Category: Motor Racing

Charles Leclerc claimed the Formula 1 sprint pole position at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, overcoming a late drama with the wall to beat Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen.

A time of one minute, 41.697 seconds from Leclerc amid the first runs in the eight-minute SQ3 session proved unassailable, and a second set of laps from both Perez and Verstappen could not topple the Ferrari’s driver searing pace around the Baku circuit.

The Red Bull duo was especially keen to be first out in the final part of qualifying, sitting at the pitlane exit for a few minutes between sessions, and immediately began proceedings with the initial headline efforts.

Perez posted a one minute, 41.876 seconds to go top, and Verstappen was unable to beat his team-mate’s effort having complained that he “lost all the rear in the middle sector”.

Leclerc reprised his form from Friday and fired his Ferrari across the line with a one minute, 41.697 seconds to sit on top of the order, once again throwing down the gauntlet to the Red Bull duo.

Although Perez began to hit back, setting the best middle sector time of the session and threatening to usurp Leclerc, he was unable to make the difference in the final sector and crossed the line 0.15 seconds shy of Leclerc’s benchmark.

Attempting to better his own time, Leclerc then gave the Ferrari garage a scare by putting his Ferrari into the barrier at Turn 5, but only damaged his front wing and was able to back it out of the wall – compromising team-mate Carlos Sainz’s lap in the process.

Verstappen improved his time but was unable to claim any ground on Leclerc and Perez, and will thus start the sprint race from third on the grid.

With Sainz unable to make any gains, George Russell moved past the Spanish driver to claim fourth on the grid for the shortened Saturday race. His team-mate Lewis Hamilton starts from sixth, alongside Sainz on the third row.

Having carried his Williams all the way to SQ3, Alex Albon will start the sprint from seventh ahead of Fernando Alonso, who was suffering amid continued DRS issues at Aston Martin. Lance Stroll was ninth quickest, while Lando Norris could not run in SQ3 having no sets of soft tyres left.

The rules dictate that a fresh set of softs must be used, but McLaren decided to sacrifice a potential SQ3 outing on Friday and employed that set during his Q3 lap, giving him seventh on the grid for Sunday’s race.

Oscar Piastri was unable to progress to the final part of qualifying, despite getting into the top 10 late on in SQ2 with a lap 0.03 seconds shy of team-mate Norris.

But Stroll received a tow from Alonso in a showing of great teamwork among the Aston Martins, slingshotting the Canadian into the top ten at Piastri’s expense.

Nico Hulkenberg overcame a near-miss with the wall at Turn 7, where he sustained a lock-up at the front, to shuffle up to P12 as Haas did not have the pace to provide a concerted challenge for SQ3.

Esteban Ocon could only go P13 in a difficult session for the Alpine squad, albeit three tenths clear of Kevin Magnussen.

With 30 seconds left on the clock of SQ1, Logan Sargeant hit the wall at Turn 15 to effectively freeze the order for the opening 12 minutes of running, breaking the right rear corner of his Williams in the process.

Sargeant had been P11, but could take no further part in the session given the extent of the damage – the American citing that the “Ferraris were in the middle of the road” on the exit of the Old City section.

This denied the Alfa Romeos of Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas a chance to break out of the bottom five. But the timing of the red flag was more cruel for Yuki Tsunoda, who had qualified in the top ten for Sunday’s Grand Prix, and was on course to better his lap before the session was stopped as he was on the final straight.

Pierre Gasly entered the pits after his initial runs, and thus could do no better than 19th on the grid – and was only spared from the bottom of the pile by Nyck de Vries. The Dutchman endured a troubled run, once more going deep at Turn 3 – but this time, avoided the wall and managed to reverse out.

Azerbaijan Grand Prix, sprint qualifying:
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:41.697
2 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:41.844
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:41.987
4 George Russell Mercedes 1:42.252
5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:42.287
6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:42.502
7 Alex Albon Williams 1:42.846
8 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:43.010
9 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:43.064
10 Lando Norris McLaren No time
11 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:43.427
12 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:43.806
13 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:44.088
14 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1;44.332
15 Logan Sargeant Williams No time
16 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:45.177
17 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1;45.352
18 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:45.436
19 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1;46.951
20 Nyck de Vries AlphaTauri 1:48.180

Charles Leclerc earned his third successive Baku pole position by beating Max Verstappen. The Ferrari driver will start in P1 following Friday’s qualifying session based on the new sprint weekend format.

This is the first weekend run to the latest sprint format, with another qualifying session on Saturday for the shorten, racing event.

Leclerc secured his first Formula 1 pole of the season on his final effort of the session, with a time of one minute, 40.203 seconds, having ratcheted up his pace from a strong opening run in the last part of qualifying to prove unassailable for the two Red Bull drivers.

On their first flying runs of Q3, Verstappen and Leclerc set identical times – both crossing the timing line with a one minute, 40.445 seconds apiece, with Perez a tenth behind. Leclerc had the whip hand over Verstappen in the opening sector, but the defending champion had the monopoly over the remaining sectors.

Leclerc was the first of the trio to begin his final hot lap, crucially flipping the Red Bull’s advantage in the second sector to go over two tenths faster than his first run.

Perez went quicker than Leclerc in the first sector but was comparatively slower in the second sector and could only match the Ferrari driver in the final part of the lap.

Verstappen’s final sector was quickest, but the second sector once again proved to be the difference – the reigning champion could not find enough time over the remaining parts of the lap to overturn that disadvantage.

An one minute, 40.391 seconds was enough for Verstappen to beat Perez to the front row, however, and the latter will start Sunday’s race next to Carlos Sainz.

Sainz had been unable to improve on his first lap, one minute 41.016 seconds, but it was enough to keep a second-row slot away from Lewis Hamilton.

The Mercedes driver had improved in Q3 having come perilously close to being knocked out in Q2, with the W14 matching the leaders’ pace in the final sector.

He starts alongside Fernando Alonso on the grid for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the Aston Martin driver losing time in the middle sector relative to his former McLaren team-mate.

Lando Norris led the line for McLaren, which had got two cars into the final part of qualifying having been bolstered by new updates, Norris qualifying seventh ahead of an impressive Yuki Tsunoda.

Lance Stroll struggled with an unresponsive DRS and could only manage ninth on the grid, ahead of Oscar Piastri, who completed the top half of the field.

George Russell was the biggest casualty of Q2, having been disposed of through late laps from Piastri and Tsunoda, and the Mercedes driver was not able to improve on his own fastest lap to break back into the top ten.

He crucially remained clear of Esteban Ocon, who reported a brush with the wall in a messy session for the Alpine team, while Alex Albon could not break out of the drop zone despite impressive straightline pace in his Williams. Valtteri Bottas and Logan Sargeant were the other casualties from Q2.

Nyck de Vries buried his AlphaTauri in the Turn 3 exit wall halfway through Q1 to bring out a red flag, without a representative lap on the board. De Vries had to be pushed back into the garage while preparing to get out on track, citing a brake-by-wire issue.

After the session resumed, Pierre Gasly – having barely factored in practice after suffering a hydraulic leak – was next to produce a stoppage hitting the wall at Turn 3, tearing off his right-hand sidepod and part of his rear wing.

Sainz had his own near-miss in the meantime, enduring a slide on the exit of Turn 1 but managed to keep his car out of the wall.

Both Haas cars were from the first part of qualifying, Kevin Magnussen having suffered from an engine issue earlier in the session. Although K-Mag reported that the car felt fine, his team told him not to risk it and pulled him into the garage, leaving him unable to better his time from the opening phase of the session.

Nico Hulkenberg was on the brink of the drop as Alfa Romeo pair Zhou Guanyu and Bottas occupied the elimination zone, and Hulk’s poor first sector effectively ended his chances of evading an early bath.

The Alfa pair initially escaped the bottom five, but Piastri’s final effort was enough to push Zhou back into P16, two hundredths of a second off Ocon.

So congratulations to Charles Leclerc with this pole position. Another qualifying session takes place on Saturday which sets the grid for the sprint race but this result determined the starting order for the main Grand Prix event.

Azerbaijan Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:40.203
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:40.391
3 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:40.495
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:41.016
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:41.177
6 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:41.253
7 Lando Norris McLaren 1:41.281
8 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:41.581
9 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:41.611
10 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:41.611
11 George Russell Mercedes 1:41.654
12 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:41.798
13 Alexander Albon Williams 1:41.818
14 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:42.259
15 Logan Sargeant Williams 1:42.395
16 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:42.642
17 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:42.755
18 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:43.417
19 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:44.853
20 Nyck De Vries AlphaTauri 1:55.282

Max Verstappen held off his old championship rival Lewis Hamilton to win Formula 1’s 2023 Australian Grand Prix, which ended in surreal scenes following a late second red flag of three and a chaotic subsequent restart.

Verstappen had dominated most of the proceedings despite losing the initial lead from pole to George Russell and Hamilton, before a first red flag caused by Alex Albon crashing out solo and putting debris and gravel across the road.

At the second standing start Hamilton maintained his lead, but as soon as the DRS overtaking aid was reactivated, Verstappen blasted by into a lead he would ultimately not lose but with plenty of drama and confusing scenes to come.

The first red flag meant none of the leaders completed any in-race pitstops as they were able to change their starting tyres under the stoppage, which was what cemented Russell’s place in the pack from which he charged before his engine expired in flames at the end of the event’s first third.

For most of the race, there was little action at the front as Verstappen dropped Hamilton and worked his way to a ten-second advantage that was only cut when the Red Bull driver briefly ran off the road at the penultimate corner and complaining about front locking.

At this point, Hamilton was holding Fernando Alonso at arm’s length while the teams worked out if their charges could get to the finish without requiring new tyres.

They were upping their pace – exchanging fastest laps with Verstappen ahead – when the concluding farce kicked off, starting with Kevin Magnussen bizarrely running off the track by himself exiting the second corner and striking the nearby wall with his right rear.

This fell off as he headed towards Turn 3 and that, plus Magnussen stopping inside Turn 4, led to the race being stopped again, with a two-lap sprint set to conclude the action.

When this started, Verstappen swept across Hamilton’s bows and covered the inside line to Turn 1, from where Alonso exited ahead of Carlos Sainz and was then tagged by the Ferrari and spun towards the wall Magnussen had tagged.

Behind, chaos reigned as Pierre Gasly locked hard behind Sainz and went off at Turn 2 along with several other cars and as Gasly rejoined he swung right and took out team-mate Esteban Ocon, ruining what had looked to be a very strong result for Alpine and Pierre in particular as he had been fighting Sainz for most of the race.

Before the red flags came out for a third time, Lance Stroll slid into the gravel at Turn 3 while fighting Sainz, appearing to also destroy Aston Martin’s previously excellent positions.

But after the race was suspended, crucially before Verstappen had passed the first sector timing line, a 30-minute delay followed with one lap remaining from the 58 total as the FIA worked out how the event would conclude.

It eventually decided, much like at Silverstone in 2022, that the previous grid restart order would be used minus the cars that could not take a fourth and final restart.

This was a safety car rolling start that meant no overtaking and so Verstappen blasted to the win under no threat from Hamilton and the restored Alonso fourth.

They were followed home by Sainz but he had already been handed a five-second time addition penalty for hitting Alonso at the third standing restart – this event matching Mugello 2020 and Jeddah 2021 for such scenes.

Sainz, who raged about not being able to explain his case to the stewards, therefore fell to P12 in the results, making it a point-less weekend down under for Ferrari as Charles Leclerc had retired in the Turn 3 gravel way back on the first lap after turning in and finding Lance Stroll on his inside and getting turned around in what was swiftly declared a racing incident.

Sergio Perez’s charge from a pitlane start had provided most of the action during the main part of the race, as he put in pass after pass on slower rivals into the fast Turn 9/10 left-right swoops.

He had reached seventh by the second red flag but was very lucky to end up fifth as he had been attacking Gasly in the third restart chaos and went deep into the gravel and fell to the rear of the pack before being boosted back up by the FIA’s ruling.

Lando Norris and Nico Hulkenberg put in a thrilling battle during the pre-Magnussen red flag events and they ended up sixth and seventh ahead of home hero Oscar Piastri.

Zhou Guanyu and Yuki Tsunoda completed the top ten ahead of Valtteri Bottas and the penalised Sainz.

So an entertaining and chaotic race in Albert Park. So much action, overtaking and restarts. Plus a surreal ending with a parade to the flag. Congratulations to Max Verstappen in winning the Australian Grand Prix and great to have Lewis Hamilton scoring a podium for Mercedes while Fernando Alonso continues to score a top three result for Aston Martin.

Australian Grand Prix, race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 2:32:38.371
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +0.179
3 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.769
4 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +3.082
5 Sergio Perez Red Bull +3.320
6 Lando Norris McLaren +3.701
7 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +4.939
8 Oscar Piastri McLaren +5.382
9 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo +5.713
10 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +6.052
11 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo +6.513
12 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +6.594*
13 Pierre Gasly Alpine +2 laps
14 Esteban Ocon Alpine +2 laps
15 Nyck de Vries AlphaTauri +2 laps
16 Logan Sargeant Williams +2 laps
17 Kevin Magnussen Haas +6 laps
– George Russell Mercedes DNF
– Alex Albon Williams DNF
– Charles Leclerc Ferrari DNF
*Five-second time penalty for causing a collision with Fernando Alonso

Max Verstappen achieves his first Australian Grand Prix pole position in Albert Park while the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton will line up second and third on the grid.

After a light rain shower had hit the Melbourne circuit just ahead of the one-hour session getting underway and with the C4 Pirelli softs holding on for multiple laps but requiring multiple warm-ups to be at their best, the Australian crowd was treated to an action-packed qualifying.

After being fuelled to run for huge chunks of laps at a time in Q1 and Q3, most of the Q3 runners opted for two new tyre runs of five laps, with two fliers.

Verstappen had led the way throughout but was reporting possible issues with his RB19’s battery and transmission when he blasted in a one minute, 16.732 seconds to secure pole with a few seconds left on the clock.

That knocked back Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, who was shuffled back to fourth position by the last-gasp efforts of Russell and Hamilton.

The Mercedes driver slotted in with one minute, 17.968 seconds as the only other driver to join Verstappen under the one minute, 17 seconds bracket, with his teammate slightly adrift having had to jockey for position with Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg through the final corners on their last warm-up tours.

Behind Alonso came his Spanish compatriot Carlos Sainz for Ferrari, with Lance Stroll sixth for Aston Martin and Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari next up.

Leclerc put in his best time well ahead of the chequered flag and with enough time to complete a final run in Q3 and although he set a personal best one minute, 17.369 seconds he could not climb further ahead.

Alex Albon gave Williams its best qualifying of 2023 so far in eighth position – pitting ahead of his Q3 rivals completing the last laps in the final minutes – with Pierre Gasly and Hulkenberg completing the top ten.

Esteban Ocon missed a personal best on his final Q2 flier after encountering traffic late on in the final sector and was knocked out behind Albon by just 0.007 seconds, the Williams driver abandoning his final lap in the middle segment after clipping the Turn 11 apex kerb and nearly losing the rear of his car.

Also knocked out in Q2 were Yuki Tsunoda, Lando Norris and Kevin Magnussen, who all set their best laps at the end.

Nyck de Vries did not do likewise as he was eliminated in P15 for AlphaTauri, after he had escaped Q1 for the first time in his debut season with the Red Bull sister squad.

In Q1, Sergio Perez locked up heading into the tight, Turn 3 right-hander on his first flying lap and slid straight off the road and into the gravel trap he had also visited in FP1 and FP3.

The Jeddah Grand Prix winner skated across the gravel but as he turned right and tried to manoeuvre his way out he became stuck at the edge next to a muddy access road close to the barrier, where Checo fumed he had suffered the “same issue” as earlier in the weekend.

This is possibly referring to the braking problem Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said both of his charges were grappling with earlier in the Australian Grand Prix weekend.

After an eight-minute delay, the opening segment resumed, with the pack fuelled to run throughout.

Eliminated alongside Perez were home hero Oscar Piastri, who set a personal best on his final flier but it was not good enough to dislodge Tsunoda ahead, Zhou Guanyu, Logan Sargeant and Valtteri Bottas.

Sargeant had a spin at the start of Q1 when he put his right-side wheels on the still slippery exiting the final corner and he pirouetted around diving back into the pits.

So an exciting race in Albert Park in store with the four champions in the first two rows on the grid. Bring on the race!

Australian Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:16.732
2 George Russell Mercedes 1:16.968
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:17.104
4 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:17.139
5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:17.270
6 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:17.308
7 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:17.369
8 Alex Albon Williams 1:17.609
9 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:17.675
10 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:17.735
11 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:17.768
12 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:18.099
13 Lando Norris McLaren 1:18.119
14 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:18.129
15 Nyck de Vries AlphaTauri 1:18.335
16 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:18.517
17 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:18.540
18 Logan Sargeant Williams 1:18.557
19 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:18.714
20 Sergio Perez Red Bull No time

Sergio Perez is a street circuit master thanks to victory at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at Jeddah.

Perez crossed the line 5.3 seconds clear of Verstappen, who spent the final laps charging his battery for a final-tour tilt at the fastest lap which was ultimately successful as he crossed the line with a one minute, 31.906 seconds lap.

Perez had to overcome a setback at the start, in which Fernando Alonso trickled through into the first corner to take the lead and settled into first place.

But immediately, Alonso was pinged for starting from the incorrect grid location, and a swift investigation resulted in the Aston Martin driver taking a five-second penalty for having been too far to the left in his starting box.

Despite his lead over Perez briefly getting over a second, Alonso was chased down by Perez at the end of the third lap and, with DRS, Checo was able to pull to the inside and make a move to regain the lead at the start of lap four.

Alonso stuck with him in DRS range and, although he never made a charge to reclaim the lead, he was able to sit in Perez’s slipstream for a few laps until he was simply unable to keep within a second of the Red Bull.

From there, the Aston Martin driver tailed off and quickly dropped to 1.6 seconds off Checo by the 11th lap, a deficit that doubled two laps later.

But the race was paused on lap 17, as Lance Stroll – who had earlier put a sensational overtake on Carlos Sainz on the opening lap at Turn 13 – crawled to a halt and parked up at Turn 8. This ultimately brought out a safety car, prompting a flurry of pitstops among the front runners as they traded their medium tyres for the hardest compound.

Verstappen was brought on level terms after the safety car restart, having pitted along with the early leading pack, and was initially told to prioritise managing his tyres until DRS was activated on lap 23.

This gave him the tools to dispose of George Russell with DRS into Turn 27, and the defending champion was subsequently able to catch Alonso in a bid to break into the top two.

Next on Verstappen’s agenda was closing down the 5.4 seconds gap to Perez, and was able to chip about a tenth out per lap, getting it to five seconds by lap 30 of the circuit as Perez tried to reduce the damage.

The polesitter managed to restore his buffer to about 5.2 seconds on the following lap, as he and Verstappen continued to battle for fastest laps. Although largely matching each other for time, Verstappen was able to continually chip away at Perez’s lead.

As the gap fell below 4.5 seconds, Verstappen began to get worried as he started to feel the driveshaft making strange noises at high speed, which restored Perez’s gap to 5.2 seconds as Red Bull investigated his complaints.

But sufficiently happy, Red Bull told Verstappen to press on – and in the meantime, Perez reported a long brake pedal as the team tried to close out the race. Once the two were reassured over their issues, Verstappen closed the gap back up to 4.3 seconds as the radio chattered between the Red Bull drivers and engineers began.

Perez attempted to lobby his team into slowing things down as Verstappen continued to push but, once told it was open season, Perez opened the taps and began to flex an advantage over his team-mate having been able to hang in the low one minute, 32 seconds.

With three laps remaining, Perez’s lead grew to six seconds as Verstappen was instead concerned more about the fastest lap, and the lead grew in Perez’s favour to 7.1 seconds ahead of the final lap.

Verstappen then set his one minute, 31.906 seconds to snatch the fastest-lap point from his team-mate, cutting the gap to just over five seconds to ultimately follow his team-mate home as Perez chalked up a first win since Singapore last season.

Alonso completed the top three, having served his five-second penalty during the safety car period ahead of his pitstop to remain ahead of the chasing Mercedes and Ferrari cars.

Russell was told on the radio to keep Alonso within five seconds, just to cover off the threat of any further penalties, but a mighty last lap from the 2005 and 2006 world champion left the Mercedes driver outside of that margin, and the FIA immediately placed him under investigation for serving the penalty incorrectly.

Alonso had initially completed the top three, having served his five-second penalty during the safety car period ahead of his pitstop to remain ahead of the chasing Mercedes and Ferrari cars.

With that, Alonso was hit with a 10-second penalty, moving him down to fourth and promoting Russell into third position.

Lewis Hamilton ensured both Mercedes made the top five, having opted for a contra-strategy in which he started on hards and completed a 32-lap stint on the medium compound.

This ensured he was able to finish ahead of Carlos Sainz, who had earlier used his pitstop to overcut Stroll, having been the object of his sumptuous pass around the outside at Turn 13.

Sainz stayed ahead of Charles Leclerc, who battled through the order after a 10-place penalty left him starting P12, and the Ferrari driver was able to make it up to seventh position.

Esteban Ocon won the battle of the Alpines to finish eighth, with Pierre Gasly finishing ninth to repeat his Bahrain result.

Haas got off the mark for the season as Kevin Magnussen completed the top ten, having battled throughout the second half of the race with Yuki Tsunoda over the final point.

K-Mag put a move on the AlphaTauri driver at the start of lap 46, denying the Italian team the chance to score its first point of 2023.

So a Red Bull 1-2 with Sergio Perez scoring a victory after a super drive and yet Max Verstappen was the most impressive following a driveshaft failure in qualifying. The double champion charged through the field thanks to the amazing race pace in the RB19 and to get the fastest lap and P2 is important for the championship.

Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, race results:
1 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:21:14.894
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull +5.355s
3 George Russell Mercedes +25.866s
4 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +30.728s
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +31.065s
6 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +35.876s
7 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +43.162s
8 Esteban Ocon Alpine +52.832s
9 Pierre Gasly Alpine +54.747s
10 Kevin Magnussen Haas +64.826s
11 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +67.494
12 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +70.588s
13 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo +76.060s
14 Nyck de Vries AlphaTauri +77.478s
15 Oscar Piastri McLaren +85.021s
16 Logan Sargeant Williams +86.293s
17 Lando Norris McLaren +86.445s
18 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo +1 lap
– Alex Albon Williams DNF
– Lance Stroll Aston Martin DNF

Sergio Perez claimed his second Formula 1 pole position at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, as early favourite and Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen was eliminated in Q2 with a driveshaft failure.

The double champion had reeled off the fastest lap times in all three practice sessions, and had headed Q1 by half a second over teammate Perez as the result of qualifying appeared to be a foregone conclusion.

Verstappen suffered a slide on his first bid to set a competitive lap in Q2 and backed out of it to prepare for another effort but, lost drive during the middle sector and reported that he could no longer accelerate.

He limped back to the garage, but it became clear that Max would not be able to continue with the session. The team later reported that a mechanical failure of his driveshaft was the culprit.

Given his terrifying advantage, Verstappen’s shocking exit ensured that the battle for pole would largely be open season – although Perez had the upper hand thanks to Red Bull’s overall pace.

It proved to be thus in the opening runs, and Perez setting a one minute, 28.265 seconds to go nearly half a second faster than Charles Leclerc’s best effort as the Ferrari driver had moved to the top after his first run.

This laid down the gauntlet for the other drivers to pick up, and Alonso was first to challenge but lost around three tenths in the final sector to slot in behind Perez in the order.

Lance Stroll then set the best first sector of anyone, keeping tabs on Perez through the next part of the circuit, but shed half a second in the final part of the lap to throw away any chances of claiming a surprise pole.

Leclerc was the last serious contender to try and overhaul the Mexican, but was just 0.155 seconds shy by the close of the lap – but it proved to be enough for the Ferrari driver to claim second over Alonso on the timesheets.

However, Leclerc will stare down the barrel of a ten place grid penalty for the Grand Prix, having taken new control electronics for the second race of the season outside of his permissible allowance.

Perez’s effort amid the opening runs of the session proved to be more than ample to earn his second-ever pole position in Formula 1, his first having come at last year’s race in Jeddah.

Alonso’s best time was 0.465 seconds shy of Perez and the Spaniard was thus third fastest, ahead of George Russell as the Mercedes driver was able to coax a competitive first-sector time out of his car.

Carlos Sainz overcame a Q2 scare, in which he had to try another lap to break into the top ten, to claim the fifth fastest time. He starts alongside Russell on the second row owing to Leclerc’s penalty, with Stroll fifth on Sunday’s grid.

Ocon was seventh fastest from Hamilton, while Oscar Piastri made his first Q3 appearance in Formula 1 and was ninth in the order, beating Pierre Gasly to a place on the fourth row of the grid once penalties have been applied.

Aside from Verstappen’s issue in Q2, Gasly made a late escape from the drop zone having been pushed into the bottom five by Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg.

The Hulk was in P14 after the first set of runs, but sprung into the top ten to leave Gasly on the brink of needing to take an early exit.

By just 0.04 seconds, Gasly pipped Hulkenberg to a place in Q3 in a closely fought session in which the top 14 were covered by just 1.033 seconds.

Piastri dumped Yuki Tsunoda out of qualifying at the flag during Q1, moments after the AlphaTauri driver had managed to push Alex Albon into the drop zone amid a late flurry of laps.

Conversely, Lando Norris was unable to progress having tapped the inside wall at Turn 27, immediately breaking his front-left suspension to force him into a quick retreat to the pitlane. Norris could not return to the circuit, ensuring he was P19 in the session.

He was surrounded on the timing boards by Nyck de Vries, who spun on his first timed lap at the opening corner and later confessed to messing up the final corner on his last-gasp effort to try and break out of the bottom five.

Logan Sargeant propped up the order after losing his best laptime to track limits. Coming out of the final corner, the Williams driver crossed the line at the kink along the start-finish straight, costing him his one minute, 29.721 seconds lap – which would have been good enough to get him into Q2.

Sargeant later spun on his next effort later on in the session, and then scuffed his final lap and reported an unspecified breakage – coming to rest at Turn 10 after pulling over.

So a mixed up grid for the main race following the shocking exit for the defending world champion. The front row looks exciting with Perez alongside Alonso. It’s going to be fascinating to see Verstappen fighting through the field as the Red Bull RB19 has super race pace.

Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Qualifying positions:
1 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:28.265
2 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:28.730
3 George Russell Mercedes 1:28.857
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:28.931
5 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:28.945
6 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:29.078
7 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:29.223
8 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1’29.243
9 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:29.357
10 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:29.451
11 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:29.461
12 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:28.420*
13 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:29.517
14 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:29.668
15 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:49.953
16 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:29.939
17 Alex Albon Williams 1:29.994
18 Nyck de Vries AlphaTauri 1:30.244
19 Lando Norris McLaren 1:30.447
20 Logan Sargeant Williams 2:08.510
*Ten place grid penalty for changing an electric control unit

World champion Max Verstappen dominated Formula 1’s 2023 season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix to win ahead of Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso, while Charles Leclerc lost a podium to an engine issue.

Verstappen led easily away from pole position, while his Red Bull teammate Perez lost second to Leclerc after he made a slow getaway and fell behind the Ferrari driver.

Any hope of a battle for the lead was quickly extinguished when Verstappen romped clear of Leclerc by over half-a-second a lap, with Perez tracking Leclerc across the first stint before they made their first of two pitstops.

Leclerc was the first of the leaders to stop to switch from softs to hards on lap 13 of 57, with Verstappen coming in from nearly ten seconds clear to take a second set of softs after both Red Bull cars had come into the race with just one set of the white-walled rubber available.

Perez ran a few laps longer before he stopped to take more softs too, which he then used to close in on Leclerc and took second with a DRS-assisted blast to the inside of Turn 1 on lap 26.

From there, Verstappen was only bothered by a minor downshift issue causing occasional rear-locking and ran clear of Perez to win by 11.9 seconds after they had both completed one more pitstop to finally take the hards in what was a crushing performance from Red Bull.

That was made even better when Leclerc, who had dropped to nearly ten seconds behind Perez before making a second stop for fresh hards on lap 33, retired from the race after suddenly losing drive on lap 40, with Ferrari later saying it had “lost the engine” on his SF-23.

That triggered a brief virtual safety car as the Ferrari was recovered, after which Alonso charged after and passed compatriot Carlos Sainz to score a podium on his first appearance for Aston Martin.

He had earlier lost a place to Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes on the first lap, then lost another to George Russell when Lance Stroll tagged his new Aston team-mate outbraking himself while battling Russell into Turn 4 on the opening tour.

Alonso followed Hamilton through the race’s early tyre management phases and two stops for both Astons and Mercedes cars, the Spaniard running long before making his second stop after Mercedes had pitted Hamilton early for a second time to ward off an undercut threat from his former McLaren team-mate.

The two world champions engaged in a thrilling fight over what was then fifth place, with Alonso needing two attempts to clear Hamilton after his first pass at Turn 4 went wrong before he put in a brilliant Turns 9/10 dive to clear the Mercedes.

Post virtual safety car, Alonso quickly caught Sainz, who had been running a long way adrift of Leclerc and concerned about his second set of hards making the finish, and also had a close call with the Ferrari when he tried to pass for the first time at Turn 4 on lap 45, lightly tagging the Ferrari’s right-rear with his left-front.

But a few moments later, Alonso’s superior pace meant he benefitted from DRS down the back straight and he blasted by to take a third place he would not lose.

Hamilton shadowed Sainz to the finish in fourth and fifth, with Stroll beating Russell to sixth after Aston pulled off the undercut at his second stop.

In other incidents of note, Pierre Gasly rose from last to finish ninth, with Alex Albon tenth for Williams.

Lando Norris stopped five times due to a pneumatic pressure problem on his McLaren before he retired late on, as was Esteban Ocon after he picked up three penalties – for being out of position in his grid box, Alpine working on his car before he finished serving his five-second penalty at his first stop and the speeding in the pitlane.

So congratulations to Max Verstappen by kicking off the new season with victory. This is the perfect start for Red Bull Racing with a 1-2 finish with Sergio Perez taking second position. As for Fernando Alonso, what a drive in the Aston Martin. Points finish for the double champion in his first race in British Racing Green. Well done Fernando!

Bahrain Grand Prix, race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:33:56.736
2 Sergio Perez Red Bull +11.987s
3 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +38.637s
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +48.052s
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +50.977s
6 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +54.502s
7 George Russell Mercedes +55.873s
8 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo +72.647s
9 Pierre Gasly Alpine +73.753s
10 Alex Albon Williams +89.774s
11 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +90.870s
12 Logan Sargeant Williams +1 lap
13 Kevin Magnussen Haas +1 lap
14 Nyck de Vries AlphaTauri +1 lap
15 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +1 lap
16 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo +1 lap
17 Lando Norris McLaren +2 laps
– Esteban Ocon Alpine DNF
– Charles Leclerc Ferrari DNF
– Oscar Piastri McLaren DNF

The defending champion Max Verstappen lead a Red Bull Racing 1-2 in qualifying for Formula 1’s 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix season opener, with Charles Leclerc third but unexpectedly missing the final Q3 fliers.

Carlos Sainz finished in fourth position ahead of two-time champion Fernando Alonso, the Aston Martin driver only running once in the final segment due to having one set fewer of the soft tyres compared to the Red Bull and Ferrari drivers.

Verstappen had led Leclerc after the first runs in Q3 by 0.103 seconds, but just as the action was due to reach qualifying’s climax, the latter was suddenly climbing from his Ferrari and was shuffled down to third by Perez’s final lap improvement.

Ahead, Verstappen had already gone even quicker on his second run to post a one minute, 29.708 seconds, which meant he ended up clear of his team-mate by 0.138 seconds and Leclerc by 0.292 seconds.

Sainz was able to make a second Q3 flier and set a personal best, but ended up fourth behind his team-mate.

Then came Alonso and George Russell, who led his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton in sixth and seventh, the duos also completing just a single run in Q3.

Lance Stroll did likewise, albeit running shortly after Alonso and he took eighth while running with his injured right wrist.

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon took ninth ahead of new Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg, who marked his first time back in qualifying as a full-time Formula 1 driver since 2019 by making Q3 where he lost a time for going too far beyond track limits at Turn 4, but set an even quicker time on his way to taking 10th.

In Q2, Stroll’s last-gasp improvement to sneak through in tenth knocked out McLaren’s Lando Norris, who himself had only just progressed from Q1.

All of the drivers eliminated in Q2 set personal bests on their final runs but were shuffled back, bar Yuki Tsunoda, whose best effort for AlphaTauri just cemented his place in P14.

Alex Albon also did not improve on his final lap for Williams, which was set offset from the rest and with four minutes of Q2 remaining.

Running solo, Albon ended up abandoning the lap after appearing to understeer off and beyond the heavily scrutinised Turn 4 track limit, after which he also went off cutting behind the Turn 7 fast left and so toured back to the pits still in P15.

Alfa Romeo pair Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu were the other drivers eliminated in the middle segment.

Before that, Q1 had barely begun when it was red-flagged after Leclerc lost two pieces of his front wheel fairing running down the pit straight ahead of his first run on the mediums.

The first part flew off shortly after he opened his DRS and then when he braked and locked up – likely as a result of the missing aero piece – a second, larger piece fell off the underside of the Ferrari and came to rest on the track, after which race control opted to stop the session so the pieces could be recovered.

When the action restarted after an eight-minute delay, Leclerc returned to the action after Ferrari repaired his car and he went through with the third quickest time behind Sainz and Russell.

With a significant track evolution factor, all the drivers bar Sainz were running when the opening segment concluded, with Kevin Magnussen completing his final lap with a personal best head of the chequered flag emerging but being shuffled down as others improved later and the Dane was out in P17.

That was initially where Pierre Gasly finished his first qualifying for Alpine, but running too far beyond track limits on his final out of the final corner meant he was dropped to the rear of the field.

That elevated Nyck de Vries one spot on his regular Formula 1 appearance, the AlphaTauri driver finishing behind Oscar Piastri, who could not escape the drop zone having languished there with Norris after they had completed their Q1 banker laps on used softs as their first runs on new ones had been ruined by the red flag.

Norris only squeaked through into Q2 as the final 2023 rookie, Logan Sargeant, set an identical time on the final lap of Q1 and so was dumped out in P16 per the rule that means a driver that set a time first is placed ahead if a rival subsequently matches their effort exactly.

So congratulations to Max Verstappen in earning his 21st career pole position in Formula 1. Sergio Perez lines up alongside his Red Bull teammate and the team are looking good for the race especially pre-season testing form as the RB19 is still a quick car. Can anyone challenge the champions? Bring on the race.

Bahrain Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:29.708
2 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:29.846
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:30.000
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:30.154
5 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:30.336
6 George Russell Mercedes 1:30.340
7 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:30.384
8 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:30.836
9 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:30.984
10 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:31.055
11 Lando Norris McLaren 1:31.381
12 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:31.443
13 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:31.473
14 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:32.510
15 Alexander Albon Williams No time
16 Logan Sargeant Williams 1:31.652
17 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:31.892
18 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:32.101
19 Nyck de Vries AlphaTauri 1:32.121
20 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:32.181

The final 2023 Formula 1 car launch is Alpine and the French team unveiled its A523 at an event in London.

Alpine will continue racing as a national French racing blue and BWT pink livery on the A523, although it too follows the recent trend of leaving parts of its car in unpainted carbon fibre to save weight.

Drivers Esteban Ocon and newcomer Pierre Gasly, who joins from AlphaTauri, presented a car which appears to build on the strengths of its predecessor, the A522.

As in 2022, the team also presented a second, predominantly pink livery which will be used in the opening three races in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Australia.

Last year Ocon and Fernando Alonso enjoyed a solid year for the French manufacturer as it leapfrogged McLaren to claim fourth position in the constructors’ championship, behind top three teams Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes.

At first glance the A523 therefore seems to be an evolution rather than a revolution, building on the strong foundations laid last season as the Enstone team aims to continue reducing the gap to the frontrunners in 2023.

Along with a bulkier lateral part of the engine cover, which was also seen on the Mercedes W14, Alpine has replaced its mini shark fin with cooling louvres on the central part of the cover as some of the most eye-catching changes.

Ocon and Gasly will be hoping the A523 proves more reliable than its predecessor, with a spate of retirements preventing the team from scoring even better results in 2022.

Ocon and Alonso retired from seven races last season, with the double world champion suffering the brunt of Alpine’s reliability issues as its Renault power unit.

Alonso has since moved to Aston Martin, with Ocon now forming an all-French partnership with Gasly, who signed a multi-year deal with Alpine last October.

The French duo got a first taste of the A523 at a Silverstone shakedown on Monday, with Ocon completing nine laps before Gasly took over and ran a further eight laps until the team reached its 100km allowance for filming days.

Alpine’s 2023 ambition is to continue on its 100-race plan to win a world championship, a roadmap which it embarked on last year.

According to team boss Otmar Szafnauer that means that the team has to continue showing progress and be “closer to third than to fifth”.

“We have to take a step closer to being able to win a championship, which is what we wanted to do in 100 races,” he said.

“That 100 started at the beginning of [2022], so it’s less than 80 from now on.

“We need to do the same, but we need to be closer to third than we are to fifth. So even if we stay fourth, we’ve got to make progress.”

Back in black! The Mercedes team have gone back to the black livery in a bid to save weight with the W14.

In a digital launch broadcast online, Mercedes revealed the updated W14 Formula 1 car alongside drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, team principal Toto Wolff and new reserve driver Mick Schumacher.

The W14 features a striking black livery, used by Mercedes through 2020 and 2021 as part of its anti-racism messaging. The team returned to its traditional silver last year but has now reverted to black as part what the team called a “significant project” to reduce overall weight.

Following the launch, both Hamilton and Russell are set to get a first taste of the Mercedes W14 car during a shakedown at Silverstone later.

“Our hopes and expectations are always to be capable of fighting for a world championship,” said Wolff.

“However, our competitors were very strong last year, and we are playing catch-up. Racing at the front requires resilience, teamwork, and determination.

“We face up to every challenge, we put the team first, and we will leave no stone unturned in the chase for every millisecond. This year, we are going all in to get back in front.”

Mercedes enters the 2023 season looking to bounce back from a disappointing 2022 that saw its eight-season streak of constructors’ championships come to an abrupt end.

The team struggled to get to grips with the new technical regulations as both Hamilton and Russell were left facing a recurring porpoising issue through the early part of the season.

Although an update at the Spanish Grand Prix helped combat the issue, Mercedes continued to find deeper issues with the W13 car that technical director Mike Elliott said were “baked in” to its design.

It ultimately ended the year with just a single victory in Brazil thanks to Russell, as it finished third in the constructors’ championship.

“Last year was difficult but it came with lots of learnings,” said Wolff. “I hope 2023 will be proof that we have understood how to unravel the problems and improve the package of the car.”

Mercedes has retained its slim sidepod concept from 2022, but has made noticeable tweaks to design such as around the gulley bodywork on the engine cover. The team also said it has chased areas including a “significantly lighter chassis, revised front suspension geometry, cooling system adjustments and a refined aerodynamic concept based on last year’s learning” to improve performance.

“Last year, once we had figured out what we needed to do, it took a huge amount of work to get ourselves moving forward,” said Elliott.

“Towards the end of the season, you could see the performance improving and the winter has been a reset. We have done all the things that we wanted to do with the W13 last year but weren’t able to because of resource constraints or because our focus was elsewhere fixing other issues.”

Hopefully this new Mercedes will return the team back to competitiveness and the black livery certainly looks great. Best wishes to the season ahead.