going around a corner.) Starting the season with a score was not part of his plan, or that of Ferrari. However, leaving the garage in a million dollar race car only to hitchhike back to the garage on a Vespa? Oh.