It’s a brand new season with brand new cars. After three months away, Formula One returned to action for the FORMULA 1 GULF AIR BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX 2022 season opener in Bahrain. The new cars created a grid different from what he saw in 2021, as some teams managed to make some huge gains over the winter while others appear to have missed the mark.
Charles Leclerc got away well from pole position, diving to the right side of the circuit to cover off Max Verstappen on the run down to the first corner. Sergio Perez had a bit of oversteer coming out of the first corner, losing a position to Lewis Hamilton and Kevin Magnussen.
Further back, Esteban Ocon collided with Mick Schumacher. The Haas spun around 360 degrees and then continued driving, but the incident earned Ocon a five second time penalty for causing a collision.
At the start of lap 3, Magnussen had a huge lockup into the first corner, allowing Perez to put on the pressure from behind. The two drivers were side-by-side into turn 4 and Perez was able to get back into the top 5. A couple of laps later, Magnussen again went too deep into the first corner, dropping to P7 behind the Mercedes of George Russell.
Valtteri Bottas and Alex Albon were fighting over P12. The Finn was working on recovering some positions after a horrible start saw him drop down to P14 on the first lap from P6 on the starting grid. He eventually got by the Williams driver and his Alfa Romeo teammate followed him through shortly after.
Lewis Hamilton was the first driver to pit, followed by Fernando Alonso as well on lap 12. Mercedes was one of the only teams to use the hard compound tyres. Hamilton rejoined the circuit between the two Alfa Romeos, but he ran very deep into the first corner. The rear of his car was sliding around everywhere as he struggled for grip on his cold hard compound tyres. Zhou Guanyu was able to gain the position, but lost it to Hamilton the following lap after the Brit had managed to get some more heat into his tyres.
Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz and Kevin Magnussen all pitted on lap 15 for soft compound tyres. Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez responded the following lap, taking the soft and medium tyres respectively. Leclerc left the pit lane narrowly ahead of Verstappen, who had gained a lot of time on the race leader using the undercut.
Leclerc was able to hold off Verstappen on his out lap, but Verstappen overtook Leclerc down the main straight with some help from the DRS as sparks showered from under Verstappen’s car. Leclerc was able to fight back into turn 4, overtaking Verstappen the long way around the outside. But the fight wasn’t over. The DRS proved to be powerful down the main straight, as Verstappen was able to gain ground on the leading Ferrari and brake very late into the first corner to overtake on the inside. Again, Leclerc was able to fight back in turn 4, taking the inside line this time around.
Verstappen again used the power of the DRS to catch up to Leclerc down the main straight, diving down the inside into the first corner. This time around, he locked up and ran wide, allowing Leclerc to keep the position. Verstappen was not able to mount any challenge into turn 4 and he was outside of the DRS range by the time they came around to the main straight, putting an end to the first intense battle for the lead of 2022.
On lap 28, Hamilton pitted for the second time in the race, this time taking the medium compound tyres. But with more than half of the race distance remaining, it looked like it would be very challenging to keep those tyres until the end of the race.
Verstappen pitted for medium tyres on lap 31, hoping to undercut Leclerc again. He was told to take care of his tyres on the out lap. Ferrari responded the following lap, pitting Leclerc for medium tyres. His pit stop was faster than Red Bull’s and he rejoined the race ahead of Verstappen in the net race lead. Verstappen was frustrated with his team, feeling he could have taken the race lead if he has been allowed to push on his out lap.
On lap 34, Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez pitted from the lead of the race for their second stops for medium tyres. George Russell also made his second pit stop for medium tyres, having taken the hard tyres in his previous pit stop like his teammate.
The second half of the race was quite orderly, with Leclerc holding comfortable lead in the race, looking for his three career race win.
On lap 44, Red Bull pitted Verstappen for soft tyres, dropping him behind Carlos Sainz with just ten laps remaining in the race. Sergio Perez also followed his teammate into the pits. Verstappen began complaining about heavy steering. The late stop triggered a response from Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton the following lap.
But there was further drama in the closing stages of the race, as Pierre Gasly parked his car on the exit of turn 3. He lost power and there was a fire at the rear of the car. This triggered the safety car. It took a few laps to get the car cleared from the circuit. Many drivers pitted under the safety car for fresh rubber, including Charles Leclerc.
The race restarted on lap 51. Verstappen was driving up alongside Leclerc while he was waiting for the leading Ferrari to bolt away. Doing so compromised Verstappen’s run out of the final corner, putting him under pressure from Sainz behind. Sainz was all over the back of Verstappen, looking for a Ferrari 1-2 finish, but he was unable to make any overtake attempt.
But as the race came closer to the end, Verstappen’s mechanical issue appeared to worsen. On lap 54, Sainz overtook Verstappen. Verstappen’s car let him down on that lap and he crawled back to the pit lane to retire the car.
As his teammate parked in the garage, Perez also began complaining about a loss of power. His pace was down, but it appeared to still be enough to hold off Hamilton for a podium position. However, it all came to an end for Perez in the first corner on the final lap when his engine locked up and he spun to a stop.
This gave Hamilton the bottom step of the podium, but it was Ferrari who was celebrating as Charles Leclerc led the team to a 1-2 finish under the lights in Bahrain. It was Leclerc’s first race victory since the 2019 Italian Grand Prix in his first season for the team.
The teams will not have much time to recover after the first race of the season. The next race will be in Saudi Arabia on the weekend of March 27.
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| Race Results | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | C. Leclerc | 26 | |
| 2 | C. Sainz | 18 | |
| 3 | L. Hamilton | 15 | |
| 4 | G. Russell | 12 | |
| 5 | K. Magnussen | 10 | |
| 6 | V. Bottas | 8 | |
| 7 | E. Ocon | 6 | |
| 8 | Y. Tsunoda | 4 | |
| 9 | F. Alonso | 2 | |
| 10 | G. Zhou | 1 | |
| 11 | M. Schumacher | ||
| 12 | L. Stroll | ||
| 13 | A. Albon | ||
| 14 | D. Ricciardo | ||
| 15 | L. Norris | ||
| 16 | N. Latifi | ||
| 17 | N. Hulkenberg | ||
| DNF | S. Perez | ||
| DNF | M. Verstappen | ||
| DNF | P. Gasly | ||
