Sunday debrief: Verstappen’s still in a league of his own

Verstappen takes his 55th career race win in Bahrain. The 2024 podium remaining relatively unchanged from 2023, with a second consecutive Red Bull 1-2 finish and a Spanish driver to complete in P3, Sainz was the Spaniard to complete the podium this season. Max Verstappen once again cruised to victory with a 22 second gap between himself his teammate.

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Verstappen leads from start to finish, have we seen this all before?

 

Pre-race:

 

The weekend began with 3 different session leaders over the three practice sessions. Daniel Ricciardo shocked everyone when he put his RB in P1 at the end of FP1, followed by Hamilton in P2. Sainz was the final driver to take P1 in FP3. While he didn’t lead any of the practice sessions and failed to finish in the top 3, it was Verstappen who took pole for Saturdays race.

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The two Alpine’s look to have not improved after testing, with both drivers starting from the back of the grid in P20 and P19. Gasly starting in P20 for the second consecutive season but will be looking to finishing in the points again, in 2023 the Frenchman starting from the back of the grid and finishing the race in P9.

Hulkenberg continues to impress in qualifying, as the Haas landed a spot in P10 for the second year in a row, with Magnussen in P15. Concerns were raised for Hamilton, who only qualified in P9, while his teammate George Russell qualified in P3.

 

Race day:

 

2024 marks the 20th anniversary of the Bahrain Grand Prix, Verstappen picking up his 2nd win in Bahrain, along with his 55th career race win.

 

Going into Turn 1, Hulkenberg and Stroll made contact, both drivers dropping down from P10 and P12 to P19 and P20 respectively. Hulkenberg returned to the pits at the end of Lap 1 with front wing damage, Hulkenberg came back out with a new front wing and hard compound trye, going straight to the back of the grid.

 

In a largely unproductive race, the yellow flag was brough out on Lap 10, after Logan Sargeant went off onto the runoff area, dropping from P14 to P20. Issues were revealed to be with the steering wheel, Sargeant was able to get himself going again after a long delay, re-joining at the back of the grid over a minute behind the race leader. Albon also took to the team radio to complain about the steering wheel, Williams debuting a new steering wheel for the season, which seems to have its fair share of issues.

 

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Ferrari plaid the team order card on Lap 11, Sainz being allowed to pass Leclerc. Leclerc unhappy with the decision, wasn’t going to make it easy for his teammate, the Ferrari’s nearly coming together and making contact as the pair made the switch. The two Ferrari’s battled with each other throughout the race with Sainz returning to behind his teammate in P7, after a pit stop on lap 15. The pair would switch again later in the race with another near costly move. It was not an easy race for Leclerc, who kept locking up and complaining about the brakes.

 

Ferrari weren’t the only team with their fair share of issues, Mercedes with power unit issues for Russell and Battery issues for Hamilton. Hamilton complaining very early in the race, that he has no battery with only 1%, issues with Hamilton’s ERS system, making it difficult for the seven-time world champion to make up any position, remaining in P8 for a majority of the race after starting in P9. A few laps later Russell took to the team radio to share that the power unit in the back of his Mercedes was overheating, this news making it easy for Sainz to glide past.

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Going into the closing stages of the race on Lap 46, Russell losing pace in his Mercedes, went wide at Turn 11, leaving the door open for Leclerc to get ahead and up into P4 behind his teammate in P3. Hamilton in the other Mercedes began to chase down the McLaren of Lando Norris in P4 after passing the other McLaren of Oscar Piastri on Lap 35. Hamilton closing the gap between himself on Norris down to around 2 seconds at the chequered flag, the McLaren holding his stance between the two Mercedes.

 

At the chequered flag, it was Verstappen to complete his series of race wins from last season, making it an 8th consecutive race win, continuing on from Abu Dhabi 2023. Cheers could be heard from the Red Bull garage as Perez came home to accompany his teammate on the podium, with a Red Bull 1-2, maximum points for the Milton Keynes team. Verstappen concluded the race by stating “that was simply lovely”, Red Bulls new concept taken from Merceded flawed ‘zero sidepod’ concept looking to be a competitive advantage.

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Sainz crossed the line in P3, followed by Leclerc in P4. The two Mercedes in P4 and P6, the same as last season with a reversed order. The two McLarens in P5 and P7, and the two Astons to round off the top 10.