Its lights out and away go once again in the Formula 1 season!
Defending world champion Max Verstappen from Red Bull took the first victory of the 2024 season.
Joining Verstappen on the podium was his teammate Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz.
Crucially Sainz finished ahead of his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, since it is Sainz who doesn’t have a seat with the team after this season.
The race provided 57 laps of racing under the Bahrain lights to start the season off on a high!
With all 20 drivers opting to start on the soft tyres it was predicted to be a two-stopper of a race.
Verstappen led the pack sweeping around the track as he got the better start over Charles Leclerc who started in P2.
On lap 1 Lance Stroll dropped from 12 to last by the first corner but ultimately finished within the top 10.
Nico Hulkenberg picked up damage on the first lap seeing him having to pit as soon as he reached the pit entry but it did get a “cheaper” pit stop in for the Haas driver by switching to those hard tyres early on.
There was some great racing between the two Ferraris throughout the whole race with no indication of team orders throughout.
On lap 15 a key overtake in the race happened between George Russell was sent wide by Sergio Perez who took the sixth place position off him.
Carlos Sainz seemed to fall victim to the undercut today as he made his pit stop on lap 15 and he dropped behind Perez, Russell and crucially his teammate Leclerc.
However, Sainz made a comeback on his teammate by lap 17 after being better on the late breaks than Leclerc and got ahead of his rival.
Verstappen built a lead of 30 seconds before he made his first pit stop of the race on lap 18
Both Mercedes drivers were complaining of a power unit issue but whilst Hamilton’s seemed to prove not to be a lasting issue Russell’s issue seemed to be more impactful.
Pierre Gasly wasn’t shy to hide his frustrations with his Alpine after multiple complaints over the radio, after starting in 19th the best he could muster was 18th.
The top ten gave us an indication of the pace of all of the teams, with Red Bull looking set to continue their domination.
The final race results saw the top ten finish Verstappen, Perez, Sainz, Leclerc, Russell, Landon Norris, Hamilton, Oscar Piastri, Fernando Alonso and Stroll.
With weekends being filled with F1 once again the season is set to continue on this high pace rollercoaster of a season.