The 2022 F1 season started off with a bang, with Scuderia Ferrari ending their 45 race winless streak in style after Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz secured a one-two finish in Bahrain! Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton crossed the line to fill in the last podium spot after the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez reported technical problems to start the season in the most disastrous fashion.
Today at Man’s Life, we take you through the Men who shined and the men who left us wanting more from the Bahrain Grand Prix.
MEN WHO SHINED
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The man who shined the most in the season opener at Bahrain was Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who had an excellent weekend taking a pole to flag victory, bagging the fastest lap and the Driver of the Day as well. Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz made sure that the team secured maximum points this weekend with a P2 finish and securing a 1-2 for the side from Maranello for the first time since Singapore 2019. In P3, was Sir Lewis Hamilton who just held his ground till the end of the race and as a reward was handed out with the final podium spot after both the Red Bulls retired from the race. George Russel who had a poor qualifying session with Mercedes did a pretty good job to finish P4 on his Silver Arrows debut. The most surprising thing to happen in Bahrain was a P5 finish for Kevin Magnussen on a HAAS Yes, you read that right!! The danish international secured P7 in qualifying and managed to keep the midfield cars behind him to score Haas’ first points in 2 seasons. It was a great day for Alfa Romeo as Valtteri Bottas secured a P6 finish with rookie Guanyu Zhou finishing P10 on his F1 debut. Estaban Ocon and Fernando Alonso crossed the line with a P7 and P9 finish to bag decent points for Alpine and lastly, it was Yuki Tsunoda who managed to secure a P8 finish and was the only Red Bull driver to finish the race.
MEN WHO LEFT US WANTING MORE
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After having a brilliant 2021 season in Formula 1, fans had expectations from McLaren and their drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris, but the team left the fans wanting more as the duo could only move upto P14 and P15 which meant that McLaren go to the second race week with zero points in their bag. Joining McLaren with zero points are Red Bull as their two rider’s went out of the race in the final ten laps with both cars reporting engine problems and had no traction control as well. Pierre Gasly who was having a decent race had to pull out of the race after his Alpha Tauri was caught on fire due to too much heat coming out of the car.
This is how the riders and the constructors stand after round 1 of the 2022 Formula 1 season:
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Formula 1 now travels to the Jeddah Corniche Circuit for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on the 27th of March and all eyes will be on Red Bull and Max Verstappen to see what they can do after a poor start to the 2022 F1 season.
[Featured Image Credit: Scuderia Ferrari]
Shashank Iyer