The first race of the new Formula 1 season started as the sun disappeared and the lights came on around the Bahrain International Circuit in the Sakhir Desert. Unusually, there was no car with the Mercedes star at the front row, and it was a red Ferrari with Charles Leclerc in it occupying pole position. Alongside Leclerc was Max Verstappen, the World Champion, and his arch-rival was further back in the fifth spot – ironically alongside his former team mater, Valtteri Bottas who is now in Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN.
As the lights went green for the first time in the 2022 season, Leclerc used his position to sprint forward ahead of Verstappen as the rest of the pack followed. While Hamilton managed to move up a couple of positions, his old buddy Bottas lost ground and fell further back before Turn 2.
The two Haas drivers were not having an easy time getting into the ‘groove’ as Kevin Magnussen locked up his tyres and Red Bull driver Sergio Perez, who had fallen down to seventh (due to a poor start), got past him, while Mick Schumacher had an ‘incident’ with BWT Alpine’s Esteban Ocon which got the attention of the Stewards. The latter was given a 5-second penalty but both cars were able to remain in the race.
By the time the first tenth of the 57-lap race had passed, Leclerc and Verstappen were steadily pulling away from the rest, separated from each other by about 2 seconds. Third place was being contested by three drivers – Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), Hamilton and Perez, while Geroge Russell was pushing hard to get closer to his new team mate in the Mercedes-AMG team.
On lap 8, it appeared than McLaren’s Lando Norris was pushed wide by Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll (which also caused Daniel Ricciardo to have to go wide) and after the Stewards looked into the incident, it was decided that no action or penalty was necessary.
By lap 13, Verstappen and Hamilton were frustrated with quickly diminishing grip from their tyres as degradation was faster than expected. Hamilton chose to come in for a change to Hards. When he rejoined, he was down to 11th and then 12th when the Alfa Romeo of newcomer Zhou sped past him – but he was ahead of the 7-time World Champion only briefly.
Other drivers began to come in after that, with Leclerc – still leading – coming in on lap 16 together with Perez. However, where the Ferrari driver switched to Softs, Perez got Mediums. Leclerc’s departure from the track was short and quick and he kept his lead position but with less than a second’s separation from Verstappen as he rejoined.
Once Hamilton got his tyres warmed up, he began to move up but it was a long way to the leaders who were about 18 seconds away. He made it up to fifth and then there was a 5-second gap to Perez which was going to need a lot of effort to close. Russell was next in line but 7 seconds behind and steadily working his way forward, mindful of Magnussen pursuing.
On lap 19, Verstappen made a strong effort going into Turn 1 but miscalculated and locked up, not making t pass the Ferrari. In the process, he flat-spotted his tyres and had to back off a bit to let the brakes cool down as well. While he was doing that, the other Ferrari driver, Sainz, was moving closer but had to watch out for the other Red Bull as well.
As the race reached the halway point about 50 minutes after the start, Hamilton came into the pits to switch to Mediums. As he rejoined, he slotted between Pierre Gasly and Ocon to take eighth place. The other drivers who had also come in a second time to change tyres were Fernando Alonso and Yuki Tsunoda.
Verstappen came in on lap 31 and Ferrari brought Leclerc in right after that. The pitstops dropped the Dutchman to fourth and Leclerc to third, while Sainz inherited the lead with Perez about 3 seconds behind.
On lap 34, Sainz and Perez departed from the race to get their tyres changed and Leclerc got back his lead, with Verstappen 2 seconds behind and told by his team that he could go all out.
By lap 38, the frontrunners were encountering the slower cars and Sainz had a scare as he passed Alexander Albon and the Williams driver almost collided with him. Actually, the Thai driver was not up to speed as he had just come out from the pit lane. However, no contact occurred and the Ferrari managed to quickly speed away.
The two McLarens were way down the field (almost at the end), unable to move up and Lando Norris tried to do with just one stop but couldn’t, while Ricciardo was having problems with his radio. Tsunoda was trying his best to keep his tenth place as Alonso kept trying to take it from him.
Magnussen was showing that Haas should never have dropped him and given his place to Nikita Mazepin who didn’t do anything positive for the team in 2021. On his first race back with the team, he was able to move into a secure seventh by 15 laps from the end, almost certain to collect points that Haas never saw at all last year.
On lap 46, as Verstappen was reporting steering problems, Gasly’s car suddenly caught fire and he quickly pulled to the side and managed to get out safely. The Safety Car was quickly sent out to lead the racing cars and Leclerc took the opportunity to get into the pits, switch to Softs and have fresh tyres to fight better in the remaining 11 laps. As he sped back to take his place, he almost rammed into the Safety Car! Unhappy that the Mercedes-AMG was not going fast enough, Leclrc complained to his team, hoping they would pass on the message that it must go quicker and not cause him a ‘big disadvantage’.
The Safety Car came in on lap 50 and Leclerc was ready to slingshot away from the Red Bull which was just behind. However, Verstappen could not focus too much on the car ahead as he had another Ferrari in his mirrors as well. Perez and Hamilton were also jostling for fourth and perhaps in desperation, Hamilton almost collided with the other car.
Verstappen’s race ended suddenly as he pulled into the pits on lap 55 and the last conversation heard over the radio was something about the battery, which his engineer said was not the problem. He had been having steering problems but was not informed what exactly was the fault.
The departure of Verstappen left the way open for Sainz to close in on his team mate and give Ferrari not just its first win since September 2019 but also a 1-2 finish. Perez also began having loss of power and before he could get around Turn 1, his car spun and the other cars had to avoid it. For Hamilton, at least the sudden retirement of the Rd Bulls allowed him to get onto the podium, while Russell finished just behind in fourth. That’s racing… it isn’t decided till the finish line is crossed by someone.
