Bahrain GP : Max win, Alonso P3

Max continues his top form and wins comfortably in Bahrain. Alonso makes a stunning comeback to put his Aston Martin on the podium.

Mighty Max in Bahrain

The current world champion Max Verstappen started from the pole position and never looked back. He was very much comfortable in car, didn’t put a foot wrong and easily took the race win. He did complain about balance issues but nothing unsettled him as such. Max has certainly stamped his authority for the 2023 season as well, although this is a very long season and anything can happen.

Checo managed to finish P2 but it was not a smooth sailing for him. Charles started from new tyres and he was able to overtake Checo at the start. After that it was difficult to overtake Charles on his used softs. Even after the pitstops the situation remained the same. But thanks to an unfortunate retirement from Charles Checo got the P2 position and was 12 seconds behind Max. If Checo wants to push for the Championship then he really needs to work hard.

Stars align for Alonso and Aston Martin

Yes Aston Martin had a good car as seen in the testing season. Yes we saw Alonso topping the charts in practice session. They did a decent job in Quali too with Alonso being ahead of the Mercs. But Sunday is where the points are scored and the race pace mattered. Alonso did not disappoint even a bit. He was on top of his game and grabbed every opportunity that came his way. Not only did he overtake Hamilton but also the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz Jr. Yes luck was there on his side too with a lucky escape from an early touch with team-mate Lance as well as touching Carlos at once. Thanks to Charles’ retirement he finally got the podium finish. It is a long season and Aston will have to keep up the car development if they want to compete with Ferrari and Mercedes and even challenge Red Bull.

Team-mate Lance Stroll did a fabulous job too, coming from an injury and missing out on the testing season. He finished P6 and made some impressive overtakes especially on George.

Ferrari woes continue

Like Red Bull continues with their winning ways, Ferrari continues with their reliability woes. They have got a good package which can challenge for race wins but the reliability issues persist. Charles was comfortably settled in second position when out of nowhere he had to retire his car due to electrical issues. Team-mate Carlos was not comfortable with the car the entire weekend. He struggled to keep his P3 position as Fernando overtook him in his Aston Martin. Ferrari have a lot of work to do if they want to challenge Red Bulls for the championship.

Mediocre Mercedes

Mercedes knew they will not be able to challenge Ferrari and Red Bulls. What was embarassing was even Alonso in his Aston Martin with Mercedes engine was able to overtake the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton. They may win a race or two here and there but it will not be in a position to challenge for Championship. Team Prinicipal Toto Wolff has already said that they may have to revise the entire car philosophy and build a new car from ground up.

Ocon had a race to forget with too many mistakes and penalties. Oscar Piastri too had a debut to forget with an early retirement due to electrical issues. McLaren have a lot of work to do. Alex Albon got the last point in P10. Even his rookie team-mate Logan Sargeant did a decent job.

Bahrain Race Classification : Max wins the first race