After a period of Virtual Safety Car in the last part of the race, a fierce battle began between Charles Leclerc and his main rival in 2022, Max Verstappen, for the victory.
Max Verstappen first passed Leclerc on the final corner of lap 42 (of 50) after the Monegasque driver appeared to let him pass to gain the DRS advantage on the main straight and retake the lead en route to Turn 1. .
Verstappen set up the maneuver on the following occasions, but he locked up too many tires to keep the DRS option and Charles Leclerc stayed in front.
On lap 47, the Red Bull finally certified the overtaking that would eventually give him his first victory of the season.
“Yeah, it seems like once you get close enough, when you get within half a second, you can have a good corner exit,” Verstappen said of the 2022 F1 cars.
“And I think that makes it much more difficult to overtake, for example at the last corner, compared to last year, so it’s much more difficult to plan how to pass.
“It wasn’t easy to do smart tricks in the last corner, but I finally managed to overtake.”
“But even after that, he was constantly within DRS shot and then the yellow flags on the last lap, knowing you have to lift but it’s not clear how much you have to do to make it legal.
Verstappen said he was trying to bet on the long haul after initially failing to get into Leclerc’s DRS zone as the Ferrari enjoyed a downforce advantage in the corners.
Both drivers were on hard, old tires after a one-stop race, and the Dutchman tried to keep his tires alive until the final 10 laps and take advantage of his higher top speed.
“It was a really tough race, but a good one. We are fighting hard at the front and we started playing thinking about the end,” he explained.
“They were very quick in the corners, we were very quick on the straight, but the tires wore out quite quickly.
“I think in the end it looked like we had a bit more pace, so I tried to overtake him. It was difficult, but very happy that we finally started the season.”
After leaving in the first appointment of the course, the Bahrain GP, Verstappen rises to third place in the standings, 20 points behind the leader Leclerc, who added an extra point for the fastest lap, and eight points behind the second Ferrari, the one from by Carlos Sainz.
