Month: March 2022

The defending world champion Max Verstappen scored his first win of the 2022 season following a thrilling battle with Charles Leclerc in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The Red Bull Racing driver grabbed the spoils by just half a second after a DRS-enhanced slipstreaming duel with Leclerc in the second half of the contest on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, after the Ferrari driver tried again to tactically outmanoeuvre Verstappen on track.

But the 2021 champion held on for victory as Ferrari scored a double podium, Carlos Sainz completing the rostrum while an mistimed pitstop dropped polesitter Sergio Perez to fourth position.

The Red Bulls appeared to enjoy the stronger start as Perez pulled over to cover second-starting Leclerc into Turn 1 but was largely unchallenged as Verstappen provided stiff competition to Sainz.

As Sainz had to keep conservative to miss the rear of his teammate at the first left-hander, Verstappen was able to tip-toe around the outside as the track snaked back for Turn 2.

Verstappen out dragged the Ferrari to take third position, while Perez escaped to an early 1.3 seconds lead over Leclerc in the opening two laps with Verstappen the same interval back again.

Attention swiftly turned to a frenetic multi-lap scrap between the Alpines, arriving after George Russell had made an early move on Ocon to take fifth place in the Mercedes.

Ocon pulled to the inside down the main straight and appeared to squeeze a DRS-assisted Fernando Alonso against the pit wall, forcing the double-champion to back out of the lap-five move.

The following lap, Alonso tried again but was further back and had to abort a possible manoeuvre around the outside of Turn 1 before the squabble continued next time around.

Alonso was eventually able to nip past but only briefly, as Ocon recovered sixth with DRS into Turn 1 but ran across the run-off and missed the apex and had to give back the position.

The Alpine teammates were then told to hold position, with Alonso ahead of Ocon.

Perez had been able to extract a lead of over two seconds against Leclerc, with Verstappen 1.5 seconds behind the Ferrari driver while Sainz was a further 3.1 seconds in arrears.

Then the lead dipped below 1.5 seconds to prompt Perez to dive for the pits on lap 15 for a set of the C2 hard compound, but a sluggish stop and cold tyres brought him out behind Russell in fifth position.

The race win appeared to then slip away from Checo as double waved yellows grew into a virtual then full safety car owing to the end of a difficult weekend for Nicholas Latifi.

After shunting in Q1, the Williams again crashed out on lap 16 when he jumped on the power too early exiting the final corner, Turn 27, and over corrected to head towards the wall.

Although Latifi locked all four corners as he jumped on the brakes, he still hit the barrier.

That interruption allowed the leaders to pit in neutralised conditions to leapfrog Perez, with Leclerc taking the lead from Verstappen, who narrowly avoided Sainz in the pit lane.

Sainz then had a run in with the next Red Bull as Perez, delayed behind Russell on his out-lap, nipped past at the safety car line as Sainz was squeezed against the Turn 2 wall.

At the restart, Verstappen attempted to put Leclerc off-line at the final corner but the Ferrari driver could break the tow to lead unchallenged and build an initial advantage of 2 seconds.

Perez was instructed to hand back the position only after the resumption to slip to fourth ahead of Russell, while Lewis Hamilton stayed put on his hard tyres to climb to sixth.

But only after an engaging battle with Kevin Magnussen that was resolved when the Mercedes driver dived for position into Turn 1, the Haas have repassed in similar circumstances on the previous lap thanks to the double DRS effect on the main straight.

Verstappen, meanwhile, began to respond to Leclerc’s blistering sector one times with a string of fastest laps to reel the Ferrari driver in and cut the gap to under 1.5 seconds.

A second virtual safety car was called into play to press pause on the action on lap 38 when Alonso, Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo effectively retired in tandem.

The Alpine was the first to expire as Alonso suffered a total power loss and dropped out of seventh place, though did recover to the pitlane.

Ricciardo’s McLaren gave up the ghost at the start of the main straight after he locked up into Turn 27 and then never got the MCL36 going again.

While Bottas was able to return to the pits and be wheeled into the Alfa Romeo garage, the location of the Ricciardo and Alonso cars meant the pit lane was closed to hurt Hamilton most of all.

Still on his starting set of hard tyres, he received the call to stop too late and had to stay put until racing conditions return on lap 41, and Hamilton immediately pitted for medium tyres.

Verstappen now only sat 0.6 seconds off Leclerc as he chased his first win of the 2022 season after his RB18 retried with a fuel vacuum issue in Bahrain.

With a tow down the main straight, Leclerc was forced to pull to the inside and defend on lap 42 of 50 but Verstappen thought against an attempted lunge.

The Red Bull instead saved the fight for position until Turn 27, at which point Leclerc repeated his Sakhir strategy by checking his pace over the DRS detection zone.

So, while Verstappen had track position, Leclerc was backed up by the overtaking aid and defended his regained lead into Turn 1.

Verstappen was poised for a similar lunge next time around but as he sought DRS, locked up over the detection line and fell back to hand Leclerc position and marginal breathing space.

The battle, though, appeared to take its toll on Leclerc’s rear tyres and on lap 47, the Ferrari oversteered out of the final corner to allow Verstappen to successfully get the run for first place.

Leclerc was forced to abort Turn 2 as a result, teeing up a last-lap showdown. While Leclerc could close to within 0.5 seconds, Verstappen hung on to a sensational win.

Sainz was seven seconds further behind Leclerc, as Perez completed the top four over a subdued race by Russell. Ocon, meanwhile, bagged sixth ahead of Lando Norris and Pierre Gasly.

Magnussen, who entered the race with neck pain after tweaking it in qualifying, was ninth as Hamilton hung on for the final point in tenth.

Despite drive through penalty for not serving a 5s pitstop penalty plus the latest clutch and anti-stall issues for Zhou Guanyu, the rookie returned 11th as the Aston Martins of Nico Hulkenberg and Lance Stroll completed the finishers.

Stroll was able to limp over the line after a late Turn 1 coming together with Alex Albon, that ended the Williams’ drivers race a touch early and introduced a yellow flag at Turn 1 during the final stages of the Verstappen-Leclerc duel.

Yuki Tsunoda, who was unable to set a qualifying lap following a water system issue, then pulled up in sector one aboard his AlphaTauri on his way to the grid with an engine issue.

That, combined with Haas electing not to start Mick Schumacher’s car to avoid rushed repairs after the German’s huge Q2 shunt, created a scenario in which only 18 cars started.

So congratulations to the world champion in winning the battle from Charles Leclerc. This race victory was crucial for Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing after last weekend’s non-finish. As for the duel between the Red Bull and Ferrari, this is such a highlight. More please!

Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:24:19.293
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 0.549
3 Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 8.097
4 Sergio Perez Red Bull 10.800
5 George Russell Mercedes 32.732
6 Esteban Ocon Alpine 56.017
7 Lando Norris McLaren 56.124
8 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 62.946
9 Kevin Magnussen Haas 64.308
10 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 73.948
11 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 82.215
12 Nico Hulkenberg Aston Martin 91.742s
13 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +1 lap
14 Alex Albon Williams DNF
– Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo DNF
– Fernando Alonso Alpine DNF
– Daniel Ricciardo McLaren DNF
– Nicholas Latifi Williams DNF
– Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri DNF

Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Perez achieved his first Formula 1 pole position by beating both Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in Saudi Arabia, while last year’s P1 driver Lewis Hamilton was knocked out in Q1.

Checo went to the top with his final flying lap of Q3 on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit with the weekend’s best of one minute, 28.200 seconds to triumph over the strong Scuderias.

That meant the late improvement of Leclerc, as the free practice pacesetter finally had an answer to Sainz in qualifying, missed out on consecutive pole positions by just 0.025 seconds.

Sainz, who had headed the leader board after the first runs in the Q3 ten-minute battle, could not put together one final lap and so slipped to third position by two tenths compared to his teammate.

A messy Q3 showing for defending champion Max Verstappen resulted in only fourth position, with the Red Bull driver struggling initially in Q3 as he battled oversteer while applying the throttle out of Turn 2.

Esteban Ocon ran to fifth for Alpine, dropped eight tenths to the leaders but beating Mercedes driver George Russell and Fernando Alonso.

Russell executed an off-beat strategy by leaving his best effort for the mid-point of the session rather than engage in a last-ditch shootout over the line.

Mr Saturday clocked a time of one minute, 29.104 seconds to land sixth over Fernando Alonso and the Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas. Pierre Gasly and the Haas of Kevin Magnussen completed the top ten runners.

Russell was the only Mercedes-powered contender to move into the top ten shootout after Daniel Ricciardo and his McLaren teammate Lando Norris failed to hook up an improved lap in the massively delayed Q2 fight.

A huge crash for Mick Schumacher forced the 15-minute session to be put on ice for nearly a hour while the Haas driver was taken to hospital after an initial check at the medical centre revealed no injuries.

This came after the Haas driver ran wide out of Turn 10 over the exit kerb and on the slippery surface, the VF-22 swapped ends and Schumacher ran nose first into the wall at high speed.

As per new crash structure designs, when the car was craned, the rear end split from the main chassis to cause a further clear up delay in addition to the track needing cement dust and a steam blast before FIA race director Niels Wittich was satisfied with his inspection.

With a little under five minutes to run, late improvements were few and far between.

But Kevin Magnussen and Esteban Ocon – who was delayed by Ricciardo in an incident that remains under investigation – made it through in eighth and ninth.

That left Russell prey as Gasly improved to seventh, but Ricciardo could not whittle down his personal best to survive while Zhou Guanyu only climbed his Alfa Romeo to P13.

Norris was out in P11 ahead of Ricciardo, Zhou and Schumacher – ninth at the time of his crash – over Lance Stroll.

Hamilton, meanwhile, was the first driver to miss out on progressing into the second part of qualifying after his final flying lap was 0.087 seconds slower than the cut off set by Stroll.

The seven-time champion was only P16 in Q1 after initially losing the rear end of his Mercedes W13 challenger with a snap of oversteer at Turn 2 on his first flying soft-tyre run.

After beginning the Saturday evening session on the medium compound alongside Russell only, Hamilton was forced into a final push lap with a minute to spare in order to progress.

However, the lap started off the pace when the Brit was adrift of his personal best throughout sector two on his way to a one minute, 30.343 seconds.

Despite a better sprint to the finish to initially move P15, Stroll was next over the line to bump Hamilton out in Q1 for the first time since he crashed in Brazil qualifying in 2017.

He was only faster on merit than the Williams of Alex Albon and Aston Martin’s substitute driver Nico Hulkenberg, the pair dashing to P17 and P18 respectively.

Meanwhile, Nicolas Latifi crashed out to bring the red flags into play after seven of the 18 minutes when the rear of his FW44 snapped out of control at Turn 13.

The Williams driver appeared to immediately lose the back axle when he turned in, glancing the TecPro barrier before landing in the outside wall.

Yuki Tsunoda was unable to set a lap either side of the eight-minute delay owing to a fuel issue for the AlphaTauri, which arrived in Saudi with a fresh power unit.

So congratulations to Checo Perez in achieving his first pole position in Formula 1. To beat both Ferraris and his Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen is impressive. Looking forward to the race.

Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:28.200
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:28.225
3 Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 1:28.402
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:28.461
5 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:29.068
6 George Russell Mercedes 1:29.104
7 Fernando Alonso Alpine 1:29.147
8 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:29.183
9 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 1:29.254
10 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:29.588
11 Lando Norris McLaren 1:29.651
12 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 1:29.773
13 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:29.819
14 Mick Schumacher Haas 1:29.920
15 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:31.009
16 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:30.343
17 Alex Albon Williams 1:30.492
18 Nico Hulkenberg Aston Martin 1:30.543
19 Nicholas Latifi Williams 1:31.817
20 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri –

Charles Leclerc led a Scuderia Ferrari 1-2 in the season opening Bahrain Grand Prix, beating new world champion Max Verstappen in an exciting race which ended with both Red Bulls suffering a late double retirement.

Red Bull Racing’s reliability drama meant Carlos Sainz was able to follow his Ferrari teammate home in second, while Lewis Hamilton took third position for Mercedes.

At the start, Leclerc and Verstappen shot off the grid together, with the Ferrari quickly swinging across to his right to cover off the Red Bull and seal the inside line for Turn 1.

There, Verstappen braked later and got completely alongside Leclerc, but the leader’s position on the inside meant he was easily able to pull ahead through Turns 2 and 3, then weave once on the short straight up to the Turn 4 right, where he pulled away clear in the lead.

Leclerc was already out of DRS range ahead of Verstappen by the end of the first lap of 57, with Sainz chasing the world champion and being followed by Hamilton, who had edged out Sergio Perez as the Red Bull driver slid out of Turn 1, falling behind Kevin Magnussen’s Haas as a result.

Over the next few laps, Leclerc – running new soft tyres versus used ones on Verstappen’s car – pulled away from his Red Bull rival who at one stage complained about his mid-corner engine braking being “funny”.

Leclerc’s gap increased by a few tenths per lap, the pair the only drivers of the front runners able to regularly stay in the one minute, 38 seconds zone.

By lap 10, Leclerc’s lead had reached three seconds, with Sainz a further chunk behind and now running ahead of Perez, who had passed Hamilton after the Mercedes driver had fallen from pressuring Sainz to dropping back unable to match the front running pace.

At the end of lap 14, Verstappen and Sainz, who had also started on used softs, came in to take new ones, with Leclerc stopping at the end of the next tour to do the reverse.

Verstappen had used his out-lap on fresh rubber to erase Leclerc’s lead completely, but the Ferrari was able to maintain the lead at the pit exit.

But the next time by at the start of lap 17, Verstappen used DRS to close a 0.7 seconds gap and dive to Leclerc’s inside at the first corner, taking the lead with a thrilling move on the inside line, although only briefly as Leclerc used DRS himself on the run to Turn 4, retaking first with a bold pass outside the Red Bull.

The same sequence played out again on the next lap, although this time with Leclerc retaking the lead by nipping to Verstappen’s inside on the Turn 4 approach, then edging his rival wide to get back ahead.

On his third attempt into Turn 1, this time on lap 19, Verstappen went from 0.9 seconds behind to send a wild move on the inside, but this time he locked up heavily and the Ferrari was able to nip back by and run clear, moving out of DRS range as a result.

The lock-up and DRS loss sapped Verstappen’s momentum, as he slipped back to run in the low one minute, 38 seconds while Leclerc put in a series of mid-to-high one minute, 37 seconds that soon restored his three second advantage.

By the halfway point, Leclerc was running four seconds to the good, losing a chunk while lapping Nico Hulkenberg before gaining it back and more as Verstappen got around Sebastian Vettel’s temporary replacement at Aston Martin.

Red Bull stopped Verstappen first at the second round of stops, pulling the Dutchman in to go to the mediums at the end of lap 30, with Ferrari getting Leclerc to cover him exactly the next time by.

Leclerc emerged much further ahead this time around, despite Verstappen doing a slightly quicker out-lap than earlier on, with Ferrari beating Red Bull on the stationary time by half a second.

The pair immediately hit the one minute, 36 seconds bracket they had not been doing earlier on, even as they lapped traffic during the early phase of the third stint, where Verstappen furiously told Red Bull he had taken it easier on the out-lap than he wanted and would “never ever” do so again, such was his fury to have stayed so far behind Leclerc even with an undercut advantage.

Although Verstappen cut into Leclerc’s lead to reach two seconds behind in the laps immediately following their second stops, the Ferrari was soon able to restore its advantage once again, with Leclerc holding onto the mid one minute, 36 seconds as Verstappen fell towards the one minute, 37 seconds.

By lap 43 Leclerc had built his lead back to four seconds, when Red Bull opted to bring both its cars in for a third stop – Perez having run the mediums on his second stint and then closed in to run adrift of Sainz, well behind the two leaders.

Ferrari appeared to be leaving Leclerc out to see out the race on a two-stopper, with Sainz brought in to cover Perez, but the final stages were made more dramatic when Pierre Gasly retired with an engine issue that became an engine fire on lap 46 – the AlphaTauri stopped at the exit of Turn 3, just at the start of the short second straight.

The virtual safety car was activated but the full safety car was called into action, which was when Ferrari brought Leclerc in and he was able to take another set of softs for the restart.

Racing got back underway at the start of lap 51, all lapped cars allowed having been allowed to overtake, before which Verstappen complained loudly about his steering getting heavier in corners and on straights, with Red Bull moving to tell him it was would be an issue to the end of the race that he would have to adapt too.

When the safety car came in, Leclerc shot back to racing speed while Verstappen was pinched tight against the penultimate corner and was so far clear the action became about Sainz attacking for second.

Verstappen obliged Sainz to take the outside line, with the pair quickly falling behind Leclerc, who roared to a 1.6 seconds new lead with the race’s fastest lap – one minute, 24.570 seconds.

Charles easily pulled clear to win by 5.5 seconds, taking his first Bahrain Grand Prix win at the venue where he lost a first career Formula 1 victory to a late engine issue three years earlier.

But it was Sainz who was able to follow Leclerc home as Verstappen went from complaining about his steering issue to reporting a battery problem Red Bull initially dismissed and then reported it was a fault that it could do nothing about.

With two laps to go Verstappen suddenly dropped back on the penultimate straight and then crawled back to the pits to retire, with Perez then reporting a power loss as Hamilton – who had run a soft, hard, medium, soft three-stopper – closed in to threaten an unlikely Mercedes podium.

Just when it looked like Perez might hang on, he spun at Turn 1 on the final lap, his engine seizing and spinning his rears, putting him out on the spot.

Hamilton therefore finished third, 9.6 seconds behind Leclerc, with George Russell fourth having quickly risen up the order from his ninth position grid spot during the early stages and been tracking his teammate at 14 seconds behind before the safety car period.

Magnussen battled his way to fifth, having run most of the race between Russell and Gasly, with Valtteri Bottas recovering from a slow start to finish sixth.

Esteban Ocon and Yuki Tsunoda got ahead of Fernando Alonso ahead of the safety car, with that trio taking seventh to ninth at the flag.

In his first Formula 1 race, Zhou Guanyu finished tenth to claim a maiden point in the championship, with Mick Schumacher P11 for Haas, ahead of Lance Stroll, who led the former lapped runners home well adrift of the pack – the restart having taken place before they could catch back up.

So congratulations to Charles Leclerc with this race victory. After missing out back in 2019, this time the Ferrari was fast and reliable to take the top spot. To have a double podium, this is a fantastic achievement for the Scuderia.

Bahrain Grand Prix, race results:
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:37:33.584
2 Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 5.598
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 9.675
4 George Russell Mercedes 11.211
5 Kevin Magnussen Haas 14.754
6 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 16.119
7 Esteban Ocon Alpine 19.423
8 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 20.386
9 Fernando Alonso Alpine 22.390
10 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 23.064
11 Mick Schumacher Haas 32.574
12 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 45.873
13 Alex Albon Williams 53.932
14 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 54.975
15 Lando Norris McLaren 56.335
16 Nicholas Latifi Williams 1:01.795
17 Nico Hulkenberg Aston Martin 1:03.829
18 Sergio Perez Red Bull DNF
19 Max Verstappen Red Bull DNF
– Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri DNF

Charles Leclerc will start the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix on pole position edging out world champion Max Verstappen by 0.123 seconds.

His Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz qualified in third position, while the Mercedes drivers of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell could only get fifth and ninth.

After the first runs in Q3 it was Sainz who led the way by 0.044 seconds ahead of Leclerc, with Verstappen, who had topped Q2, facing a deficit of 0.056 seconds and complaining that his first out lap in the final segment of the session was too slow, which cost him tyre temperature.

On the final fliers, Leclerc led the trio around and recorded the best time in the track’s middle sector on his way to a one minute, 30.558 seconds.

Sainz could only manage a personal best time in the final sector, which meant he slotted in 0.129 seconds behind his Scuderia teammate, with Verstappen the last to cross the line.

He had gone quickest in the first sector but lost time as the lap wore on and eventually missed out on repeating his pole from the 2021 season opener at the same venue.

Sergio Perez made it a Red Bull 2-4, with Hamilton leading the Mercedes charge ahead of his former teammate Valtteri Bottas, who took sixth on this first appearance for Alfa Romeo.

Kevin Magnussen got his Formula 1 return off to an excellent start with seventh for Haas, despite having to deal with a power steering hydraulics problem at the end of Q2, with K-Mag pulling over at the first corner after crossing the line one his sole run at the end of Q3.

Fernando Alonso took eighth for Alpine, with Russell ninth after losing a chunk of time at the first corner on his final Q3 run, and Pierre Gasly finishing P10 for AlphaTauri.

His last-gasp improvement at the end of Q2 knocked out Esteban Ocon in the other Alpine, with Mick Schumacher recording his best Formula 1 qualifying result in P12 for Haas.

Lando Norris was in eliminated in P13 for McLaren, reporting as he returned to the pits that it was “the best we could do today”.

Alex Albon made it through Q1 in his first qualifying for Williams and then ran a contra-strategy in Q2 – heading out early to sample the track solo and then doing likewise for his final run when the rest made their final preparations for the end of the middle segment.

Albon’s effort would have left him finishing P15, but a few minutes later Alfa’s Zhou Guanyu lost his best time – one minute, 32.387 seconds versus the one minute, 32.664 seconds that Albon had set – for running beyond track limits at Turn 5, the fast left kink that precedes the swooping right and left corners that feed down to the hairpin in the Sakhir track’s middle sector.

In Q1, Yuki Tsunoda’s final lap personal best could not get the second AlphaTauri driver higher than P16, while Sebastian Vettel’s temporary replacement Nico Hulkenberg slotted in behind in P17.

Hulkenberg’s last effort pushed him ahead of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, who missed all of the pre-season test in Bahrain after he contracted COVID-19, and Lance Stroll in the other Aston Martin.

Nicholas Latifi was the only driver to be knocked that did not set a personal best time on their last lap in the opening segment, which meant he remained last at the foot of the times.

So congratulations to Ferrari and Charles Leclerc in scoring pole position. The pre-season testing went well for the Italian-based team and getting this qualifying result is a step in the right direction. World champion Max Verstappen is in P2 and it’s going to be a fascinating race. Game on.

Bahrain Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:30.558
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:30.681
3 Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 1:30.687
4 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:30.921
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:31.238
6 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:31.560
7 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:31.808
8 Fernando Alonso Alpine 1:32.195
9 George Russell Mercedes 1:32.216
10 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 1:32.338
11 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:31.782
12 Mick Schumacher Haas 1:31.998
13 Lando Norris McLaren 1:32.008
14 Alex Albon Williams 1:32.664
15 Guanyu Zhou Alfa Romeo 1:33.543
16 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:32.750
17 Nico Hulkenberg Aston Martin 1:32.777
18 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 1:32.945
19 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:33.032
20 Nicholas Latifi Williams 1:33.634