Ferrari went 1-2 in the Formula One 2022 season-opening race as Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, Jr. winning the top spots with Mercedes’ seven-time Formula 1 world Lewis Hamilton claiming the third and final podium position.
Leclerc was the pole-sitter ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen entering the race and except for a few brief forays by Verstappen on Laps 17-19, led nearly the entire race while Sainz, Jr. battled with Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez, for third and Hamilton was a distant fifth for much of the race.
But on Lap 46, Pierre Gasly of Red Bull’s sister team, AlphaTauri, had a mechanical failure that caused an engine fire, sending the safety car out for five laps [six cars were allowed to un-lap themselves during the safety car period – in accordance with the rules which were not followed by former race director Michael Masi in the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix fiasco].
On the race re-start on Lap 51, Leclerc easily fended off a meek challenge from Verstappen and three laps later, Verstappen was out of the race with an undisclosed mechanical issue which caused his Red Bull to lose power. On the final lap, Perez’s Red Bull also lost power and was passed by both Sainz, Jr. and Hamilton. It was a karmic 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix fiasco retribution for Red Bull as Verstappen scored no points and dropped to a tie for last place in the driver standings while Red Bull also scored no points as a team in the constructor’s championship.
2022 Bahrain Grand Prix Top 10
1] Charles Leclerc Ferrari
2] Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari
3] Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
4] George Russell Mercedes
5] Kevin Magnussen Haas
6] Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo
7] Esteban Ocon Alpine
8] Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri
9] Fernando Alonso Alpine
10] Guanyu Zhou Alfa Romeo
