F1 race results: Max Verstappen wins 2023 Bahrain GP, Alonso stars

Verstappen controlled the race from the start, as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc grabbed second early on thanks to starting on fresh soft tyres.

Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez passed Leclerc to take second place on lap 26, which looked to have assured the podium order before half distance. But Leclerc’s Ferrari ground to a halt on lap 41 with an engine problem, promoting Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz to third.

But Aston Martin’s Alonso was not to be denied a podium finish after a sparkling drive and took third from Sainz with 11 laps to go.

2023 Bahrain Grand Prix results

Cla	Driver		Laps	Gap	Interval	Pits	Points
1	Max Verstappen		57			2	25
2	Sergio Perez		57	11.987	11.987	2	18
3	Fernando Alonso		57	38.637	26.650	2	15
4	Carlos Sainz		57	48.052	9.415	2	12
5	Lewis Hamilton		57	50.977	2.925	2	10
6	Lance Stroll		57	54.502	3.525	2	8
7	George Russell		57	55.873	1.371	2	6
8	Valtteri Bottas		57	1'12.647	16.774	2	4
9	Pierre Gasly		57	1'13.753	1.106	3	2
10	Alex Albon		57	1'29.774	16.021	3	1
11	Yuki Tsunoda		57	1'30.870	1.096	3
12	Logan Sargeant		56			3
13	Kevin Magnussen		56			3
14	Nyck de Vries		56			2
15	Nico Hulkenberg		56			3
16	Zhou Guanyu		56			3
17	Lando Norris		55			6
	Esteban Ocon		41			4
	Charles Leclerc		39			2
	Oscar Piastri		13			1
View full results

 

How the 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix unfolded

Verstappen easily held his pole advantage on the run to Turn 1 ahead of Leclerc, who brushed wheels with a slow-starting Perez and Sainz as they all jinked towards the inside line.

Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) was the big winner at the start and opening corners, cleverly gaining two places to run fifth. Contact occurred at Turn 4 as Lance Stroll clumsily biffed the rear end of Aston team-mate Alonso, sending him sideways, which allowed George Russell’s Mercedes past both into sixth.

By lap 10, Verstappen led Leclerc by 6.5s, with Perez a further 1.5s back and Sainz already a distant fourth but ahead of the Mercedes and Aston pairings.

Hamilton pitted on lap 13 as Alonso attacked Russell, the Spaniard taking fifth through the Turns 4 to 6 sequence. Leclerc and Sainz stopped a lap later, as did Russell, who suffered a slow left-rear change.

Verstappen pitted on lap 15 to take more softs, allowing Perez to lead for a couple of laps. Valtteri Bottas stopped his Alfa Romeo early and undercut his way to run sixth for a while, until Alonso, Russell and Stroll battled their way past by lap 20. Perez then pitted, taking softs like Verstappen, and rejoined 3s behind Leclerc in third.

Perez chased down Leclerc and passed him for second on lap 26 at Turn 1 but was already almost 14s down on Verstappen.

In the second round of pitstops, Aston tried an undercut for Stroll, which worked out perfectly as he passed Russell for seventh at Turn 4 on his out-lap. Alonso went the other way, running long on his hard tyres, which allowed an early-stopping Hamilton to take his fifth place.

At the front, Verstappen was able to run his soft tyres longer than anyone, switching to hards on lap 36 for his final stint and cruising to his 36^th F1 victory. Perez was a distant second, but well clear of Leclerc and Sainz.

The big battle was for fifth between Hamilton and Alonso, who switched places at Turn 4 on lap 37 after the Spaniard suffered a big slide. Two laps later, Alonso shocked Hamilton with an unexpected lunge at Turn 10 that gained him fifth spot.

That became fourth when Leclerc’s Ferrari ground to a halt on lap 41, costing him third place and causing a brief virtual safety car. Alonso now set his sights on the podium, quickly carving into Sainz’s 3s advantage, and zoomed past him at Turn 11 after an entertaining wheel-to-wheel fight.

Sainz held off Hamilton for fourth in the closing stages, ahead of Stroll, Russell, Bottas, Pierre Gasly (from the back of the grid in his Alpine) and the Williams of Alex Albon, who just held off Yuki Tsuoda (AlphaTauri) at the finish.

Elsewhere, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon had a race from hell, getting a 5s penalty for not lining up in his grid slot correctly and needing a new front wing after damaging an endplate. The FIA decreed that he didn’t serve that penalty correctly and gave him another 10s one for his next pitstop, and then yet another 5s one for speeding in the pitlane, and he later retired.

McLaren suffered a disastrous race, with Oscar Piastri’s F1 debut ending with an electronic gearbox failure and Lando Norris hit by a pneumatic issue with his Mercedes engine that required repeated pitstops to recharge the system and he finished last.

2023 Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix fastest laps

Cla	Driver		Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Zhou Guanyu		56	1'33.996			207.276
2	Pierre Gasly		42	1'35.068	1.072	1.072	204.939
3	Lando Norris		50	1'35.822	1.826	0.754	203.327
4	Logan Sargeant		42	1'36.037	2.041	0.215	202.871
5	Fernando Alonso		36	1'36.156	2.160	0.119	202.620
6	Max Verstappen		44	1'36.236	2.240	0.080	202.452
7	Sergio Perez		37	1'36.344	2.348	0.108	202.225
8	Kevin Magnussen		42	1'36.471	2.475	0.127	201.959
9	Lance Stroll		32	1'36.546	2.550	0.075	201.802
10	Lewis Hamilton		36	1'36.546	2.550	0.000	201.802
11	Nico Hulkenberg		42	1'36.616	2.620	0.070	201.656
12	Yuki Tsunoda		42	1'36.637	2.641	0.021	201.612
13	Esteban Ocon		34	1'36.797	2.801	0.160	201.278
14	Carlos Sainz		37	1'37.130	3.134	0.333	200.588
15	Alex Albon		43	1'37.144	3.148	0.014	200.559
16	Charles Leclerc		37	1'37.170	3.174	0.026	200.506
17	George Russell		42	1'37.221	3.225	0.051	200.401
18	Valtteri Bottas		31	1'37.379	3.383	0.158	200.075
19	Nyck de Vries		30	1'37.709	3.713	0.330	199.400
20	Oscar Piastri		3	1'40.691	6.695	2.982	193.494
View full results

2023 Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix pitstops

Cla	Driver		1		2		3		4		5		6		7
1	Max Verstappen		S	17	S	22	H	21
2	Sergio Perez		S	20	S	19	H	23
3	Fernando Alonso		S	17	H	20	H	23
4	Carlos Sainz		S	16	H	18	H	26
5	Lewis Hamilton		S	15	H	18	H	27
6	Lance Stroll		S	18	H	15	H	27
7	George Russell		S	16	H	18	H	26
8	Valtteri Bottas		S	11	H	18	H	28
9	Pierre Gasly		S	9	H	16	H	15	S	17
10	Alex Albon		S	11	S	15	H	14	S	0
11	Yuki Tsunoda		S	10	H	16	H	14	S	20
12	Logan Sargeant		S	12	S	18	H	10	S	16
13	Kevin Magnussen		H	15	H	14	S	11	S	16
14	Nyck de Vries		S	11	H	16	H	29
15	Nico Hulkenberg		S	14	H	15	H	14	S	19
16	Zhou Guanyu		S	12	H	20	S	25	S	5
17	Lando Norris		S	10	H	7	S	13	M	10	H	10	S	11	S	7
	Esteban Ocon		S	15	H	3	H	20	H	9
	Charles Leclerc		S	13	H	20	H	6
	Oscar Piastri		S	13
View full results