Max Verstappen started the 2024 Formula 1 championship in winning style, taking a comfortable victory in the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The reigning world champion took a hat-trick of pole position, win and the fastest lap to secure maximum 26 points to begin his 2024 campaign.
Sergio Perez finished second, over 20 seconds behind his team mate. Carlos Sainz Jnr was third, a further two seconds behind.
With all 20 drivers starting the race on the soft compound, Verstappen held onto the lead off the line and led the early laps, pulling away gradually. George Russell took second from Charles Leclerc, before Sergio Perez moved passed the Ferrari into third.
Verstappen was the last driver in the field to make his first pit stop and switch to the hard tyres, emerging five seconds ahead of his team mate Perez, who had passed Russell following their respective stops. By lap 24, Verstappen’s lead over his team mate had doubled to 10 seconds.
A second round of pit stops followed between laps 30 and 40, with Verstappen again the last of the leaders to stop. However, both he and Perez fitted a fresh set of soft tyres that they had available. Verstappen immediately set the fastest lap, then both Red Bulls paced themselves over the remaining laps to secure a comfortably one-two finish to start the season.
Sainz finished on the podium, 25 seconds behind the winner but considerably closer than last year’s third-place finishers, Fernando Alonso. Leclerc took fourth after managing a braking imbalance throughout the race.
Russell came in fifth, with Lando Norris in sixth, Lewis Hamilton seventh, Oscar Piastri eighth and the two Aston Martins of Alonso and Lance Stroll claiming the final points. All 20 drivers finished the race, despite Williams’ Logan Sargeant briefly stopping at the outside of turn four early in the race due to a temporary problem with his steering wheel.
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2024 Bahrain Grand Prix
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