MAX Verstappen scorched the asphalt at the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) last night as he blazed his way to victory in the 2023 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix – the opening race of the season.
The two-time world champion, starting on pole, notched up his first-ever win in Bahrain by finishing 11.987 seconds ahead of teammate Sergio Perez to make it a 1-2 celebration for Red Bull Racing.
“Well done, Max!” his ecstatic team shouted into the radio as the 25-year-old Dutchman embarked on a victory lap.
“Very lovely, that. Really good result!” Verstappen exulted in reply. “We had good race pace. Very happy with that. Thank you, guys. That is exactly the start to the season we wanted and needed.”
Verstappen, who is seeking a hat-trick of title triumphs, was hardly troubled during the 57-lap race as he always maintained a lead of at least 10 seconds over Perez – and, for a short while, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who snuck into second place a third of the way in the contest.
But, before and after that, it was the Red Bull pair who dominated proceedings with Perez managing to get ahead of his teammate after the 15th lap only to see him roar back in front a lap later.
Verstappen’s comprehensive victory is even more remarkable, given that, at the 26-lap stage, he radioed his team that he was having problems with his downshift but that it was still manageable.
Then, after 32 laps, he said: “My left front is giving up a bit.”
But he was still 14 seconds ahead of Perez at that stage and didn’t allow the deficit to dip below the 10-second mark for the rest of the race.
Meanwhile, there was heartbreak for Leclerc, who drove so beautifully to a classy win here last year, and looked like the only other driver – apart from Perez – who could possibly come within touching distance of the Dutch phenom.
After having slipped down to third, the Monagasque driver was seen slowing down before coming to a halt at the side of the track in the 41st lap because of a loss of engine power.
“No, no, no, no!” he groaned on the team radio. “What happened, guys? No power!”
But, conversely, for Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, who engaged in a fascinating battle with seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton from the halfway point, there was only pure joy as the 41-year-old Spaniard finished third to rack up his 100th podium finish in a 22-year Grand Prix career.
Two-time world champion Alonso, who set the fastest lap times in the second and third practice sessions on Friday and Saturday, had suddenly looked a hot contender for what could possibly have been his first race win since the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix in the lead-up to this contest.
But when, like everyone else, he found himself eclipsed by Verstappen’s incredible pace and skill after starting in fifth position on the grid, Alonso put all his years of experience to good use in his one-on-one battle with Hamilton, who had started the race from seventh place on the starting grid.
As the race entered its 37th lap, the packed stands at the BIC were treated to the spectacle of two of the most experienced drivers in the sport trying to outwit each other at high speeds, as Hamilton, who had crept up to fifth position, was overtaken by Alonso before the Briton wrestled the advantage back again.
But, before long, the Spaniard had gone ahead again and he eventually managed to outpace the other Ferrari driver, Carlos Sainz, who had pressed into third after Leclerc’s unfortunate engine failure.
By the time a magnificent fireworks display lit up the night sky to signal Verstappen’s emphatic win, Sainz could only watch Alonso grab the last place on the podium as he, himself, crossed the finish line in fourth position, just ahead of Hamilton, who did well to overcome a slightly iffy start.
Alonso said later at the post-race press conference that he had found his Aston Martin nice to drive.
“It felt a bit too good to be true, so we will have to see how we do in Jeddah and Australia,” he said, adding that the AMR23 car he had raced here was a “starting car, not the final car for this season”.
He also revealed that his adrenaline had been pumping as he sparred with Hamilton in that epic duel and that he had tried not to make any mistakes as he went wheel-to-wheel with the Briton.
Fittingly, for such a massively dominant victory, the chequered flag used to signal Verstappen’s win was waved by Italian motorcycle road-racing legend, Giacomo Agostini, who amassed 122 Grand Prix wins and 15 world championship titles over the course of a glittering 17-year career in the 1960s and ‘70s.
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