Max Verstappen opened his championship defence with a crushing victory at the Bahrain Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver, who dominated last season to claim his second consecutive world crown, outclassed his rivals with an ominous performance under the floodlights in Sakhir.
Sergio Perez finished runner-up, 11.9 seconds adrift, as Red Bull completed a one-two, while Fernando Alonso took the final spot on the podium after Ferrari’s mechanical woes rolled into the new season when Charles Leclerc retired with an engine failure.
Carlos Sainz finished fourth. Lewis Hamilton took the chequered flag in fifth, 51 seconds behind, with team-mate George Russell seventh on a sobering evening for Mercedes.
Hamilton’s display comes just 24 hours after team principal Toto Wolff revealed the team, which once dominated the sport, are ready to consign this season’s car to the rubbish bin and start from scratch.