Max Verstappen against the rest. He was dominant from start to finish. By immediately winning the first grand prix of the season, the 25-year-old Dutchman impressively set the tone in Bahrain. His biggest challenger, the Monegask Charles Leclerc, retired in the 41st round with technical problems. “This was exactly the start of the season we had hoped for,” a happy Verstappen shouted from his car to his team Red Bull Racing.
The contrast with a year ago was great. At the time, the roles were reversed in the first race when Verstappen started a season as world champion for the first time and retired himself. After a catch-up race, Verstappen managed to take over the lead in the standings after six grands prix and did not relinquish it. Verstappen was the eleventh driver to successfully defend his title since 1950. But the Dutchman wants more. This year, with his third world title in a row, he wants to rank among the greatest such as Juan Manuel Fangio (Argentina), Michael Schumacher (Germany), Sebastian Vettel (Germany) and Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain). The question is whether any of the other nineteen drivers have a serious chance of breaking Verstappen’s reign.
Verstappen made it clear in Bahrain with the 21st pole position in his career that he is the driver to beat with the RB19. During qualifying on Saturday, he beat his Mexican teammate Sergio Pérez, the two Ferraris of Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso and the Mercedes of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton. This is most likely his main challengers. The other Dutchman Nyck de Vries started nineteenth and is too far from the top with his Alpha Tauri in his first season. He finished fourteenth on Sunday.
36th win
Verstappen’s biggest competitor in Bahrain was his teammate Pérez, who drives almost the same car. The Dutchman and the Mexican fought a fierce battle with each other last season, which came to a climax in November when Verstappen refused to let his teammate pass in the final phase of the Brazilian Grand Prix. The cold between the two would be over by now, but it is clear to friend and foe that Red Bull is mainly about Verstappen. And that actually makes Pérez no chance for the world title in advance.
Verstappen was the first to leave the already dark Bahrain circuit at 6 p.m. local time. He immediately left the competition well behind him, went to the pits twice to change his tires and was able to further expand his lead. Verstappen proved simply unapproachable during the first of the 23 races. It was his 36th victory, but he had never before won at the Sakhir circuit in the Bahrain desert, which entered the Formula I calendar in 2004 as the first grand prix in the Middle East.
Although the season is still very long, and will not end until November 26 in Abu Dhabi, the competition may already be condemned to a battle between the best of the rest. If the Bahrain Grand Prix was illustrative of that, it will be an interesting fight between Pérez and Leclerc. The duel for second place in Bahrain was a battle between Pérez and Leclerc for a long time, with both being evenly matched until technical problems of the Ferrari decided the battle.
Fernando Alonso
With Verstappen’s victory and Pérez’s second place, Red Bull struck a double blow. Yet the biggest surprise came from two-time world champion Fernando Alonso. At the age of 41, the Spaniard claimed third place with his Aston Martin. Alonso made – after a difficult start in which he came into contact with his Canadian teammate Lance Stroll – an almost as stunning impression as Verstappen in 57 laps. The Spaniard left his much younger competitors Sainz and Russell behind and came in cheering just under half a minute from the winner.