Max Verstappen again: The world champion from the Netherlands wins the first Formula 1 race of the season. Sauber is close to the points.
Max Verstappen celebrates his eighth win in a row across all seasons.
Rula Rouhana / Reuters
(sda) New season, old picture: Max Verstappen wins the Bahrain Grand Prix with a clear victory. The world champion wins the Formula 1 canter ahead of his teammate Sergio Perez, who completes Red Bull’s double victory.
At the start of the season on the desert circuit in Sakhir, Max Verstappen once again impressively demonstrated the Red Bull’s superiority. The Dutchman, who started from pole position, dominated the action from the first meter and never relinquished the lead during the 57 laps. At the finish, the champion of the last three years was over 22 seconds ahead of Sergio Perez, who had worked his way up from fifth place on the grid.
As in the previous year, the world champion team Red Bull celebrated a double victory in the same constellation. Carlos Sainz in the Ferrari completed the podium. The Spaniard, who will have to give way to record world champion Lewis Hamilton for the Reds from Maranello next season, kept his teammate Charles Leclerc in check. The Monegasse took 4th place, followed by George Russell in the Mercedes, Lando Norris in the McLaren and Hamilton in the other Mercedes.
For Verstappen it was the eighth win in a row across all seasons, the 55th overall in Formula 1. The youngest GP winner in history also secured an additional point for the fastest race lap.
In a race without a single failure, the Sauber team with Zhou Guanyu, who finished in 11th place, narrowly missed out on the World Championship points. Valtteri Bottas in the second Hinwil car was 19th and second to last.