'What the f*** is this?': Max fumes in Red Bull disaster as Ferrari ends 910-day wait.
Once the race trophy was in his hands, Leclerc said: “I’m so happy. When racing resumed, Sainz attacked Verstappen for second place but the Dutchman’s race ended in bitter disappointment as he appeared to lose all power on the 55th lap and had to limp into the pits without a point. Leclerc had started on pole and in a furious early part of the race, he exchanged the lead with Verstappen several times under the floodlights in the Gulf. The race was disrupted when the safety car came out on the 51st lap after Pierre Gasly had to jump out of his Alpha Tauri before it burst into flames. For Leclerc, who started the race on pole and faced a battle for the lead with Verstappen in the opening laps, it was pure delight. George Russell, in his first race since replacing Valtteri Bottas at Mercedes, took fourth place to give Mercedes a score of 27 points that they could not have dreamed of in the middle of the race.
SAKHIR, BAHRAIN — After the season of all seasons, and the controversy of all controversies, Formula 1 is finally back with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc the ...
10:20am: One man who doesn’t need any sympathy today is Charles Leclerc. The Ferrari man is in pole position for the 10th time in his career. 11:19am: And the commentator's curse strikes, as Perez overtakes Hamilton! The Mexican is back into P4, where he began. 11:21am: Verstappen is again on the radio, telling his team he has "zero traction". Meanwhile, rival Hamilton is in the pits already! Carlos Sainz does the same, and is in P5. 11:27am: Verstappen is in the pits. He's also told not to push too hard on the out-lap. Verstappen fumes that he's "never, ever" going easy on the tyres in an out-lap again, as he feels he could've taken the lead if he was more aggressive. Red Bull going for the three-stop, while Leclerc will surely stay out on his current mediums for the last 13 laps. 12:26pm: Verstappen is suffering with steering issues, but the team confirms via the radio he will not need to come in - no reliability issue evident. Hamilton is P3 and Russell on his (second) Mercedes debut is P4. Magnussen is P5. Yes, a Haas is in the top five! With Valtteri Bottas taking P6, it's a double for the usually-lowly Alfa Romeo, showing the capability of the Ferrari-powered engine in this new generation. After complaining of tyre degradation early on, then steering issues, then a battery problem, he was forced into the garage with three laps left.
Charles Leclerc won the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday, the opening round of the 2022 Formula 1 World Championship, leading Carlos Sainz in a Ferrari 1-2.
Perez also hit power issues, allowing Hamilton right on to his tail. Leclerc rejoined with just enough breathing space over Verstappen this time, who blamed the team for telling him to take it easy on the out-lap. They repeated those overtakes on the following tour, but on Lap 19 Verstappen had a huge lockup as he passed Leclerc at Turn 1 and Max then slipped out of DRS range while being warned about his brake temperatures again. Verstappen, Sainz and Magnussen stopped on Lap 15 for another set of softs, while Gasly, Alonso and Ocon opted for mediums. Behind them, Perez DRS-ed past Hamilton into Turn 4 on Lap 10 to take fourth. Magnussen made a second error at Turn 1 and allowed Russell up to sixth.
Charles Leclerc took the chequered flag in a race that came alive when Max Verstappen's title defence got off to the worst possible start.
We will now look ahead to a completely different track in Saudi Arabia to see what that brings.” “I’m pretty clear where our weaknesses lay in the race, so we’ll try to understand that and work on those. Ferrari lead the constructors’ tables.
Ferrari had not won a race since 2019 and would have triumphed even if Max Verstappen had not limped into the pits with just two laps to go.
“But we already lost a lot of points again, in one race again, so that’s really not good. “[The pace] was not great today,” Verstappen said. - Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) – 15
Full race results at the Bahrain Grand Prix, Round 1 of the 2022 Formula 1 world championship.
2019 - Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 2020 - Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 2021 - Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
The Bahrain Grand Prix is the season opener for the 2022 F1 season. We break down who wins on Sunday along with their odds heading into the race.
Verstappen came into Sunday’s race as the favorite at DraftKings Sportsbook, installed at +115 and podium finish odds at -400. Ferrari was favored at +120 to have a double podium finish. Red Bull Racing was second at +200, and looked like they might have a shot before disaster struck.