Charles Leclerc dominated the Bahrain Grand Prix to take the opening race win of the 2022 Formula 1 season.
Despite leading a majority of the race, Leclerc was forced to work for his position on occasions, most notably when Red Bull’s Max Verstappen launched a three-lap attack on the Ferrari driver.
Leclerc and Verstappen ran first and second after the opening number of laps, however Verstappen opted to make his first pit stop one lap before Leclerc, with the undercut slicing the gap between the top two.
Verstappen moved ahead of Leclerc three laps in row, however Leclerc immediately responded in the following corners to move ahead again.
A lock-up at Turn 1 proved to be the end of Verstappen’s assault, before later in the race he retired with a mechanical issue three laps from the end.
Leclerc was forced to deal with a late Safety Car restart after Pierre Gasly’s Power Unit caught fire, however he was unchallenged thereafter to the chequered flag.
Carlos Sainz was second to ensure Ferrari scored a one-two finish, while Lewis Hamilton came home after in third place after Sergio Perez’s engine gave way on the final lap, denying Red Bull points.
This article will be updated.
Position | Driver | Team | Gap | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | ||||
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 | Guanyu Zhou | 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 | 61.795 | |||
17 | Nico Hulkenberg | Aston Martin | 63.829 | |||
18 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | DNF | |||
19 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | DNF | |||
20 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | DNF |
Keyword: Leclerc leads Ferrari 1-2 in Bahrain as Red Bull fails to score