Verstappen: “It went even better than expected”

The first round of the 2024 F1 season went down a treat, and there’s plenty of reasons why. From battling Ferraris to a surprise points finish, the season opener had it all. Let’s take a closer at the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix.

Qualifying

The first qualifying session of 2024 was fairly standard, with Max Verstappen claiming his 33rd career pole position, placing him joint-fifth in the all-time pole sitters alongside Alain Prost and Jim Clark. It was a session to forget for Alpine as both Gasly and Ocon struggled to get their tyres within the optimum operating window, producing an Alpine rear-row lockout.

Nico Hulkenberg did an excellent job to get his Haas into Q3 whilst Lewis Hamilton struggled, lining up only P9. It was a tense shootout between Verstappen and Leclerc for pole but the Dutchman edged Leclerc to claim the top spot by two tenths of a second.

Mighty Max

Amidst the rumours surrounding his team boss Christian Horner, Max Verstappen put in a barnstorming performance to claim his 55th win in F1. The Dutchman was flawless throughout the event, making the 22-second gap to 2nd place Sergio Perez seem easy.

Verstappen also reminded us how hungry he is for even more success despite publicly stating that he doesn’t “care about getting seven world championships”. But it’s getting boring – right? That’s where you’re wrong. Red Bull’s continued dominance might mirror that of Mercedes in the early hybrid era but the Austrian outfit might struggle against cars in qualifying.

Verstappen's Q3 time was slower than Charles Leclerc’s Q2 time, meaning Ferrari had the pace to challenge Red Bull over one lap. If Ferrari can perfect its race pace, it might be something for Verstappen and Red Bull to worry about in a few races. Perez’s race was equally impressive as the 34-year-old managed to secure Red Bull its 29th 1-2 finish in F1.

**Sergio Perez:**

“I think it was the maximum we could have achieved. It was a quite a tricky race, you know, with the management of the tyres – I think there's plenty we will learn from tonight's race, which will be important for the championship. But overall, I think it's a great way to start the season”

Starting in P5, Perez seemed unlikely to bring the fight to the Ferrari duet and George Russell. The Mexican proved his doubters wrong once again to power past his rivals to help his team claim the maximum number of points available. However, despite his best efforts, Verstappen’s lead on Perez was a whopping 22 seconds, the largest victory gap ever recorded at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The horse prances again

It was a disastrous start for Ferrari as Carlos Sainz lost a position at the start to Perez and Charles Leclerc lost P2 to Russell. It seemed as if it was over for the Scuderia until a sudden burst of pace from the new tyres saw Sainz breeze past his rivals. Many fans were quick to note Sainz’s immense pace, especially when rated unfavourably against his teammate Leclerc.

Maybe there’s a sense of poetry in this result for the Spaniard. With the inbound Lewis Hamilton replacing him for the 2025 season, Sainz wanted to show Ferrari what they were going to miss – and he did exactly that. There was almost total carnage in the middle of the race as yellow flags were brought out for Logan Sargeant’s trip to the escape road.

The TV cameras cut back to a tense wheel-to-wheel battle between the Ferrari pair, as they both realised they were jostling for the final podium place.

**Charles Leclerc:**

"Honestly all in all, considering that the issue didn't get any better throughout the whole race... we started to be more consistent when the issue didn't worsen and every lap, which was helping me to be more consistent."

Leclerc was nursing an issue with his brakes, with a "more than 100 degrees split" in brake temperature. His front right and left brakes were overheating which caused him to lose positions throughout the race.

He had a great comeback to finish P4 in the end, ahead of George Russell, who was struggling on his tyres towards the end of the race.

Whilst the Monegasque may be upset to lose a potential podium, Ferrari certainly has a better chance at challenging for podiums than this time last year.

A Stroll in the park

Arguably the most impressive drive of the race wasn’t the dominant drive from Verstappen or even Sainz’s excellent overtakes. It was actually Lance Stroll’s sensational comeback from last on the grid to a respectable points finish in P10.

The Canadian driver made contact in the opening lap with Nico Hulkenberg sending him spinning.

Stroll embarked on a mission to get to the points, snatching away the final points finish from drivers including Tsunoda, Ricciardo, and Zhou Guanyu. Stroll’s teammate, Fernando Alonso, had a difficult race, slipping down the order to due a lack of pace.

The 42-year-old was overtaken repeatedly by both McLarens and his lifelong rival Lewis Hamilton and found difficulty in warming up his tyres. Alonso has recently been linked to the Mercedes seat, left vacant by an outbound Lewis Hamilton, and has said that he will “wait a few races to decide."

With lights out in Saudi Arabia in just a few days, there’s barely enough time for us to catch our breath. Stay tuned on Race Reaction.

Final race classification

1 - Max VERSTAPPEN

2 - Sergio PEREZ

3 - Carlos SAINZ

4 - Charles LECLERC

5 - George RUSSELL

6 - Lando NORRIS

7 - Lewis HAMILTON

8 - Oscar PIASTRI

9 - Fernando ALONSO

10 - Lance STROLL

11 - Zhou GUANYU

12 - Kevin MAGNUSSEN

13 - Daniel RICCIARDO

14 - Yuki TSUNODA

15 - Alexander ALBON

16 - Nico HULKENEBRG

17 - Esteban OCON

18 - Pierre GASLY

19 - Valtteri BOTTAS

20 - Logan SARGEANT

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