Max Verstappen began his latest Formula 1 title defence with a commanding win in the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, leading a Red Bull 1-2 from Sergio Perez.
Perez charged through with a series of overtaking moves in the opening stages to rise from fifth to second, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz taking the final podium place.
The entire starting grid elected to start on the grippiest Soft rubber for the beginning of the race, with the top nine drivers on a used set of the red-walled compound.
At the start, Verstappen made an excellent launch and managed to hold the inside line at Turn 1 to protect the lead as Charles Leclerc attempted a move to the outside.
Meanwhile, Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Perez displaced Sainz to take fourth, as Nico Hulkenberg picked up instant wing damage and dropped right to the back.
It was later shown that Valtteri Bottas had tagged the rear of Hulkenberg and forced the German into Lance Stroll, who also plummetted to the rear end of the grid.
Verstappen had set about extending his lead to escape DRS, which is now activated at the end of the first lap, with Leclerc then coming under pressure from Russell.
The Mercedes driver took advantage of DRS up the hill to produce a pinpoint move around the outside of the Ferrari into Turn 4, with Perez the next to line up Leclerc.
Prior to that, Lando Norris had been on the move in the first of the McLarens to make a comfortable overtake on Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin on the inside of Turn 1.
Oscar Piastri replicated Norris’ move three laps later to demote Alonso further, with Russell heading a pack of cars fighting for second with Verstappen four seconds clear.
Perez had been waiting behind Leclerc for several laps but took advantage of Leclerc locking up into Turn 10 to power past the Ferrari and into third place on Lap 7.
Despite Leclerc’s attempt to get back ahead of the Red Bull into Turn 1 on the following lap, Perez planted his car to the inside to retain the final position on the podium.
Lewis Hamilton had been unable to make progress up the order from his starting spot of ninth but 10 laps in managed to complete a pass on Alonso into the first turn.
Logan Sargeant had a bizarre incident when he locked up into Turn 4 and it looked as if his race was over until he managed to get his Williams car moving, albeit in last.
One lap later Carlos Sainz stormed past Leclerc into Turn 1 to assume the position as the lead Ferrari on the road in fourth as the Monegasque’s struggles continued.
Ferrari would opt to bring Leclerc into the pits for his opening stop of the race at the end of that 11th lap, with Russell ahead also moving onto a new set of the Hard tyre.
That triggered a chain reaction on the next lap that saw Perez, Piastri and Hamilton stopping, as Leclerc went wide at Turn 10 when he got too close to the Sauber.
Perez had manoeuvred his Red Bull within DRS range of Russell in the battle for a net second place and capitalised on him going deep at Turn 4 to cut underneath.
Russell’s small tussle with Perez had enabled Leclerc to close back inside one second, with Sainz having been demoted behind his team-mate after a later pit stop.
However, Sainz utilised his fresher rubber to dive back up the inside of Leclerc into Turn 1 before then switching his focus to attacking Russell’s Mercedes for third.
Sainz sized up Russell into Turn 1 on the next lap and breezed around the outside of the Briton into Turn 4 using the momentum provided by the second DRS zone.
Russell had dropped 4.5s behind Sainz and was starting to be caught from behind by Leclerc, who had been struggling to get on top of an imbalanced Ferrari car.
Mercedes had advised Russell not to use his overtake button before team-mate Hamilton complained that his “seat was broken” as he trailed the two McLarens.
A wheel nut issue on the front left at a pit stop saw Bottas stranded in the Sauber pit box for over 50s, which saw the Finnish racer drop down to 19th position.
Back at the front of the field, Verstappen has extended his advantage over Perez to over 16s with 24 laps still remaining, with Sainz 3s back on the second Red Bull.
Mercedes opted to safeguard against the undercut threat from behind with the call to pit Russell for a second time and he returned to the track clear of Alonso.
Ferrari responded to that stop with Leclerc at the end of Lap 34, as Hamilton made the undercut work to get ahead of Piastri, who out-braked himself into Turn 1.
Red Bull waited until Lap 37 to bring Perez in for his second and final scheduled pit stop, but the Mexican remained still ahead of Sainz with a comfortable buffer.
The reigning champions had selected an additional set of the Soft compound for the Bahrain weekend and chose the closing stint to utilise them against its rivals.
That facilitated Verstappen to post the fastest lap of the race, with Leclerc having been the holder of that accolade as he continued his pursuit of Russell for fourth.
With Alonso unable to maintain pace with the eight cars ahead, Aston Martin had extended the Spaniard’s middle stint to no avail until he came in at the end of Lap 41.
The two-time champion had emerged in 11th, but Alonso made light work of climbing back into the points places with a move on Zhou Guanyu’s Sauber into Turn 4.
Russell had maintained position over Leclerc but a mistake into Turn 10 saw him run wide off the track, allowing Leclerc to seize fourth place with 11 laps remaining.
Stroll had been left on a one-stop strategy as Aston Martin sought to bring him into contention and the Canadian put up no defence when his team-mate approached.
Yuki Tsunoda had been on for the final point in the opening embers but had slipped to 13th and was against the order to let team-mate Daniel Ricciardo through.
However, the Japanese driver relented and let Ricciardo pass to have an attempt at Kevin Magnussen, who was running in the first of the Haas cars in 12th place.
Verstappen secured his second consecutive win in Bahrain, 22s ahead of Perez as Red Bull’s bid to earn a third straight Constructors’ title began with a perfect score.
Sainz produced a battling drive to take the final podium position, with Leclerc trailing 14s behind his team-mate in fourth. Russell came home fifth in the lead Mercedes.
Norris endured a quiet evening and settled for sixth as Hamilton split the two McLaren drivers. Alonso finished a distant ninth with Stroll completing the points scorers.
Are you sure there isn’t anything illegal with the Bulls? Bu the criteria that barred Andretti from joining the Club, RB should be disqualified for turning the audience off…