Formula 1 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix results

Polesitter Verstappen appeared unimpeachable at the Sakhir circuit as he pulled out of DRS range of the chasing Ferrari of Charles Leclerc by the end of the opening lap.
Despite his 2022 chief championship rival starting with fresher tyres, Verstappen then stretched his soft Pirellis a lap longer than Leclerc and managed a rear axle locking issue when downshifting.
Once Leclerc retired with ...

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Now that the Bahrain Grand Prix is in the books, the 2023 Formula 1 season is officially up and running. Behind the one-way traffic at the front of the field, as Max Verstappen picked up from where he left off last season, the overall pecking order has been refreshed.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was denied a podium owing to reliability concerns, paving the way for Fernando Alonso’s ...

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Hamilton started the race in seventh place and finished it in fifth after passing team-mate George Russell and benefitting from the retirement of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.
However, he was powerless to hold off the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso, who had a bad start and eventually recovered to finish third.
Asked if he was concerned that the team hasn’t made much progress since last ...

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Red Bull holds exploratory talks with McLaren over engine supply
On Friday, Red Bull chief Christian Horner confirmed reports that McLaren CEO Zak Brown had visited Red Bull Powertrains to explore a potential engine supply deal from 2026.
Horner said it was "natural we would speak with potential customers" as McLaren ponders whether to stay with current supplier Mercedes or find an ...

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The Canadian was involved in a cycling incident in Spain while building up his fitness.
He "banged up" his left wrist, required surgery and a pin to be inserted by famed MotoGP doctor Xavier Mir in his right wrist, and sustained a broken toe.
As a result, Stroll was forced to miss pre-season testing in Bahrain, where reigning F2 champion and Aston Martin reserve Felipe Drugovich instead ...

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Norris suffered a power unit pneumatic issue that led to six pitstops and his eventual retirement in the closing laps, while team-mate Oscar Piastri retired early with an electrical failure.
However, Norris tried to see the positives, pointing out that he would have scored points had he not had problems.
He started 11th in a race that saw Valtteri Bottas move up from 12th to eighth, and ...

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From being out of position at the start to not serving his subsequent sanction correctly, Ocon's race turned from bad to worse when he also picked up a pitlane speeding offence.
In the end, the situation left him well outside the points and triggered the team's decision to end his race early.
How it unfolded
The sequence of events kicked off before the start when Ocon lined up slightly ...

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The Italian squad had hoped to be able to lead the challenge against Red Bull in F1’s season opener last weekend. 
But despite pushing its rival hard in qualifying, worse tyre degradation in the race left it well adrift before Charles Leclerc suffered an engine problem while running third.
That left the door open for a hard-charging Fernando Alonso to swoop his Aston Martin past ...

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The two-time world champion claimed his first podium since the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix when he finished third behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez in last weekend’s F1 season opener in Bahrain. 
What is perhaps most impressive about his feat is that it has been achieved in his first race with the Aston Martin squad, which finished seventh in the constructors’ championship ...

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Max Verstappen led a dominant Red Bull 1-2 in both qualifying and the race, with nearest rival Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin finishing over 38 seconds behind in third place after Charles Leclerc retired mid-race with an engine issue.
With Mercedes struggling for performance, Russell has put Red Bull in a league above the rest of the F1 field and expects them to be able to win all 23 races ...

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Topflight debutant Piastri became the first driver of the new season to retire after attempts to rectify an electrical issue aboard his MCL60 by fitting a new steering wheel failed.
By staying out longer than rivals on his starting soft tyres, the Australian had risen to 12th when he pitted at the end of lap 12. But the ineffective reset forced his early bath.
Stella has revealed that the ...

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Fourth-starting Sainz was on course for third place when his Scuderia stable-mate Charles Leclerc was forced to retire on lap 39 out of 57 with a suspected engine failure.
However, the 2022 British GP victor was then bumped off the podium in the dying stages by compatriot Fernando Alonso, the two-time world champion making his Aston Martin debut.
Sainz called out poor tyre degradation aboard ...

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Verstappen controlled the race from the start, as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc grabbed second early on thanks to starting on fresh soft tyres.
Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez passed Leclerc to take second place on lap 26, which looked to have assured the podium order before half distance. But Leclerc’s Ferrari ground to a halt on lap 41 with an engine problem, promoting Ferrari ...

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The two-time champion kicked off his title defence in imperious fashion by scoring his first win at the Bahrain International Circuit by 11.9s over Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez.
Despite starting on used softs compared to Ferrari rival Charles Leclerc's brand-new Pirellis, Verstappen escaped DRS range and boasted a 1.8s lead at the end of the second lap.
He then stretched his rubber a lap ...

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Leclerc was running a lonely third place in the Bahrain Grand Prix behind the dominant Red Bull duo, as Max Verstappen went on to lead a 1-2 in the opener until his Ferrari engine lost power and forced him out of the race on lap 40.
Speaking immediately after the race, Leclerc didn't know the cause of his retirement from the race but was already frustrated by Ferrari's pace deficit to Red Bull ...

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The two-time champion was fortunate to come away from the opening lap of his Aston Martin debut unscathed after receiving a whack to the rear-right from Lance Stroll, as the team-mates already engaged in their own respective duels with the Mercedes duo.
Fifth-starting Alonso then came to the fore in the final stint as he maximised his hard tyres to chase after Lewis Hamilton, executing a ...

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Verstappen led easily away from pole position, while Perez lost second to Leclerc after he made a slow getaway and fell behind the Ferrari driver.
Any hope of a battle for the lead was quickly extinguished when Verstappen romped clear of Leclerc by over half-a-second a lap, with Perez tracking Leclerc across the first stint before they made their first of two pitstops.
Leclerc was the first ...

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Stella's sentiments were shared by Lando Norris, who highlighted the progress made by Aston Martin over the winter as something that McLaren could aspire to match within this season.
McLaren failed to get a car into Q3 for the first race of the season in Bahrain, with Norris starting 11th and arguably flattered by poor sessions for others, while his rookie team-mate Oscar Piastri qualified ...

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Alpine hid its true potential in testing at Sakhir by not running soft tyres or low fuel, but Gasly picked up the pace in second practice, when he was an encouraging seventh.
However, while team-mate Esteban Ocon progressed to Q3 and earned ninth place on the grid, Gasly fought understeer and traction issues and was slowest of all in Q1.
"It's clearly a one-off," he said when asked by ...

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Alonso shocked F1's silly season last summer when he slid into the Aston seat left vacant by the retiring Sebastian Vettel, leaving Alpine scrambling to find a replacement as it also saw junior driver Oscar Piastri move to McLaren.
The 41-year-old has a history of making bold team decisions, often ending up at the wrong team at the wrong time, ever since claiming two world titles for Renault in ...

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Red Bull swept the front row at Sakhir with Max Verstappen on pole and his team-mate Sergio Perez alongside.
Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz are behind in third and fourth, but rather than focusing on consolidating those positions and defending from Aston Martin and Mercedes that line up behind, Clear is adamant Ferrari is looking ahead.
Crucially, Leclerc saved a set of new soft tyres for ...

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Rivals had pegged Williams as the 10th-fastest team in the 2023 field after testing at Sakhir, a view that Albon himself supported.
However, the former Red Bull driver put in a sensational performance in Q1 to progress through in ninth place, while cars from Haas, McLaren, AlphaTauri and Alpine didn’t make it.
His hopes of making it any further were dashed by an issue with a front wing ...

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After a troubled pre-season testing run, the German car manufacturer brushed itself off, dug deep, got to the bottom of the problems it faced with the W13, and late in the season won the Brazilian Grand Prix. 
Fast forward to now and an almost identical six tenths gap – from a 0.680 seconds deficit to pole position in 2022 to a 0.632 seconds gap this year – has triggered a completely ...

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After topping FP2 and FP3, Alonso confirmed Aston Martin's giant leap forward by qualifying fifth in the AMR23, just six tenths off polesitter Verstappen, with team-mate Lance Stroll qualifying eighth.
Speaking straight after qualifying, Alonso said his pace was almost "too good to be true" but felt that with Aston Martin's historically stronger race pace he might be able to mount a podium ...

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And for good measure, the latest creation to come out of Maranello excels in the very same areas of the Sakhir circuit as the now-retired RB18. Imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery. 
How Verstappen drew first blood 
Max Verstappen bagged his 21st and latest pole position in Formula 1 courtesy of a 1m29.708s effort. He pipped team-mate Sergio Perez by 0.138s as ...

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Reigning champion Max Verstappen will start the race from pole position after leading a Red Bull 1-2 in Saturday's qualifying.
Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz will form an all-Ferrari second row, while Fernando Alonso will take the start from fifth in his first race for Aston Martin.
A difficult qualifying session for Mercedes left George Russell and Lewis Hamilton sixth and seventh ...

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Verstappen will start ahead of Red Bull Racing team-mate Sergio Perez and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc after the one-hour qualifying session, which is split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3.
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Bahrain GP: Verstappen beats Perez, Ferraris to first pole of F1 2023
Verstappen "positively surprised" by pole as ...

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In the wake of Verstappen’s third-place finish in Monte Carlo, as Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez triumphed, both drivers found themselves subject to a Ferrari protest about crossing the pit exit line. 
During an early change of tyres on the damp but drying track, both were observed from on-board footage to have swerved towards the yellow pitlane exit line that drivers are not allowed to ...

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After setting the fastest times in second and third practice, Alonso was in the hunt for pole position in Bahrain but ran early to set his final Q3 lap and duly qualified in fifth.
The Aston Martin driver ran 0.628s adrift of polesitter Max Verstappen to also fall behind Sergio Perez and an all-Ferrari second row. But the two-time champion kept both Mercedes at arms’ length, with Russell ...

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Ferrari driver Leclerc looked to have the potential to beat Perez and possibly even threaten eventual pole winner Verstappen for the top spot, but surprisingly climbed out of his SF-23 ahead of the second and final runs.
This, he and Ferrari claimed, was a tactic to save a set of brand-new soft tyres to use at the start of Sunday's race which they hope will provide more grip off the line and ...

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After a disappointing qualifying for the season-opener in Bahrain, with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton qualifying sixth and seventh, Wolff said the reality of his team’s lack of performance had hit home.
With the squad having pushed on with the same car concept as last year, while many rivals had gone down the Red Bull downwash solution, Wolff said it was time to admit his outfit had got ...

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Mercedes lacked the performance to run at the front in Friday practice for the 2023 season opener in Bahrain, with Hamilton ending up over six tenths off the pace in eighth in the best of the two W14s.
It followed a difficult pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit last week, where Mercedes appeared to be lagging behind its main rivals - leading to suggestions it could face another ...

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Alonso and his Aston Martin team were the talk of the paddock after topping for FP2 and FP3, with the expectation that the Silverstone team could at least challenge Mercedes to enter the top three.
The two-time world champion did exactly that in qualifying, taking fifth place behind the four cars from Red Bull and Ferrari and narrowly ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and Lewis ...

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After Red Bull appeared to be the strongest team by some margin during pre-season testing last week, Verstappen had to persevere with more understeer during Friday practice as a result of Red Bull electing to raise the ride height of its RB19.
That left team-mate Sergio Perez - more comfortable with a lazy front axle - to top FP1 before Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso ran fastest in FP2 and ...

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Leclerc jumped out of his SF-23 after posting his banker lap in Q3 to forfeit his shot at pole position, with the driver settling for third place by lapping 0.292s adrift of Max Verstappen and behind the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez.
While this led to some speculation that he might have encountered a technical issue - with the Monegasque triggering a red flag in Q1 when his car twice shed ...

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Carlos Sainz finished fourth ahead of his compatriot Fernando Alonso, the Aston Martin driver only running once in the final segment due to having one set fewer of the soft tyres compared to the Red Bull and Ferrari drivers.
Verstappen had led Leclerc after the first runs in Q3 by 0.103s, but just as the action was due to reach qualifying's climax, the latter was suddenly climbing from his ...

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Vowles joined Williams last month and well understands the scale of the challenge that he faces to lift the team off the bottom of the standings.
In a column posted on the Williams website last week, the former Mercedes strategy director suggested that he had little interest in devoting all-out effort to improve the current car.
"We are looking to set foundations that remain here not ...

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Reports emerged in Germany on the final day of pre-season testing in Bahrain last week that Red Bull - whose senior structure has been tweaked following the death of company co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz late in 2022 - was evaluating the future of its second squad.
This was supposedly down to the questionable effectiveness of a 2020 rebrand from Toro Rosso to AlphaTauri in promoting the ...

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