Bahrain Grand Prix Results: What Happened In The First Race Of The 2023 Season

Your Sports Illustrated report of the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The Bahrain Grand Prix has opened up the 2023 F1 season with some incredible on-track battles. And unsurprisingly, Max Verstappen took home first place with his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez takes P2. Fernando Alonso brings his Aston Martin in P3.

Max Verstappen started in pole position with teammate Sergio Perez in second, creating a Red Bull front row lockout for the first race of the season. 

Standout Moments

Verstappen had a great start, leaping ahead of the pack, but Charles Leclerc was quick to gain P2 before the first corner. Hamilton quickly gained two places as a yellow flag in the second sector shot up to clean up something that has fallen off the front wing of Nico Hulkenberg's Haas, ruining his race.  

Lance Stroll has already hit teammate Fernando Alonso, with both cars being seemingly undamaged - luckily. The Spaniard will not be smiling over that especially as he lost a place because of this.  

Haas' Kevin Magnussen, the only driver on hard tyres instead of soft a the beginning of the race, struggled to keep the pace, with him sitting a number of seconds behind AlphaTauri's Nyck de Vries who was stuck in a long DRS train for the first section of the race.

Gasly is the first to pit, opting for hard tyres and hitting the back of the pack with plenty of clean air. At the same time, Max Verstappen in his Red Bull complains about downshift locking the rear tyres. This was seemingly improved with a change of mode on the car. 

The second pit stop came from Lando Norris who was complaining of an engine issue. They added air to the McLaren's pneumatic system and he was away on hards. This happened multiple times during the race, costing the British driver a lot of time. 

With Alonso's Aston Martin on the gearbox of Russell, Hamilton is the first Mercedes to be called in to pit. Despite severe tyre wear, Russell put up a brilliant fight but eventually had to concede to the Aston - and Alonso - performance. 

Piastri had issues with his gearbox resulting in a steering wheel change, but with the engine shutting off, his first race in Formula 1 ended very quickly. 

Esteban Ocon served a 5-second penalty for poor grid positioning at the start of the race, but race control later noted that he hadn't served it properly, giving him an extra 10-second penalty. And guess what? This was then followed by an investigation for speeding in the pit lane - another 5-second penalty. Disastrous behaviour from Alpine. 

Fernando and Hamilton had a brilliant battle for P5, with Brit struggling with his W14 in comparison to the Aston. Beautiful, beautiful stuff from the two oldest drivers on the grid. 

"Yes! Let's go!" Fernando shouts down his radio as he pulls away from the Mercedes.

Yellow flag: Charles Leclerc DNFs as his power gives out. And to make matters worse for the Maranello squad, Fernando Alonso was putting pressure on Carlos Sainz who was struggling with tyre deg and, yes, Alonso ended up on the podium - accompanied by screams of delight from this writer. 

"This is a lovely car to drive," Fernando Alonso told the team via the radio. 

With Sainz behind Alonso, this then allowed Hamilton to challenge the Ferrari driver who complained of bouncing. Is this porpoising rearing its head again?

Conclusion

What a race to start the season with. It's fair to say that Red Bull has a huge level of performance over the other teams. But the take home from this race? Fernando Alonso - the man of the hour who brought home a podium position for Aston Martin, and boy is it good to see him at the top again.

McLaren had issues resul[ting in a very poor race for them so they'll have plenty to work on in the next couple of weeks. As will Ferrari, who saw Charles Leclerc DNF after engine issues. 

Hamilton ended in a safe 5th place, rising two places over the course of the race. 

Bahrain Grand Prix Results

1. Max Verstappen - Red Bull

2. Sergio Perez - Red Bull

3. Fernando Alonso - Aston Martin 

4. Carlos Sainz - Ferrari

5. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes

6. Lance Stroll - Aston Martin

7. George Russell - Mercedes

8. Valtteri Bottas - Alfa Romeo

9. Pierre Gasly - Alpine

10. Alex Albon - Williams

11. Yuki Tsunoda - AlphaTauri

12. Logan Sargeant - Williams

13. Kevin Magnussen - Haas

14. Nyck de Vries - AlphaTauri

15. Nico Hulkenberg - Haas

16. Zhou Guanyu - Alfa Romeo

17. Lando Norris - McLaren 

18. Esteban Ocon - DNF

19. Charles Leclerc - DNF

20. Oscar Piastri - DNF