For those hoping that the 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season would be closer than in 2023, the Bahrain Grand Prix put paid to many of those hopes as Max Verstappen took victory on Saturday evening from pole position having led every lap and taking fastest lap to boot.
The beginning of the weekend at the Bahrain International Circuit saw Verstappen and Oracle Red Bull Racing appear to struggle, and it was only in Q3 during Qualifying where the Dutchman first took top spot in any session.
However, come race day, the reigning triple World Champion was in a class of his own as, once he stayed in the lead at the start of the race, he was untouchable, with all of the action happening behind him as he dominated for an eighth consecutive victory.
Verstappen Wins, but Battles Rage Behind
Verstappen withstood a first corner attack from fellow front row starter Charles Leclerc at the start, but the Dutchman was already out of DRS range when it became active just a lap into the Grand Prix.
A slow start by Nico Hülkenberg saw him slip a couple of places down the order, but the slow nature of turn one caught him out, with the MoneyGram Haas F1 Team driver tipping Aston Martin Aramco Formula 1 Team’s Lance Stroll into a spin.
Hülkenberg was forced to pit at the end of the lap to fix a broken front wing, putting an end to his chance of top ten finish, while Stroll was able to recover and join the back of the pack. Valtteri Bottas also found himself delayed by the incident, with the Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber driver running off track at turn two as he took avoiding action.
The battle thereafter was for second place, with Leclerc, George Russell and Sergio Perez embroiled in it, with Carlos Sainz Jr. also in the mix. The two McLaren F1 Team drivers, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri quickly found their way ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, while Lewis Hamilton also found a way ahead of the veteran Spaniard to run eighth.
Russell initially took the initiative to pass Leclerc for second, with the Scuderia Ferrari beginning to struggle with his brakes. Perez also made his way through into third before a couple of battles between the two Ferrari drivers either side of their first pit stops, with Sainz ultimately coming out on top.
Perez then took over in second and held onto the place until the end, albeit more than twenty-two seconds adrift of team-mate Verstappen, while Russell slipped back behind both Ferrari drivers to finish fifth, allowing Sainz to begin the season with a podium finish.
Norris gave it his all to finish just behind Russell, but the McLaren driver ran out of time to attempt an overtake as the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver struggled for performance in the second half of the race as the team managed an issue onboard his W15.
Behind Norris came Hamilton, with the seven-time World Champion using the undercut to get ahead of Piastri into turn one. It was close as the Australian attempted to hold off the British racer, but with cold tyres he ran wide at the apex, and Hamilton, complete with a broken seat, was free to chase after Norris, ending up just under two seconds behind his countryman.
Behind Piastri in eighth came Alonso, the Spaniard struggling for pace throughout the race in Bahrain, but with he and Stroll, despite his first lap spin, scoring points, Aston Martin will be relatively happy to be on the scoreboard.
However, Verstappen was on his own, lapping every one bar the top ten finishers to claim the opening race honours, notching up a Grand Slam on the way, the first driver to do so in the opening race of the season since Michael Schumacher in 2004.
Zhou Stars Early but Misses Out on Points, RB Drivers in Disagreement over Team Orders
Stake may not have had a great Qualifying performance, but with Zhou Guanyu at least, they put themselves in contention for points, with the Chinese driver running as high as ninth before losing positions towards the end of the Grand Prix.
Stroll was the one to deny him a top ten finish, but Zhou can be content with his performance, even though Verstappen was able to lap him late in the day, such was the Dutchman’s domination.
Behind Zhou came Kevin Magnussen, with the Haas driver enjoying a competitive afternoon. Both he and team-mate Hülkenberg were able to prove that the rear tyre woes that affected the team in 2023 had been largely eliminated, and he was able to stay competitive throughout, although not good enough to break into the points.
Perhaps the biggest point of contention on the day came at the Visa CashApp RB team, with team orders being enforced by the pit wall to allow Daniel Ricciardo to pass Yuki Tsunoda in a bid to make an attack on Magnussen for twelfth.
Tsunoda disagreed with the call and initially defied the order to allow his team-mate to pass, with Ricciardo also being critical of the Japanese driver for the delay that ultimately left him with not enough time to catch Magnussen. The debrief after the race is likely to be tasty in the former Scuderia AlphaTauri camp.
Alexander Albon began the race confidently and was fighting just outside the top ten, but the Williams Racing driver did not have the pace throughout the race to stay there, ultimately sliding down to fifteenth at the chequered flag, while Hülkenberg recovered to sixteenth despite pitting three times.
The painful weekend at the BWT Alpine F1 Team continued into race day, with neither Esteban Ocon nor Pierre Gasly able to make any real progress from their grid slots, the two Frenchman finishing seventeenth and eighteenth respectively.
The only drivers to fall behind them were Bottas, who suffered with a problematic front left wheel during his second pit stop, and Logan Sargeant, who appeared to suffer a braking issue at turn four that caused yellow flags for a short time before he was able to get going once more.
All twenty drivers saw the chequered flag, the first time in history this happened in the opening race of the season, but ultimately, much like in 2023, Verstappen was unstoppable.
There will be little time to rest for the drivers, with the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix coming up next Saturday, the second of the two opening races to be moved forward a day ahead of the commencement of Ramadan.
Bahrain Grand Prix Race Result
| POS. | NO. | DRIVER | NAT. | TEAM | TIME/GAP |
| 1 | 1 | Max Verstappen | NED | Oracle Red Bull Racing | 57 Laps |
| 2 | 11 | Sergio Perez | MEX | Oracle Red Bull Racing | +22.457 |
| 3 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | ESP | Scuderia Ferrari | +25.110 |
| 4 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | MON | Scuderia Ferrari | +39.669 |
| 5 | 63 | George Russell | GBR | Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team | +46.788 |
| 6 | 4 | Lando Norris | GBR | McLaren F1 Team | +48.458 |
| 7 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | GBR | Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team | +50.324 |
| 8 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | AUS | McLaren F1 Team | +56.082 |
| 9 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | ESP | Aston Martin Aramco Formula 1 Team | +1:14.887 |
| 10 | 18 | Lance Stroll | CAN | Aston Martin Aramco Formula 1 Team | +1:33.216 |
| 11 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | CHN | Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber | +1 Lap |
| 12 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | DEN | MoneyGram Haas F1 Team | +1 Lap |
| 13 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | AUS | Visa CashApp RB | +1 Lap |
| 14 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | JPN | Visa CashApp RB | +1 Lap |
| 15 | 23 | Alexander Albon | THA | Williams Racing | +1 Lap |
| 16 | 27 | Nico Hülkenberg | GER | MoneyGram Haas F1 Team | +1 Lap |
| 17 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | FRA | BWT Alpine F1 Team | +1 Lap |
| 18 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | FRA | BWT Alpine F1 Team | +1 Lap |
| 19 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | FIN | Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber | +1 Lap |
| 20 | 2 | Logan Sargeant | USA | Williams Racing | +2 Laps |
