Formula 1’s Season 75 starts here!

Just a week after pre-season testing concluded, Formula 1 returns to Bahrain for the first of 24 intense rounds of racing in the 2024 Formula One World Championship.

The usual grand prix weekend schedule was brought forward by one day, with two free practice sessions on Thursday, FP3 and qualifying on Friday, then the grand prix itself on Saturday. This move has been made by Formula 1 to accommodate the start of Ramadan, which begins on the second Sunday of March.

This race will mark the 20th Bahrain Grand Prix, although the total number of races that have been held at the track is 21. In 2020, the Sakhir Grand Prix was additionally run and won by Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas.

Fernando Alonso is the only driver this weekend to have also taken part in the very first race at Sakhir, back in 2004. That race was held on April 4, 2004, and was won by Michael Schumacher, with teammate Rubens Barrichello just behind him in second place, and a young Jenson Button, some 26 seconds adrift, in third for BAR-Honda.

Out of respect for Ramadan, the Grand Prix weekend was moved up by one day…

THURSDAY

Because Qualifying and the Grand Prix run into the night, Practices 1 and 3 are somewhat compromised and may not be entirely representative of the main sessions. Nevertheless, given the limited running during pre-season testing, all of these practice sessions were crucial not only for the first race but also for the remainder of the season.
The opening weekend of the longest season in Formula 1 history saw Mercedes write the first headline. The Toto Wolff-run team had both its drivers at the top of the timesheet by the end of the second free practice session, which is most relevant as it was held in similar conditions to those expected in tomorrow’s qualifying and Saturday’s race. Quickest was Lewis Hamilton (1:30.374), while teammate George Russell was just 206 thousandths of a second slower. Behind the Mercedes duo came five drivers from five different teams in the following order: Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), Oscar Piastri (McLaren), Max Verstappen (Red Bull), and Nico Hulkenberg (Haas), all within 286 thousandths. The German’s time was 510 thousandths slower than Hamilton’s.

Quite strong winds were the order of the day, along with much cooler temperatures than usual for the Bahrain Grand Prix, and to a lesser extent, compared to those experienced at last week’s test, with the mercury dropping below 20°C for the air temperature in FP2. It should be noted that this event is taking place a bit earlier in the year than usual. Hamilton’s time was just under six-tenths faster than the best FP2 time from last year, when Alonso posted a 1:30.907, and 666 thousandths off the 2023 pole time set by Verstappen.

FRIDAY

FP3

The day started much warmer, and less windy than the day before. And as the light went green at the end of the pit-lane, there was no rush to get out. The most representative data on conditions was gathered during FP2.

It took about seven minutes for the first car to come out onto the track, it was Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes. He did one flying lap before returning back to the pits. A couple of minutes later, Carlos Sainz came out in the Ferrari. and slowly everyone else followed. By half-time, every driver had done a timed-lap.

By the time the hour had gone, the top fourteen drivers were inside a second, with Carlos Sainz the fastest (1:30.824), and Kevin Magnussen at the other end in fourteenth (1:31.671). Pierre Gasly was the slowest of the twenty in the Alpine, with a time of 1:32.382, 1.558 off Sainz’s time.

QUALIFYING

Max Verstappen picked up the 33rd pole position of his career, continuing from where he left off at the end of 2023 by out-qualifying the rest of the field. The Red Bull driver was fastest in Q3 (1:29.179), 228 thousandths quicker than Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) and 306 thousandths better than George Russell (Mercedes). In fact, Leclerc set the quickest time of the session, posting a 1:29.165 in Q2. Verstappen is now tied for fifth place with Jim Clark and Alain Prost for most Pole Positions in Formula 1.

Friday’s pole time is a little over half a second better than last year’s 1:29.708 and is consistent with the simulation results from the Free Practices the day before.

The first Pirelli Pole Position Award of the season was presented to Verstappen by the German DJ and producer, Zedd, who performed later that same Friday night at the Bahrain International Circuit. Zedd's work has achieved great global success, starting with his Grammy-winning hit 'Clarity' (ft. Foxes) and the singles 'Stay the Night' (ft. Selena Gomez) with over 950 million streams, and 'Stay' (ft. Alessia Cara) with 4.2 billion streams.

SUNDAY

Could there be a better way to start the season than with a Grand Chelem? That's exactly what Max Verstappen achieved at the Bahrain Grand Prix, delivering a dominant performance that not only secured him victory in the race but also saw him claim pole position and lead every single one of the 57 laps. The Dutchman further solidified his performance by setting the fastest race lap, a remarkable 1’32”608 on lap 39, a full second and a half quicker than the second-best time of 1’34”090 set by Charles Leclerc. Max was joined on the podium by second-placed Sergio Perez and Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, who finished third.

This was Verstappen’s 55th career win, and his fifth Grand Chelem (Grand Slam), which puts him third for this particular achievement, equal with Alberto Ascari and Michael Schumacher. Ahead of him are Lewis Hamilton (6) and Jim Clark (8). Only Jim Clark and Max Verstappen have accomplished a Grand Slam in four consecutive years. Clark did so from 1962 to 1965, while Verstappen achieved it from 2021 to 2024. As for Red Bull, it now joins Williams in fourth place on the list of teams with the most race wins, with 114.