Who won the F1 Bahrain GP 2023?

The first race of the 2023 Formula 1 season, the Bahrain GP, was an exhilirating affair, but the result itself was rather as expected.

Who won the F1 Bahrain GP 2023?

The start of the F1 Bahrain GP 2023

The first race of the 2023 Formula 1, season, the Bahrain GP, got started in incredible fashion: On the start, Charles Leclerc jumped Sergio Perez, pushing him to the right, and the Mexican pushed Carlos Sainz almost towards the pit entrance in turn. Max Verstappen wasn’t particularly troubled. Then on turn 4, Lance Stroll hit the back of Fernando Alonso’s right-rear tire while attempting to overtake Lewis Hamilton, and both of them lost places for it.

The first man to pit was Pierre Gasly, and Lando Norris followed suit soon after with a 32+ second pit stop, because of an engine issue. Soon enough, it got bad to worse for McLaren, as Oscar Piastri retired with an electrical issue, and Norris had to pit again. As for the frontrunners, Verstappen remained comfortably ahead even till lap 20 and looked untouchable.

https://youtu.be/q9UK8B87pJk

Red Bull settled into a pretty comfortable rhythm, while the main scrap was between Aston Martin and Mercedes for the third-best team on the day. Ferrari also settled into a bit of a rhythm, but then Leclerc stopped on the side of the track on lap 41. It’d been a tough weekend for Leclerc – his wheel-arch flew off before his first flying lap, then he had to change components before even a single racing lap. And then the retirement,

FS Video

It got bad to worse for Ferrari: Sainz was soon overtaken by Alonso and was under threat by Hamilton, but was able to hold him off till the end. Alonso’s teammate, Stroll also did pretty well for himself – and was holding off George Russell quite comfortably. In the end, Verstappen took victory comfortably, with his teammate, Perez more than 10 seconds behind. But the story of the day: Alonso is back on the podium, in just his first race with Aston Martin!

Read More: F1 Bahrain GP: “The biggest clown in F1” – Fans blame Lance Stroll for first lap incident with Fernando Alonso

Max Verstappen won F1 Bahrain GP 2023, but Fernando Alonso stole the show

Max Verstappen has started the season on top after his win at the F1 Bahrain GP 2023
Max Verstappen has started the season on top after his win at the F1 Bahrain GP 2023

Ferrari had been wary of the threat posed by Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin. Carlos Sainz had said that he expected Alonso to be on their pace or even quicker. It seems that the fears were warranted after all. The final result, on top, was rather expected. Red Bull looked incredible in pre-season testing and continued in this vein during the practice sessions. Max Verstappen was always the favorite. He took pole position fairly comfortably and repeated his result during the race.

Alonso and Aston Martin’s season is off to a brilliant start. Mercedes were certainly more competitive than many might’ve expected them to be, and that’s good for them. But Ferrari have work to do – a first race retirement, and Sainz struggling with tire degradation is clearly not ideal. But the most disappointing team were definitely McLaren: Piastri retired early on, and Norris had to do five pitstops!

All in all, it was quite an exhilarating race, even if the outcome was rather expected. The main attraction was definitely the battle between Alonso and Hamilton, giving people flashbacks to 2007. It was Verstappen who took the victory, but some superstitious rival fans might even be happy with that – the winner of the first race of the season has finished second every year since 2017! That’s some consolation, at least, though it won’t be on Verstappen’s mind.

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