Ferrari Dominate Season Opener in Bahrain with a 1-2; Both Red Bulls DNF

Forget it’s coming Rome, it’s coming back to Maranello, with Ferrari taking their first Formula 1 win since 2019. Charles Leclerc finished on the top step of the podium, with teammate Carlos Sainz taking second; Lewis Hamilton taking a surprise P3 after both Red Bull cars DNF in the final laps of the race.

Leclerc took pole position on Saturday by over a tenth of a second; teammate Sainz in P3 by just 6 thousandths of a second from P2. Verstappen took P2 and Perez P4, with Valtteri Bottas qualifying in P6, just behind his old teammate Hamilton and outqualifying Mercedes replacement George Russell in P9. Haas had a great qualifying, with Magnussen, who only got the call to race this year the night before testing, in P7 and Mick in a career best P12.

At lights out, Leclerc covered off the inside straight away, with an aggressive move to the right side of the track, closing the door on Verstappen. Magnussen got up to P5 and was battling with Lewis Hamilton who was up to P4- that’s definitely a sentence I didn’t think I’d be saying at the start of the season!

On the opening lap, Esteban Ocon sent Mick Schumacher into a spin, and got handed a 5 second time penalty for the incident. Luckily for Mick, however, he managed to keep the car going and only lost 2 places. Bottas got away slowly, dropping down to P14, with McLaren’s Ricciardo down to dead last, perhaps due to the fact that McLaren were the only team to have started the race on medium tyres; everyone else was on softs. Ricciardo took avoiding action which is also a reason why he dropped to last.

Perez lost two places but found his way back to P4 on Lap 10. Hamilton was the first to pit on Lap 11, taking on the hard tyres, however, couldn’t get any temperature into them and spent his out lap sliding all over the racing line. This could be due to the fact that the tyre blankets are 20° cooler than last year, therefore making them colder when they go on the car. Although Hamilton emerged in P12, he swiftly took P11 from Zhou thanks to DRS.

On Lap 14, both Verstappen and Sainz pitted for soft tyres, emerging in P4 and P5. Race leader Leclerc pitted one lap later for the soft tyre, and came out of the pits just 3 tenths ahead of Verstappen.

3 laps later, and aided with DRS, Verstappen made a move down the inside of Leclerc into Turn 1, and with sparks flying, took the lead of the race. Leclerc stayed close on Verstappen’s tail and retook the lead into Turn 4, following a clean but aggressive move. On the next lap, Verstappen made the exact same move but once again, Leclerc passed him into Turn 4. Lap 19 saw Verstappen pass Leclerc down the pit straight for the third time, however a huge lock up from him meant the Ferrari was able to pass him straight away into Turn 2.

Lando Norris was overtaken by Zhou, Schumacher and Albon in quick succession due to McLaren still being unable to find pace and fix their issues with brake temperatures with lack of downforce also being an issue.

After his second pit stop, Verstappen was becoming increasingly frustrated on the team radio, saying that if he had pushed more on the out laps, he would’ve been able to catch Leclerc who was still out in front. Coming out of the pits from his second trip down the pit lane, Carlos Sainz nearly collided with one of the Williams cars.

Lap 44 saw Max make his third and final pit stop for the soft tyre, having given up track position to Ferrari, who were currently P1 and P2, to fight them later in the race.

2 laps later saw Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri catch fire, causing him to pull over to the side of the track at Turn 3 and the deployment of the Safety Car. Leclerc took advantage of this by pitting and came out still in the lead of the race. As the Safety Car came in, Sainz was pressuring Verstappen at the start of lap 51, who had been complaining of steering issues with his Red Bull. Although his team saying these issues were stable, Sainz got past Verstappen on lap 54 and Max retired on the same lap due to reliability issues.

With Ferrari ahead in P1 and P2, it was Hamilton chasing down Perez for the final podium place. On the final lap, Hamilton was getting close to make a move on the Mexican but before he could even get a look in, Perez spun into Turn 1 due to a reliability issue with his car, meaning Hamilton crossed the line in P3.

A dream weekend for Ferrari, as they not only took home pole position and two podiums, but Charles Leclerc also walked away with the fastest lap and Driver of the Day!

The other two Ferrari powered cars on the grid, Alfa Romeo and Haas, also both had brilliant weekends. Zhou Guanyu finished in P10 and scored points in his debut race, with Bottas climbing his way back up to P6 after a less than desirable getaway. Mick Schumacher had a career best finish in P11, whilst Kevin Magnussen finished in best of the rest P5 after not driving in Formula 1 since 2020; an absolute dream weekend for the Danish driver.

It’s clear Mercedes still have a few issues that need dealing with, in particular the porpoising down the straights, however they weren’t sandbagging in testing. They seemed to have fixed the majority of their problems already however, and if they can fix the rest then their sidepod design could prove them to be a serious contender for the Constructors’ title this year. I also think George Russell needs to take a bow, finishing in P4 just behind his teammate in his debut race with Mercedes!

It’s definitely been a weekend to forget for McLaren. With Daniel Ricciardo missing the whole of Bahrain testing and both cars missing out on Q3, their pace very clearly just isn’t there and it’s discouraging for the team who were expecting to continue their upward trajectory towards the front of the grid. Aston Martin also seemed to be lacking in any real speed, with both drivers finishing outside the points.

Although a track he loves, Bahrain and Pierre Gasly don’t appear to be a good match, with the Frenchman having a DNF here last year too. After winning the title last season, Red Bull couldn’t have had a worst race, with both cars retiring in the closing laps.

Can we please just have a moment of appreciation for helmet cam though? What an incredible thing to be bringing to the 2022 season!

The season will continue this weekend with the second round of the season being the Saudi Arabian GP in Jeddah.