Mercedes have had to deal with a slew of problems since pre-season testing and nobody expected them to finish on the podium.
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Ferrari enjoyed a dream start to the 2022 Formula One season as they recorded a 1-2 finish at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday. Charles Leclerc finished in first place after getting pole position in qualifying. Teammate Carlos Sainz had a bit of luck on his side but he also had an excellent drive finishing P2 for the Scuderia. The surprise on the podium was seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton in third place. Mercedes have had to deal with a slew of problems since pre-season testing and nobody expected them to finish on the podium. However, failures of both Red Bull cars saw the silver arrows finishing third and fourth to round off a good day of racing.
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It seemed at one point that Red Bull would get at least one driver on the podium as Max Verstappen seemed comfortable in P2. The Dutchman had a few opportunities to overtake Leclerc early on in the race but was overambitious and failed to get the job done. The reigning champion grew exceedingly upset with the car as the race went on and with only three laps to go, due to a power steering issue, had to retire his car.
At that point, it was up to Sergio Perez to get the podium for Red Bull. However, on the very last lap, the Mexican’s car just stopped due to a lack of power, allowing Hamilton and everyone else to get past him. It was indeed a bad day at the office for Christian Horner and Red Bull.
Arguably one of the drivers of the day was Haas driver Kevin Magnussen. The Dane finished an incredible P5, a position his team is extremely unfamiliar with at the end of the day. Teammate Mick Schumacher just missed out on points as he finished P11.
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Alfa Romeo’s Valterri Bottas displayed his class on the day as well, finishing sixth for his new team while rookie Guanyu Zhou found himself inside the points at P10. It was a good day at the office for Alpine as well as Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon finished P9 and P7 respectively. AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda finished in eighth.
The only yellow flag of the race came in the final third when Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri caught fire. It seemed like an electrical issue within the car rather than an overheating one. It was that incident that caused all the cars to bunch up together and gave fans an exciting last few laps in what was a rather lack-luster event.
