Max Verstappen won the opening round of the 2023 Bahrain GP with his team mate Sergio Perez 2nd and Fernando Alonso claiming a stunning 3rd place for Aston Martin.
In a race which seen the defending champion Verstappen as the favourite he clinched first from turn 1 and never looked like losing it. His championship rival Charles Leclerc starting 3rd got the better of Perez and claimed 2nd on the opening lap thanks to his newer soft tyres.
An almost disaster moment for both Astons as Stroll going a bit too deep at Turn 3 and almost collected his team mate Alonso but thankfully no harm was done from it.
As the race progressed Verstappen was increasing the gap over his rivals. The real battle was further down the field. Alonso starting 5th dropped back 2 places and was trailing behind the Mercedes. It was Fernando time! Passing Russell for 6th he then was on Hamilton’s tail and was gaining on his old rival.
By lap 39 he made his move and was about to pass Carlos Sainz for 4th place. Lap 41 and disaster for the prancing horse of Charles Leclerc running in 3rd place at the time came to a halt at the end of the lap. His title charge getting off to the worse possible start.
This meant Alonso was hunting down a podium and he was all over Sainz’s tail. By Lap 46 Alonso got passed Sainz was went on to claim his first podium finish since Qatar 2021.
Elsewhere it was a day to forget for both McLaren’s and Esteban Ocon as Oscar Piastri had to retire on his Mclaren debut with Lando Norris classified 17th and last where as Ocon suffered multiple time penalties and retiring near the end.
Sainz finished 4th with Hamilton 5th, Stroll with a credible 6th, Russell 7th, Bottas 8th Gasly on his debut with Alpine 9th and Alex Albon rounding off the top 10.
