Official F1 Journal Formula 1 Grand Prix Round Up- Bahrain

It's here!! Finally!!! The first race of the 2024 Formula 1 season! We have all waited patiently and we can now really see how all the team have shaken out. The only real change this year for the race is to when the DRS is activated. Previously it wasn't active till lap 3. In 2024 DRS is available at the end of the 1st lap making it harder for the man in 1st to run away as quickly.
Lets get down to business and recap the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix 
All car started on the Soft Tyre 

Lights out and Max Vertsappen was off! Leclerc was along side the Redbull before having to let Max take the racing line in to turn 1, the 2 fought up till turn 4 where Max started to pull ahead and never looked back!
Russell was hot on the heals of the leaders battle and once Leclerc's attack on Verstappen he was immediately on the defence from Russell. Sainz and Perez got away well but had fallen back from the front 3 in 4th & 5th, Alonso kept his 6th place off the start. Norris and Piastri had a great 1st lap inter team battle with Piastri very nearly getting past his more experienced team mate to escape an advancing Hamilton down in 9th. Despite getting his HAAS in 10th in Qualifying Hulkenberg out braked himself into turn 1 and hit the rear of Stroll's Aston Martin making him spin in the middle of the pack and well down the order and Hulkenberg himself needing to pit for damage and new tyres and at the back of the pack.

By the start of Lap 2 and the activation of the DRS Verstappen was already 9 tenth down the road from Leclerc as Sargeant made a great move on Ricciardo for 14th. 
Lap 3 Norris passed Alonso for 6th place, as Russell made a mighty move around the outside of turn 4 passing the Ferrari of Leclerc for 2nd place bringing Perez with him but the Redbull couldn't get the move done till 4 laps later in to turn 1 pushing Leclerc down to 5th and into the path of team mate Sainz, eager to get past him and chase down the Redbull's. Leclerc was complaining over the radio that the front end of the car was a real problem and the evidence was easy to see as we saw him lock up time and time again all over the track making defending himself from his much faster team mate much harder. 
Piastri passed a much less feisty Fernando than we are used to seeing, choosing not to fight either Mclaren over take. 
Lap 7 Verstappen  had extended his lead to 4.9 seconds with Russell unable to match the Redbull pace. Magnussen was having a strong start to the race as he over took Zhou for 12th

Sainz was relentless in his pursuit of Leclerc who put up a great fight but as soon as he lost the benefit of the DRS from Perez ahead he was a sitting duck for Sainz who was driving like he had a point to prove!
Lap 10 Hamilton finally got past Alonso and again we didn't see Alonso put up any kind of fight, its not a Fernando this writer has ever seen and I've watched his whole career.  We momentarily saw a yellow flag for Sargeant going into the run off area of turn 1 but he got going again and the track was back to green. 
Lap 11 job done for Sainz as he went along side his team mate at turn one and force Leclerc to bail off the racing line and Sainz was gone and off to catch Perez in 3rd.

Lap 12 we saw the first round of pit stops begin Russell was the first of the front runners to pit(lap 12) hoping to play the under cut but Redbull  covered them off bringing Perez in just 1 lap later
 Lap 14 Perez caught the Mercedes of Russell and passed in to turn 4 ( a very popular overtaking spot for the F1,2 & 3) and the Mexican was up to 2nd and determined to hunt down his team mate. Sainz was the last of the top 5 to pit and was back behind his team mate Leclerc who the Ferrari team pit first despite Sainz being the lead car. But Sainz was on  a roll today and regardless of being dropped back in the stops it only took him another 4 laps to over take his team mate and George Russell who was struggling with needing to cool an over heating power unit. Russell told Sky Sports F1 after the race that it was a case of choosing the wrong cooling package for the race and not an inherent PU problem. Hamilton also suffered the same issue during the race being told to lift and coast to keep temperatures down. ​

The racing settled down for a while as the whole field started to manage their Hard tyres and extend their stint as far as possible.
Lap 31 Leclerc had put a meaningful dent in the gap between himself and Russell in 4th almost getting the gap down to DRS range when Russell dove into the pits to swap his old Hard tyres for fresh ones on lap 32, followed by Norris on lap 34 after he had closed the gap to Leclerc in the hopes of using the undercut to pass the Ferrari, but it wasn't to be and when Leclerc pit on lap 35 along side Norris' team mate Piastri, he came back out well in front of the lead Mclaren but much closer to the Mercedes of Russell. Thanks to a slow stop for Piastri he was released into the path of Hamilton at turn 1 and the 7 time World Champion passed the young Aussie at Turn 1.
The whole field again chose the Hard tyre except the 2 Redbulls and the RB of Ricciardo who decided to end the race on Softs. Albon was also suffering with an over heating Mercedes engine but managed it beautifully to still maintain a decent position for most of the race.

Lap 41 found Leclerc much happier with the front end of his car and chasing down 4th place man Russell. They had a great lap by lap battle until on lap 46 Russell went deep into turn 11 allowing Leclerc to slip past and off down the road, pushing George back to 5th and in front of an advancing Lando Norris. 

Norris did a valiant job of chasing down George Russell but couldn't get the gap down under a second and ended the race behind the very hot Mercedes. 
The RB tried a driver swap in the closing laps of the race to try and get at least 1 car past Kevin Magnussen's HAAS, much to the disgust of Yuki Tsunoda who was unhappy with being told to give his place to his team mate when he was running so close to the car in front, he deliberately waited to let Daniel past, annoying the usually jovial Australian and when Ricciardo could neither catch or pass the HAAS either Yuki made what could only be described as a very aggressive lunge up the inside of Ricciardo almost taking both cars out of the race on the final lap.

Max had won the race by 22 seconds over team mate Perez, Sainz closed slightly on the 2 Redbulls at the end but finshed 2.6 behind Perez and 25 seconds off the lead. After their car issues at the beginning Leclerc and Russell were happy with 4th & 5th over all and despite only managing 6th & 8th the Mclaren boys were positive putting the less than ideal result down to the track not suiting the car and were sure there is more in the car to find.  
Both Aston Martin scored points today but compared to this race a year ago I don't think they will be celebrating 9th & 10th after going in to the season with hopes for better, although considering Stroll spun at the 1st corner 10th was pretty decent. 
Zhou had a great race after pitting early for  his 1st stop helped him up the order, holding on to 11th to take home a great result for Sauber. Magnussen also finished far higher than expected, making the first corner incident for Hulkenberg all the more annoying when the race pace of the HAAS looked far stronger than 2023. Albon nursed his Williams home with a very warm engine and a laundry list of issue but non the less despite the troublesome race Alex did very well to come home 15th. To say Gasly was unhappy with his Alpine car would be an understatement, with his team radio being a mixture of insults about the car and expletives, a slow 1st pitstop only added insult to injury. 

Was it a great race? No but we did see some really brilliant racing at times? Yes and we got to see a truer representation of where the cars shake out in relation to the Redbull of Verstappen. 
Onto Jeddah next weekend where hopefully we will see another close battle for pole on Friday and some racing past the 1st lap that involves Max Verstappen!!!

Race Result

1 VER                  2 PER +22.457
3 SAI +25.110      4 LEC +39.666
5 RUS +46.788    6 NOR +48.458
7 HAM +50.002    8 PIA +56.082
9 ALO +74.887    10 STR +93.261
11 ZHO + 1 lap    12 MAG + 1 lap
13 RIC + 1 lap     14 TSU + 1 lap
15 ALB + 1 lap     16 HUL+ 1 lap 
17 OCO + 1 lap    18 GAS + 1 lap
19 BOT + 1 lap     20 SAR ​+ 1 lap
​

Positions Gained/Lost

1 VER -           2 PER ↑ 3
3 SAI ↑ 1         4 LEC ↓2
5 RUS↓2         6 NOR ↑1
7 HAM ↑2        8 PIA -
9 ALO ↓3       10 STR ↑2
11 ZHO ↑6     12 MAG ↑3
13 RIC ↑1      14 TSU↓3
15 ALB ↓2      16 HUL ↓6 
17 OCO ↑2     18 GAS ↑2
19 BOT↓3       20 SAR ↓2 

Joanna Blackmore 
Writer @f1journal.co.uk