The Bahrain Grand Prix that opened the 2022 Formula 1 season already left great details that we are facing an exciting course and had emotion until the end. Leclerc converted his pole position into victory , but had to fight an intense battle for three laps against a Verstappen who, just three laps from the end, when he was second, saw his Red Bull run out of power and had to retire.
In the first part of the race the champion, after two overtaking in turn 1 that the Monegasque then returned to him on the straight towards turn 4, failed on the third attempt and blocked tires, losing ground there with a Charles Leclerc who later, copying his rival’s strategy, he controlled until the end.
However, a Safety Car caused by the abandonment of Pierre Gasly caused the drama and left a crazy ‘mini race’ with six laps to go.
On the final restart, Leclerc managed to manage the restart well and Max Verstappen had to defend himself against a Carlos Sainz who was attacking in search of second position. The Red Bull rider seemed to hold on, but he warned the team that he was losing power and, despite being reassured that there was nothing wrong, he saw how Sainz overtook him to be second and he began to lose speed.
Verstappen had to arrive at the pits defeated, abandoning, and leaving the double in the hands of Ferrari and the podium to his teammate Sergio Pérez. However, the Mexican made a huge mistake and spun under pressure from Lewis Hamilton who unexpectedly ended up taking third position.
Red Bull leaves Bahrain without points. For its part, Ferrari, which achieved its first double since Singapore 2019 (just the day of its last victory), leads the constructors’ world championship with an iron hand.
Afterwards, Hamilton, also with the Mercedes, finished with a Russell who, like his teammate, had gone very well at the start of the race.
Fernando Alonso suffered excessive degradation in his Alpine and was on his way to scoring points in the first race, in eleventh place after being overtaken by his teammate Esteban Ocon (ninth) and by Yuki Tsunoda. With the double KO of Red Bull, the Spanish adds two points.
But if there was someone who took advantage of the catastrophic end of Red Bull it was Kevin Magnussen, fifth with the Haas. And also Valtteri Bottas, sixth with the Alfa Romeo despite a very bad first lap.
The next race, in just one week, at the Saudi Arabian GP .
Formula 1 Bahrain GP 2022 Race Results
(Click on ‘see results’ to enjoy the entire table)
| Cla | Pilot | laps | Weather | Difference | Interval | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
 |
57 | 1:37’33.584 | 26 | ||
| two |  |
 |
57 | 1:37’39.182 | 5,598 | 5,598 | 18 |
| 3 |  |
 |
57 | 1:37’43.259 | 9.675 | 4.077 | 15 |
| 4 | |
 |
57 | 1:37’44.795 | 11.211 | 1.536 | 12 |
| 5 |  |
 |
57 | 1:37’48.338 | 14.754 | 3.543 | 10 |
| 6 |  |
 |
57 | 1:37’49.703 | 16.119 | 1.365 | 8 |
| 7 |  |
 |
57 | 1:37’53.007 | 19.423 | 3.304 | 6 |
| 8 |  |
 |
57 57 | 1: 37’53.970 | 20.386 | 0.963 | Four |
| 9 | |
 |
57 | 1:37’55.974 | 22.390 | 2.004 | 2 |
| 10 |  |
 |
57 | 1:37’56.648 | 23.064 | 0.674 | 1 |
| see results | |||||||
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
F1 Bahrain GP 2022 Race Summary
Calm start and Leclerc holds on
Leclerc kept the lead at the start, with Verstappen trailing behind. Sainz had to defend himself against Pérez , but he held on to third place and the Mexican was overtaken by a Hamilton who had started very well but ran out of room to gain more ground than a position. In fact Magnussen also overtook Pérez, the Dane gaining two positions to be fifth. Russell , like his teammate in Mercedes, started well, and overtook Alonso and a Bottas who sank after touching the Spaniard at the start, losing up to eight places in the first lap.
Ocon spun Mick Schumacher and would later receive a five-second penalty, and an incident between Stroll and Norris was also investigated, but without penalty.
At the start of lap 3, Magnussen made a small mistake blocking tires and Pérez made him pay for it by overtaking him, and the same thing happened two laps later, when the one who took advantage of another error by Haas was Russell to be sixth.
While Leclerc and Verstappen moved away from a Sainz who was very close to Hamilton, Ocon stuck to Alonso a lot without being able to pass him. The action was left, fighting for 12th place, by the two Alfa Romeos and Albon with the Williams.
First pitstops, earlier than expected
However, being so close to Sainz caused Hamilton to lose performance on his tyres, and the first time he tried, Pérez took fourth place from him. At the end of lap 11, Hamilton pitted for hard, and Alonso also pitted for medium. The Mercedes driver rejoined the track with very cold tires, and was about to lose the car on a couple of occasions, which Zhou took advantage of to win the position, although Hamilton would later overtake him again to be eleventh.
After his stop, Alonso was penultimate, but was able to gain positions as the rest entered. Verstappen pitted at the end of lap 15 to put on softs, and so did Sainz. On that lap there were many who stopped, which completely changed the table.
Alonso took advantage of Gasly’s cold tires to regain the position he had lost during the pit stop, and Leclerc and Pérez reacted to their team-mates’ stops on the following lap.
Leclerc wins the duel against Verstappen and clings to first place
Leclerc rejoined just ahead of Verstappen, and a vibrant battle began there. When they crossed the finish line, Verstappen managed to pass Leclerc with DRS at the end of the main straight but, also with DRS, Leclerc gave it back to him on the next straight, the one that joins turns 3 and 4. A lap later, it was repeated same: the champion passed the Monegasque before reaching turn 1 and the Ferrari driver regained the head of the race before turn 4. The situation seemed to be eternal and again, on lap 19, Verstappen launched himself on the inside in the main line. However, on that occasion he blocked tires, and Leclerc did not need to wait for DRS to open to be first again.
Fernando Alonso went off the track that made him lose eighth place with Gasly, and with a high degradation, he had to stop again on lap 26 to put hard and try to reach the end.
Hamilton did it in the next one, also for the second time, and the seven-time champion put on socks. Although the hard ones didn’t seem to be working well, Alonso passed Mick Schumacher, and early on lap 31, Verstappen put medium on his second stop.
Second stop and stabilized positions
Ferrari reacted by copying strategy with Leclerc, and had no problem rejoining his rival, while the lead passed provisionally to Sainz, with Pérez, also with only one stop, second. Verstappen protested to Red Bull claiming that he had been asked to take it easy on the first lap with new tires and that, without saving there, he would have been ahead. On lap 34, Sainz and Pérez entered at the same time, and nothing changed between them, so first place went back to Leclerc.
Sainz was about to touch Albon when the Thai came out of the pits, and the Madrid native complained on the radio.
In the middle area, beautiful fights continued to be seen, such as the one that Magnussen won over Gasly, or that of the Alpines, among whom on lap 39 Esteban Ocon passed Alonso at the end of the main straight. Tsunoda also gave an account of an Alonso who on lap 41 left the points zone.
Third stop and Safety Car that alters everything
And when everything seemed stabilized, Red Bull surprised with an extra stop by Verstappen and Pérez with 13 laps to go. The Dutchman returned to the track third on new soft tyres, and Pérez fifth, four seconds behind Hamilton. Verstappen alerted his team to a problem with the steering wheel and was asked to return to the pits, but was eventually able to continue.
Ferrari protected Sainz from Pérez, and Hamilton also made his third pitstop. However, on lap 46, Gasly suffered a fire in his AlphaTauri, leading to a Virtual Safety Car period and then a physical Safety Car period.
Leclerc made his stop to fit new tires and protect himself, and the safety car grouped everyone together, with the #16 Ferrari in front, Verstappen behind, Sainz third, Pérez fourth, Hamilton fifth and Russell sixth.
Resumption and final madness
Far from being able to attack Leclerc to win, Verstappen had to keep an eye on a Sainz who was determined for second place. He didn’t seem to be able to do it, but the #1 suffered a problem in his Red Bull and had to give up, having to reach the pits to retire. Carlos clung to second place and Pérez tried to do the same with third place, but an unexpected spin when Hamilton threatened his podium position made him finish with another 0 and allowed Mercedes to be third.
