Formula 1: Bahrain Grand Prix – Verstappen celebrates victory at the start, Alonso races to the podium – Sport

Substrate

• 1. Max Verstappen (Ned, Red Bull)
• 2. Sergio Perez (Mexico, Red Bull)
• 3 – Fernando Alonso (Spain, Aston Martin)

World champion Max Verstappen launched the new season in Formula 1 perfectly and deserves the title holder. Starting from pole position, the Dutch Red Bull driver took a solid lights-to-flag victory at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The 25-year-old had no trouble winning his debut in Sakhir by 11 seconds. Behind him, his teammate Sergio Perez encouraged second place – the Mexican had to fight hard for this. Charles Leclerc died instantly thanks to a strong start, but in the middle of the race Perez managed to resist the Ferrari man.

A disappointment for Ferrari

After this setback, things got worse for Leclerc on the desert circuit: Monaco suddenly lost all power in the car after 40 laps and had to give up. Third place was inherited by his Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz, but the ambitious Scuderia still couldn’t celebrate a podium finish. The reason for this: Mr. Fernando Alonso.

The 41-year-old Spaniard immediately hit the podium in his first race with Aston Martin. The British racing team managed to turn the huge progress made in practice and qualifying into an impressive result. For Alonso, the 99th podium is the first since Qatar in the penultimate season. Teammate Lance Stroll also finished sixth.

“It was great,” said Alonso. “It is unbelievable what the team achieved over the winter. To have the second best car in the first race is a fantasy.” Aston Martin finished seventh last season.

Bottas scores for Alfa Romeo

The Hinwil Racing Team can look forward to the points lead. Valtteri Bottas, who had started 12th, worked his way up to eighth at the start and then asserted himself. Guanyu Zhou did not manage to do the same, the Chinese finished the race for Alfa Romeo in 16th place.

The three rookies without points

For the three drivers who started their first season as Formula 1 drivers, the race ended without any points. Logan Sargeant presented himself better in the Williams, which finished 12th, 2 positions behind the lineup Nick de Vries at AlphaTauri. Oscar Piastri experienced a bitter showing for the first time: the 21-year-old McLaren rookie from Australia had to retire after just 15 laps due to technical problems with the car.

This is how it goes

The next weekend will be followed by the second race of the season again in the Arab region: in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) we will see if Red Bull’s dominance continues smoothly.