MAX DOMINATION IN BAHRAIN

Written By: Kylar Boggs

Formula 1

Formula 1 held the season opener at the Bahrain International circuit this past weekend. For the first two race weekends of the season, the Bahrain Grand Prix and the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix will be held on Saturday instead of Sunday because of Ramadan.

On Thursday FP1 got underway and it was Daniel Ricciardo in the RB at the top of the timing sheets followed by the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Heading into FP2 it was the Mercedes team of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell fastest in that session followed by Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin. FP3 had Scuderia Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz fastest at the end of the session. Sainz’ future in Formula 1 is still up in the air of where he will go for 2025 and beyond since this is his last season with Ferrari.  

Heading into the first qualifying session of the year on Friday, it was not a pretty session for Alpine as both Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly did not make it into Q2, qualifying 19th and 20th. At the end of Q2 Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg just squeezes into the top 10 for Q3 ahead of Yuki Tsunoda in the RB. At the end of qualifying, it was Max Verstappen putting his Red Bull on pole position for the 33rd time in his career with a time of 1:30.031 ahead of Charles Leclerc and George Russell.  

Moving onto Saturday, as the Grand Prix got underway, Nico Hulkenberg collided with Lance Stroll in turn 1 on the very first lap of the race and spinning him out. Behind Hulkenberg was Valtteri Bottas receiving slight front wing damage after not being able to avoid Hulkenberg. Later in the race, there were several drivers with issues. Logan Sargent had overheating issues. Lewis Hamilton reported to his team saying on the radio “My seat is broken”. Charles Leclerc had brake issues and was eventually passed by his teammate Carlos Sainz down the main straight heading into turn 1. The issues for team and drivers didn’t stop there as Valtteri Bottas had a very slow stop midway through the race as the wheel gun got stuck on his tire and resulted in a 52 second pit stop.  

Towards the end of the race Yuki Tsunoda in the RB was catching Kevin Magnussen for the 12th position, and his teammate Daniel Ricciardo was just behind on new soft tires. Since Ricciardo was on much newer tires, the team had requested Tsunoda to let Ricciardo through, but Tsunoda was not happy with the call. This became a rather frustrating situation for Ricciardo as time was running out to catch Kevin Magnussen. Tsunoda eventually let Ricciardo through but by the time he did, Ricciardo did not have the grip he needed to, to pass Magnussen.  

As the checkered flag fell, it was Max Verstappen dominating from start to finish winning the Bahrain Grand Prix by 22.457 seconds ahead of his teammate Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz finishing 3rd for the Scuderia. Charles Leclerc finished in 4th despite having brake problems for most of the race. George Russell finished 5th just ahead of Lando Norris in 6th. Lewis Hamilton finished in 7th ahead of Oscar Piastri in 8th and Fernando Alonso in 9th and it was Lance Stroll picking up the last points paying position in 10th position, recovering from the spin he had on the opening lap of the race. Max Verstappen collected the additional bonus point for the fastest lap which he had set on lap 39 of the race with a 1:32.608. 

However, the drama was not over as after the checkered flag, Yuki Tsunoda who was not happy with the team call of letting Ricciardo through, showed his displeasure to Ricciardo on the cool down lap heading into the pit lane. Just past sector 1, Tsunoda speeds by Ricciardo and locks up his tires and then while Ricciardo is doing his regular procedures on the cool down lap, Tsunoda aggressively speeds past Ricciardo again almost colliding with each other.  

Ricciardo was later asked by Will Buxton on F1 TV about the situation and Ricciardo had mentioned that it was talked about within the team that he was going to be on the softs towards the end of the race and Ricciardo stated, “I’m being very sensible right now - let’s just call it immaturity”. When Tsunoda was he mentioned that Ricciardo had clean air and, in the end, he didn’t overtake Magnussen and lastly said “We’ll see how the briefing goes”.