Verstappen Kick Starts Championship Defense with Dominant Bahrain Victory
Max Verstappen started the 2024 Season as he ended last year by running away with things to ultimately win the Bahrain Grand Prix by 22 and a half seconds! Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez came home in second whilst Carlos Sainz rounded out the Podium for Ferrari.
The Biggest Talking Points
At the start of the Race, Max Verstappen got off the line really well before Nico Hulkenberg spun Lance Stroll round at Turn 1. A few laps later and George Russell made a brilliant move around the outside of Charles Leclerc at Turn 4 as Leclerc was really struggling to slow his Ferrari down. This ultimately resulted in Charles being overtaken by Sergio Perez before Carlos Sainz pulled out a great move to overtake his teammate and move up into 4th. Elsewhere, the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, followed by Lewis Hamilton, were able to pass the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso before we started to get the first round of pitstops. This ultimately allowed Perez to overtake Russell for P2 whilst Sainz pulled another great overtake out on his teammate Leclerc into Turn 1 (after Charles had originally undercut Carlos).
From there, Carlos was able to overtake George to move into the Podium places before the race started to stagnate a bit (there was a bit where Oscar Piastri made a mistake and let Lewis Hamilton through though). Valtteri Bottas did have a terrible pit stop which ruined my prediction of a Bottas P10 whilst Charles Leclerc was able to overtake George Russell for P4 after Russell locked up into Turn 10. With Max running away with the Race out-front, the enjoyment towards the end came from Red Bull’s sister team Visa Cash App RB as Yuki Tsunoda refused to let Daniel Ricciardo past despite a team instruction, and by the time Yuki yielded, Verstappen came through to lap them both so Danny Ric lost plenty of time to Kevin Magnussen anyway! What’s even funnier is Ricciardo never passed Magnussen, and he also never gave the place back to Tsunoda!
The Standout Drives in the Race
I’ve only given out one 10 for today’s Bahrain Grand Prix and that is obviously for Max Verstappen. Max absolutely dominated today’s race, leading from start to finish and I’m starting to wonder what the odds were for Verstappen winning every race in 2024! I also thought Carlos Sainz had a great Race to finish on the Podium, Sergio Perez can be pretty pleased with P2 and Lance Stroll deserves a small shoutout simply for scoring a point given he was facing the wrong way at Turn 1 on the opening lap!
Drivers who had a Shocker
In total, I’ve given out two 1’s for today’s Race, and the first one is unfortunately for Pierre Gasly. Not only have Alpine been horrendous this weekend, but Pierre Gasly was nowhere near his teammate today which isn’t really good enough. The other driver I’ve given out the lowest possible grade to is Logan Sargeant and that’s simply because he made a poor error into Turn 4 and he was ultimately the only driver to get lapped twice which is actually really disappointing. I also thought Nico Hulkenberg had a poor race and was to blame for punting Lance Stroll, Esteban Ocon had a very disappointing day in his Alpine whilst Valtteri Bottas didn’t look particularly quick (even if his bad pitstop didn’t help matters).
Overall Race Results and My Ratings
Max Verstappen: 10 (FL)
Sergio Perez: 8
Carlos Sainz: 9
Charles Leclerc: 7
George Russell: 7
Lando Norris: 6
Lewis Hamilton: 5
Oscar Piastri: 5
Fernando Alonso: 5
Lance Stroll: 6
Zhou Guanyu: 7
Kevin Magnussen: 7
Daniel Ricciardo: 5
Yuki Tsunoda: 5
Alex Albon: 4
Nico Hulkenberg: 2
Esteban Ocon: 2
Pierre Gasly: 1
Valtteri Bottas: 2
Logan Sargeant: 1
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