Verstappen dominates Bahrain – Sauber narrowly misses points

New season, old photo: Max Verstappen wins the Bahrain Grand Prix with a clear win. The world champion won the Formula 1 race ahead of teammate Sergio Perez, who completed the double for Red Bull.

At the start of the season at the Sakhir circuit, Max Verstappen once again demonstrated Red Bull's superiority in impressive fashion. The Dutchman, who started from pole position, controlled the game from the first meter and never lost the lead during 57 laps. Round after round, the champion of the past three years increased his lead, and it seemed as if it had happened before last season, in which he won 19 races out of 22.

At the finish, Verstappen was more than 22 seconds ahead of Sergio Perez, who had worked his way up from fifth on the grid. As in the previous year, world champion Red Bull celebrated a double victory in the same constellation.

Sainz is faster than Ferrari

Carlos Sainz completed the podium in a Ferrari. The Spaniard, who will have to make way for the Reds' record champion Lewis Hamilton from Maranello next season, has kept his team-mate Charles Leclerc in check. The Monegasse team finished fourth, followed by George Russell in a Mercedes, Lando Norris in a McLaren and Hamilton in the other Mercedes.

A day after his 33rd pole, Verstappen claimed his 55th Grand Prix win in Formula 1. The dominant has already achieved eight consecutive victories in all seasons. “It's unbelievable. Things went better than expected. We couldn't have wished for a better start to the year,” said the winner, who also received the bonus point for the fastest lap in the race.

Chu offers a glimmer of hope

There was something encouraging, even if nothing counted, after Sauber's disappointing qualifying performance. Zhou Guanyu, who started 17th on the grid, provided a bright spot for the Zurich Racing Team with an 11th place finish in the race without a single retirement. The Chinese were tied in the World Cup points standings at one point, but were knocked out of the top ten in the second half of the race by Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll in the Aston Martin.

Valtteri Bottas had a race to forget in another Hinwil car. The Finn, who damaged the front end of his C44 immediately after the start and lost almost a minute during the second stop due to a tire change failure, finished 19th, and therefore second to last.

Formula 1 now moves to Saudi Arabia, with the second of the 24 races of the record season scheduled to take place next Saturday in Jeddah.

Click here for the entire ranking. (NI/DAP)