F1 notebook: highlights from season opener in Bahrain
The F1 season opener has come and gone as Max Verstappen took victory Sunday night in Bahrain.
Many storylines came from this race including Red Bull's domination, Aston Martin's success, and much more.
Let's do a quick sweep through the series, including the highlights and lowlights from Bahrain:
Speedy Bulls
Red Bull was for sure the fastest team this weekend. Although Fernando Alonso was fastest in FP2 and FP3, once qualifying came around, it was an all-Redbull front row with Sergio "Checo" Perez securing 2nd.
Throughout the race, Verstappen was in a league of his own, and Perez had a comfortable 2nd place. They were so fast that Verstappen crossed the line 11 seconds ahead of his teammate and 38 seconds ahead of Alonso who finished 3rd.
Redbull was really in a league of its own this race and should head to Jeddah with the same momentum and expectations.
Aston Martin is the second-best team?
Well, it turns out the Aston Martin's were fast and it wasn't just testing results. Many fans believed that the preseason hype would die once the real races got started, but that was not the case. As mentioned before, Alonso took the fastest lap in practice. During qualifying, both drivers made it into Q3, and Alonso put his AM 5th and Lance Stroll got 8th.
At the end of the day, Alonso had made many impressive overtakes including his around-the-outside pass on Lewis Hamilton, and got a podium to start 2023. Very impressive. Lance Stroll finished the race in 6th. What was even more impressive is that Stroll was not 100% fit with his broken wrist. There is no doubt that Aston Martin was the 2nd best team this weekend, but will that continue throughout the year?
Ups and Downs for Alpine
Piere Gasly in his debut race drove from p20 to p9 to pick up points in his Alpine debut. Gasly almost quietly made his way through the pack and with a solid strategy was able to make 11 overtakes. I'm sure at least one side of the garage is in good spirits. Esteban Ocon, on the other hand, had a terrible race. His actual racing wasn't an issue, but I saw something I thought I would never see. Ocon had a penalty debacle. A DNF doesn't help either. So how did this happen? Well to start, Ocon lined up in his grid position incorrectly. He was slightly ahead of the line and therefore he was given a 5-second penalty. You can come back from that, but Ocon's pit crew started working on his car before the 5 seconds. That led to him getting another penalty, this time a 10-second penalty. So now what? Ocon then proceeds to speed in the pitlane while serving that penalty. He was then given a 15-second penalty. To top it off? A DNF.
In other news
* Other smaller stories include Logan Sargeant having a great debut and Williams as a team performing well. The Floridian Sargeant made his debut and finished 12th with a great race. Alex Albon got points for Williams finishing 10th. A great Bahrain Grand Prix for Williams.
* Ferrari's struggles continued as Charles Leclerc had to retire from the race. Leclerc was on track for a podium before his energy store went bad, which he changed earlier in the day. Leclerc has now used all of his allocated ES for the season.
* Mclaren had a pitiful race. Oscar Piastri had to retire the car after an electrical issue. Lando Norris had to take multiple pitstops to fill up on a fluid to keep his car running. In the end, it was p19 for Norris and a DNF for Piastri.
* Finally, Haas wasn't as strong as they were during qualifying. It might be a case of the American team having a faster car on a one-lap run. During the race, both Haas cars had limited pace and finished the evening in p13 and p15.
The Bahrain GP was a great start to the season and the second round in Jeddah is in a fortnight's time.