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F1 to 10: Verstappen and Pérez dominate the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix
All the stats and insights that matter from the Bahrain Grand Prix. Here's how Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez kicked off the new Formula 1 season in style with Oracle Red Bull Racing.
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1. Bahrain in exactly 75 words*
Max Verstappen began his Formula One world championship defense in imperious style. The Oracle Red Bull Racing driver starting from pole and leading every lap to win the 20th Bahrain Grand Prix in the first race of the team’s 20th season. Team-mate Sergio Pérez came from fifth on the grid to finish a strong second, repeating the team’s 1-2 result from the season-opener last year, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz rounding out the podium in third.
* 2024 is the 75th season of the F1 world championship
2. The Bahrain GP in six pics
Verstappen covered off Leclerc at the start and sprinted away
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Performance engineer Tom Hart joined Pérez and Verstappen on the podium
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Pérez had enough pace in hand to prevent Sainz from stealing second
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Verstappen took his 33rd F1 pole, and his second in succession in Bahrain
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
3. Superb start for the reigning champs
New year, familiar pose: Verstappen won his eighth straight race
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit painted a rosy picture for Red Bull, which was expected to pick up where it left off after a record-breaking 2023 season for the first race of the new campaign.
Verstappen’s practice pace didn’t stand out ahead of qualifying at an unusually cold and windy Sakhir, but the reigning world champion struck when it counted, denying Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to take pole by 0.228s and then nailing the run to the first corner on Saturday to maintain his advantage.
With Leclerc struggling with braking issues and a clear track ahead of him, Verstappen simply took off, his 55th career win coming after he led all 57 laps. His advantage when he properly pushed – his fastest lap of the race on Lap 39 (1m 32.608s) was 1.4s faster than anything another rival could manage – underlined his dominance on a night where he won his eighth consecutive race dating back to last season.
Pérez had a tougher road to traverse after he admitted a mistake at Turn 1 on his final lap in qualifying left him in fifth on the grid, but the Mexican made amends almost immediately in the race when he jumped to third place within the first seven laps.
Third became second when he cleared the Mercedes of George Russell on Lap 14, and while Pérez had to be mindful of a fast-closing Sainz in the closing stages, he had enough of a buffer to secure his best result since last year’s Italian Grand Prix, 10 races ago.
It was Pérez’s third podium in the Bahrain GP – his first career win came at the one-off Sakhir Grand Prix on a different track layout at the same venue in 2020 – and ensured the team took a maximum of 44 points away from the season-opener for the second year running.
4. New name, but no points for Ricciardo and Tsunoda
Ricciardo just ran out of laps to overhaul Magnussen
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
The newly-named Visa Cash App RB team came to Bahrain with high hopes of scoring points after Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda had promising pre-season build-ups at the same circuit a week earlier, but fell short with Ricciardo finishing 13th and Tsunoda 14th after 57 laps.
Tsunoda fared better of the two in qualifying, starting 11th to Ricciardo’s 14th, and had Ricciardo’s measure for the majority of the race before the Australian fitted soft-compound Pirelli tyres for the final stint of the race after his second pit stop on Lap 35, his pace advantage obvious as he hunted down on his team-mate in the latter stages.
The team asked Tsunoda to move aside to give Ricciardo a chance to attack Kevin Magnussen (Haas) for 12th, but the Danish driver held on by six-tenths of a second at the checkered flag, the two RB entries split by just half a second after an hour and a half of racing.
5. The number you need to know
114: Oracle Red Bull Racing’s 114th F1 victory sees the team draw level with Williams for the fourth-most wins by a team in the sport’s history; only Ferrari (243), Mercedes (183) and McLaren (125) have won more.
6. The word from the paddock
Today went even better than expected. The car was really nice to drive on every [tyre] compound, and I think we had a lot of pace, it was super enjoyable to drive today.
7. The stats that matter
Drivers' Championship top 5
Position
Driver
Team
Points
Gap
1
Max Verstappen
Oracle Red Bull Racing
26
-
2
Sergio Pérez
Oracle Red Bull Racing
18
-8
3
Carlos Sainz
Ferrari
15
-11
4
Charles Leclerc
Ferrari
12
-14
5
George Russell
Mercedes
10
-16
Constructors' Championship top 5
Position
Team
Points
Gap
1
Oracle Red Bull Racing
44
-
2
Ferrari
27
-17
3
Mercedes
16
-28
4
McLaren
12
-32
5
Aston Martin
3
-41
8. Away from the track
We say ‘away from the track,’ which is only partially true – but we couldn't resist sharing what happened when Shaggy, aka Ralph Hogenbirk of the Dutch Drone Gods, did what sounded impossible - using his custom-built Red Bull Drone 1 to track Oracle Red Bull Racing's RB20 car for an entire lap of Silverstone in England.
Shaggy himself is no stranger to fast drones – he's a staple in the Drone Racing League and has filmed the frantic and frenetic Red Bull Valparaíso Cerro Abajo downhill - but this was an entirely new challenge. Keeping up with Max Verstappen is no mean feat, and the world champion was impressed. "This could change how people watch Formula One," Verstappen said - and he's not wrong.
Watch the incredible flight of Red Bull Drone 1 - maximum speed 350km/h - around the track in the video below.
12 min
World’s fastest filming drone chases Max Verstappen
Fast laps like you've never seen before – take flight with a drone that keeps up with F1 car speeds of 300kph+.
9. Where to next, and what do I need to know?
Round 2 (Saudi Arabia), March 7-9
Circuit name/location: Jeddah Corniche Circuit, Jeddah
Length/laps: 6.174km, 50 laps
Grands Prix held/debut: 3, 2021
Most successful driver: Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Sergio Pérez (one win apiece)
Most successful team: Oracle Red Bull Racing (two wins)
2023 race recap: 1st: Sergio Pérez (Oracle Red Bull Racing), 2nd: Max Verstappen (Oracle Red Bull Racing), 3rd: Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
10. Inside the wide world of Red Bull Motorsports
Sébastien Loeb at Rally Greece
© Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool
As F1 gets its show on the road after Bahrain, take a minute or two to get off-track and into the World Rally Championship – and more specifically, who has done it better than most.
Did you know that Lancia is the most successful manufacturer in the history of the WRC? Or that Sébastien Loeb has won a record-breaking 935 special stages in his career? They’re just two of the most memorable WRC records of all time – and there’s plenty more to celebrate and commemorate.
Strap yourself into the driver’s seat and either test, refresh or learn – we won’t judge – some of the sport’s biggest statistical feats, from closest championship finish to oldest and youngest champions since the World Rally Championship was founded in 1973.
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