F1 racing, Bahrain GP: “War horse” returned to the top, “Bull” fell painfully in the last 3 laps

(Sports News – F1 News) 98 days after the end of the 2021 season, F1 2022 officially took place the first race in the new era with a lot of new success expectations.

Video of F1 race, Bahrain GP

Ferrari had a better start and ended a 45-race drought, while Red Bull sucked “bitter fruit” with their engine. The top 3 started well and stayed in place, while Lewis Hamilton overcame Sergio Perez to take P4. Behind, Kevin Magnussen (Haas) also had an excellent departure to rise to 5th, while Valtteri Bottas showed instability when losing 8 places to 14th in the first round.

Leclerc dominated the race under pressure from Verstappen

Leclerc dominated the race under pressure from Verstappen

In the first tire turn, the most notable development was probably the fact that Sergio Perez corrected his mistake to retake P4 from Magnussen and Hamilton. The heat of the race only came when the top entered the pit for the first time, Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) came in behind Max Verstappen (Red Bull) making the 3s gap disappear. The next three rounds (17-19) Verstappen all attacked Leclerc in round 1, but the Monaco driver responded immediately in round 4 successfully. Thanks to that, despite some difficulties, Leclerc still kept P1.

By round 31-32, the scenario was repeated again when Verstappen and then Leclerc entered the pit, but this time, the Ferrari driver had a distance far enough that Verstappen could not attack a second time. It seemed that everything was over. arranged from there, but in round 44, Red Bull put both cars into the pit for the 3rd time before the surprise of all. Ferrari then only put Carlos Sainz into the pit and left Leclerc out with a difference of 26s and 13 laps remaining.

However, an incident occurred 1 lap later when Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri burned the engine and stopped at turn 3. The safety car had to appear, causing the whole race to gather. However, Ferrari is not too worried when Verstappen’s car is having a technical problem that cannot run at 100% power.

Red Bull has a nightmare, Mercedes benefits

Red Bull has a nightmare, Mercedes benefits

That showed when the race returned, when Verstappen had to defend against Sainz instead of attacking for 1st place. But the nightmare didn’t stop there, he lost P2 and had to give up at the end of lap 54, no Any points can be won. Teammate Perez also had the same engine problem and the Red Bull car went to the limit at the start of lap 57 – the last lap. It stripped the Mexican driver of podium, giving Red Bull a round 0 point after stage 1, but at the same time helping Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes suddenly have podium.

Behind, George Russell finished 4th for Mercedes. Magnussen and Bottas have important points with positions P5 and P6. Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso both scored for Alpine, and Yuki Tsunoda reaped the only point for the “Bull” house this stage with P8. Meanwhile Chau Quan Vu got the first score in F1 in his debut leg with Alfa Romeo.

Detailed results Bahrain GP 2022