This past Sunday was the much-anticipated opening race of the 2023 Formula 1 season. The race took place in Gulf Air Bahrain, and it was nothing short of breath-taking. Red bull drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez drove phenomenally, taking first and second place.
Fernando Alonso performed well the entire weekend, setting the fastest lap in practice one and placing in the top three in practice two and three. Alonso started P5 on the grid but had a terrible start to the race, where he immediately lost the position after making contact with teammate Lance Stoll. The two-time world champion was able to regain the position by overtaking both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz pushing him up into third place, putting him back on the podium.
Max Verstappen started his season the way he ended the last, winning his 36th race of his career. The two-time world champion dominated the race, ending with an 11.987 second gap from his teammate in second place Sergio Perez.
Charles Leclerc started in P3 but managed to overtake Checo into turn 1. Leclerc had an incredible first stint and looked certain that he would be getting a podium at the end of the race. However, everything changed on lap 41 when his engine cut, and he could not complete the race.
Ferrari weren’t the only team suffering from continuous woes. McLaren’s Lando Norris had several issues but managed to complete the race coming in P17 after three other cars retried. Alpines Esteban Ocon would not want to remember this race. Ocon faced three penalties- the first was when he overshot his starting position and received a ten second penalty. After pitting, he was told that he did not serve his penalty correctly and was given another 5 seconds. After his second pit and completing his penalty, he was given another five second penalty for speeding in the pit lane. By the end of lap 43, Alpine decided to retire the car. His teammate Pierre Gasly seemed to have better luck on his debut for the team, starting at the back of the grid and making it up all the way to the points in P9.
There have many changes to this season’s grid, with three new rookies- Nyck de Vries driving for AlphaTauri, Oscar Piastri driving for McLaren and Logan Sargeant driving for Williams. De Vries made an appearance last season and managed to score on his debut race for Williams, this weekend he started in P19 and ended in P14. Oscar Piastri was the second and most anticipated debut driver this weekend having his first race in an F1 car after being promoted from F2, however things looked bleak since he started in P18 and was forced to retire his car after his engine cut off. The third rookie on the grid, Logan Sargeant who started the race in P16 and ended in P12 giving hope to Williams to finish in a better spot in the constructors in comparison to last season.
Could the first race have set the tone for the rest of the season? Or will there be a massive turn of events within the next few races.
The next race takes on the 19th of March in STC Saudi Arabia at 19:00 local time.
Naziya Davids' Blog 