“That was simply lovely,” said Max Verstappen on his radio after crossing the finish line, taking his eighth consecutive win and the first of the season. The Formula 1 (F1) season saw its first race this Saturday in Bahrain, an island country in the Persian Gulf. 10 teams and 20 drivers began a year-long competition at the pinnacle of motorsports, with Oracle Red Bull racing coming out on top with a 1-2 podium finish for both their drivers. Verstappen now leads the world championship with 26 points.
Verstappen won the race from pole position, which he gained during Qualifying on Friday, and quickly got away from the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, who had qualified in second position (P2) and finished fourth. Verstappen’s teammate, Sergio Perez, finished P2 after starting from fifth place, less than three seconds ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who finished third after starting fourth.
Championship points are awarded to the first ten place finishers, which included both drivers from the Mercedes, McLaren and Aston Martin teams. Logan Sargeant from Williams Racing finished P20 after losing lap time due to technical problems with his steering wheel. With no major incidents, no safety car deployment and no red flags, this race is the first in F1 history to have all cars finish the opening race of a season.
Verstappen finished the race with a 22.457 second lead on his teammate Perez, solidifying the effectiveness of the RB20, Red Bull’s 2024 car. The race also showed Ferrari as their closest competitor, with Mercedes’ George Russell, who started P3 on the grid, falling down to P6 after poor race pace and finishing 46.788 seconds behind Verstappen. His teammate Lewis Hamilton, who started his final season with Mercedes before heading to Ferrari in 2025, finished P7 sandwiched between the two McLarens after starting P9, reporting a broken seat midway through the race.
“The pace was worse than we expected,” Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff said in the Post Race show, streamed live on Formula 1’s official YouTube. “We don’t understand why the pace wasn’t there, so the data will hopefully give us more clue.”
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, who finished P10 and took home one point, finished 93.216 seconds behind the race winner. His finishing position was an improvement on his P12 start, but the debilities of the team became apparent as his teammate, Fernando Alonso, failed to maintain his P6 qualifying place, dropping down to P9 with both McLaren drivers and Hamilton overtaking him.
“I think it’s going to be tight all season,” Stroll said. “It’s getting tighter and tighter.”
The fastest lap of the race, which awards one extra point, went to Verstappen with a time of 1:32.608, and the fastest pit stop went to Ferrari with a time of 2.23.
The Saudi Arabia Grand Prix is less than one week away, kicking off on Mar. 7 in the city of Jeddah, and the second race of the season will fall on Saturday again on Mar. 9 at 11 a.m. CST.
