Starting from pole position, the Dutchman never let go of his first place and won for the season opener on Sunday in Bahrain.
“Red Bull is on another planet”… Charles Leclerc, disillusioned at the microphone of Canal+ after its abandonment, make no mistake about it. The Austrian team scored twice in the first Grand Prix of the season, Sunday March 5, in Bahrain, with a victory for Max Verstappen, more than ten seconds ahead of Sergio Perez and the surprising Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso. On the French side, Esteban Ocon had a nightmarish Sunday while his teammate Pierre Gasly limited the damage for Alpine, with a ninth place.
It seems a long way from retirement for an engine reliability problem at the start of the 2022 season. Max Verstappen and Red Bull did not repeat the same mistakes, with a first victory in Bahrain for the Dutchman. While they had already made a very good impression in winter testing, free practice and qualifying, the Red Bulls knocked out the competition in Bahrain. “I got off to a really good start and then it was a matter of dealing with the tiressummarized the double world champion. Huge thanks to the team for providing us with such a fast car.”
Sergio Perez was heckled at the start by Charles Leclerc, before regaining his second place. The Monegasque, long third, was forced to retire on the 41st lap for an engine problem, and his teammate Carlos Sainz could not resist the return of Fernando Alonso.
A Sunday in hell for Esteban Ocon
The race was finally in full swing behind the Red Bulls, with a great battle between the Ferraris, the Aston Martins, and the Mercedes. A battle in which the Alpines could not take part, while Esteban Ocon started ninth.
But the Frenchman misplaced his car on the grid, earning him a five-second penalty, which was not properly enforced in the pits, thus causing an additional ten-second penalty.
All this without counting an excess of speed, still in the pit lane, to take back five seconds of penalty, twenty in all on the Grand Prix. The Norman and his team therefore preferred to throw in the towel at 43e lap, and Pierre Gasly, who started last on the grid, saved the day with a ninth place in the points.