2023 Bahrain Grand Prix | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Race 1 of 22 [lower-alpha 1] in the 2023 Formula One World Championship
| ||||
Race details [2] [3] | ||||
Date | 5 March 2023 | |||
Official name | Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2023 | |||
Location | Bahrain International Circuit Sakhir, Bahrain | |||
Course | Permanent racing facility | |||
Course length | 5.412 km (3.363 miles) | |||
Distance | 57 laps, 308.238 km (190.253 miles) | |||
Weather | Clear | |||
Attendance | 99,500 [4] | |||
Pole position | ||||
Driver | Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT | |||
Time | 1:29.708 | |||
Fastest lap | ||||
Driver | Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | ||
Time | 1:33.996 on lap 56 | |||
Podium | ||||
First | Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT | |||
Second | Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT | |||
Third | Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes | |||
Lap leaders |
The 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2023) was a Formula One motor race that was held on 5 March 2023 at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain. [2] It was the opening round of the 2023 Formula One World Championship.
Oscar Piastri, Nyck de Vries and Logan Sargeant made their Formula One Grand Prix season debuts with McLaren, AlphaTauri and Williams, respectively. Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen took pole position and won the race, ahead of his teammate Sergio Pérez in what was their first 1-2 finish of the season. Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin in third. This was only Alonso's second podium since the 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix, and the first of eight for the season. [5]
The event was held across the weekend of 3–5 March. It was the opening round of the 2023 Formula One World Championship. [2]
The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for the race. [6]
Oscar Piastri, Nyck de Vries and Logan Sargeant made their Formula One Grand Prix season debuts with McLaren, AlphaTauri and Williams, respectively, although De Vries made his Formula One Grand Prix debut at the 2022 Italian Grand Prix for Williams. [7]
Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the C1, C2, and C3 tyre compounds (designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively) for teams to use at the event. [8]
The third DRS activation point was moved 80 metres (260 ft) farther ahead, being positioned 250 metres (820 ft) after turn 15. [9]
Qualifying was held on 4 March 2023 at 18:00 local time (UTC+3).
At the beginning of Q1, a piece of the front wheel brow of Charles Leclerc's car fell off during a lock-up at turn one, causing the session to be red flagged. [10] At the end of Q1 Lando Norris and Logan Sargeant set the same exact time to place fifteenth and sixteenth, but Norris was moved through to Q2, having completed his lap before Sargeant. [10] During Q2, Alexander Albon went off track at the turn 5/6/7 esses, preventing him from setting a time. [10] After the first runs of Q3, Charles Leclerc was seen getting out of his Ferrari, sparking reliability concerns for the Monagasque's car, but he later revealed that the team made the decision to save a set of tires for the race. [10] Ultimately, Max Verstappen took pole position by nearly two tenths of a second, with a time of 1:29.708. [10]
Pos. | No. | Driver | Constructor | Qualifying times | Final grid | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | |||||
1 | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT | 1:31.295 | 1:30.503 | 1:29.708 | 1 |
2 | 11 | Sergio Pérez | Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT | 1:31.479 | 1:30.746 | 1:29.846 | 2 |
3 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:31.094 | 1:30.282 | 1:30.000 | 3 |
4 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | Ferrari | 1:30.993 | 1:30.515 | 1:30.154 | 4 |
5 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes | 1:31.158 | 1:30.645 | 1:30.336 | 5 |
6 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | 1:31.057 | 1:30.507 | 1:30.340 | 6 |
7 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:31.543 | 1:30.513 | 1:30.384 | 7 |
8 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes | 1:31.184 | 1:31.127 | 1:30.836 | 8 |
9 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine-Renault | 1:31.508 | 1:30.914 | 1:30.984 | 9 |
10 | 27 | Nico Hülkenberg | Haas-Ferrari | 1:31.204 | 1:30.809 | No time | 10 |
11 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:31.652 1 | 1:31.381 | N/A | 11 |
12 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1:31.504 | 1:31.443 | N/A | 12 |
13 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1:31.615 | 1:31.473 | N/A | 13 |
14 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT | 1:31.400 | 1:32.510 | N/A | 14 |
15 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Williams-Mercedes | 1:31.461 | No time | N/A | 15 |
16 | 2 | Logan Sargeant | Williams-Mercedes | 1:31.652 1 | N/A | N/A | 16 |
17 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1:31.892 | N/A | N/A | 17 |
18 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:32.101 | N/A | N/A | 18 |
19 | 21 | Nyck de Vries | AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT | 1:32.121 | N/A | N/A | 19 |
20 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine-Renault | 1:32.181 | N/A | N/A | 20 |
107% time: 1:37.362 | |||||||
Source: [11] [12] |
Notes
The race was held on 5 March 2023 at 18:00 local time (UTC+3).
Max Verstappen led comfortably from the start, only losing the lead briefly during the first round of pit stops. Sergio Pérez was slow away at the start and lost second place to a fast starting Charles Leclerc. Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton battled on the run down to turn 4, Alonso was hit by his teammate Lance Stroll, causing both Aston Martins to lose positions. Alonso came out on top in a wheel-to-wheel battle with George Russell on lap 13, both drivers lost out in the pit stops to Valtteri Bottas in the Alfa Romeo. [14]
Oscar Piastri retired after 13 laps in his Formula One debut with an electrical failure. Meanwhile his teammate Lando Norris also had engine issues, this time with the hydraulics, requiring six pit stops to manage the problem. Esteban Ocon picked up a five-second time penalty for lining up in his grid spot incorrectly. He did not serve the full five seconds in the pit, and was given a subsequent ten second time penalty, and then a further five second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane while serving the second penalty. [14]
Pérez made it past Leclerc on lap 26, with Red Bull Racing the only front running team to use the soft tyre for both the first two tyre stints. After the second round of pit stops, Stroll, who was racing with a broken wrist and toe, overtook Russell as the latter came out of the pit on cold tyres, with Stroll having pitted a lap earlier. Alonso and Hamilton engaged in a battle for fifth place. Alonso overtook Hamilton into turn 4 on lap 37 before a snap of oversteer on the corner exit for Alonso allowed Hamilton back past. One lap later Alonso pulled off an overtake at turn 10. [14]
Leclerc's race came to an end on lap 40, with his car suffering a mechanical failure while running in third, bringing out the virtual safety car. Alonso overtook Carlos Sainz Jr. using DRS on the run down to turn 11 on lap 45. Meanwhile, Pierre Gasly overtook Alexander Albon for ninth place, having started from last. Zhou Guanyu pitted on the penultimate lap for soft tyres, and set the fastest lap of the race on the final lap.
Verstappen took his first win in Bahrain by almost 12 seconds ahead of teammate Pérez and gave Red Bull their first win in Bahrain since Sebastian Vettel won in 2013. Alonso finished third, his first podium since the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix and Aston Martin's first since the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. [15] [16]
Notes
|
|
Sergio Michel "Checo" Pérez Mendoza is a Mexican racing driver who races in Formula One for Red Bull Racing, having previously driven for Sauber, McLaren, Force India, and Racing Point. He has won 6 Grand Prix races and scored 35 podium finishes.
The 2018 Bahrain Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race that took place on 8 April 2018 at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain. The race was the second round of the 2018 Formula One World Championship and marked the 14th time that the Bahrain Grand Prix had been run as a round of the Formula One World Championship.
The 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix was a Formula One race that was held on 20 March 2022 at the Bahrain International Circuit, a motor racing circuit in the west of Bahrain. It served as the season opener of the 2022 Formula One World Championship and was the eighteenth running of the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix was a one-off Formula One motor race that took place on 6 December 2020. The race was contested over 87 laps of the 'Outer Circuit' configuration of the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain. It was the first Formula One race on this track configuration. The race was the sixteenth and penultimate round in the 2020 Formula One World Championship and the second of two back-to-back races in Bahrain, with the Bahrain Grand Prix having taken place on the 'Grand Prix' configuration of the circuit one week beforehand. The race also marked the first, and thus far only, running of the Sakhir Grand Prix.
The Mercedes-AMG F1 W12 E Performance, commonly abbreviated as the Mercedes W12, is a Formula One racing car designed and constructed by the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team under the direction of James Allison to compete in the 2021 Formula One World Championship. The car was driven by Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. The car is based on the Mercedes-AMG F1 W11 EQ Performance which won the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships the previous season.
The 2021 Bahrain Grand Prix was a Formula One race which was held on 28 March 2021 at the Bahrain International Circuit, a motor racing circuit in the west of Bahrain. It served as the season opener of the 2021 Formula One World Championship, and was the seventeenth running of the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship was a motor racing championship for Formula One cars, which was the 74th running of the Formula One World Championship. It was recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the governing body of international motorsport, as the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars. The championship was contested over twenty-two Grands Prix, which were held around the world. It began in March and ended in November.
The 2023 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 2 April 2023 at the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was the third round of the 2023 Formula One World Championship.
The 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 30 April 2023 at the Baku City Circuit in Baku, Azerbaijan. It was the fourth round of the 2023 Formula One World Championship and the first of six in the season to follow the sprint format.
The 2023 Miami Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on May 7, 2023, at the Miami International Autodrome in Miami Gardens, Florida. It was the fifth round of the 2023 Formula One World Championship.
The 2023 Qatar Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 8 October 2023 at the Lusail International Circuit in Lusail, Qatar. It was the seventeenth round of the 2023 Formula One World Championship and the fourth Grand Prix weekend of the season to utilise the sprint format. Max Verstappen won his third Driver's Championship after his teammate, Sergio Pérez, crashed out in the sprint and was taken out of title contention.
The 2023 Spanish Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race that was held on 4 June 2023 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Montmeló, Spain. It was the seventh round of the 2023 Formula One World Championship.
The 2023 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race that was held on 28 May 2023, at the Circuit de Monaco in the Principality of Monaco. It was the sixth round of the 2023 Formula One World Championship.
The 2023 Japanese Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 24 September 2023 at the Suzuka International Racing Course in Suzuka, Japan. It was the sixteenth round of the 2023 Formula One World Championship.
The 2023 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 3 September 2023 at the Monza Circuit in Monza, Italy. It was the fourteenth round of the 2023 Formula One World Championship.
The 2023 Austrian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race, which was held on 2 July 2023 at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. It was the ninth round of the 2023 Formula One World Championship and the second Grand Prix weekend of the 2023 season to utilise the sprint format.
The 2023 British Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race that was held on 9 July 2023 at the Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire, England. It was the tenth round of the 2023 Formula One World Championship.
The 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race that was held on 23 July 2023 at the Hungaroring circuit in Mogyoród, Hungary. It was the eleventh round of the 2023 Formula One World Championship.
The 2023 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race that was held on 30 July 2023 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Stavelot, Belgium. It was the twelfth round of the 2023 Formula One World Championship and the third Grand Prix weekend of the season to utilise the sprint format.
The 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race that was held on 19 March 2023 at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It was the second round of the 2023 Formula One World Championship.