5 things we learned as F1’s new era made an action-packed start in Bahrain

Formula One fired up for a new season in Bahrain on Sunday, 98 days after last December’s contentious finale in Abu Dhabi.

Here, the PA news agency looks at five things we learned from the opening round of the campaign.

It is not often Lewis Hamilton celebrates third like a victory, but his podium finish, coupled with rival Max Verstappen’s no-score, has to be considered a strong result for the British driver and his struggling Mercedes team.

Hamilton became the first F1 driver to appear on the podium for 16 consecutive years, and the first to score points in 250 races, but he will be well aware of the seismic task he now faces to compete for a record eighth championship. Mercedes were the best part of a second off the pace in Bahrain, and without the late safety car and Red Bull’s double DNF, Hamilton would have finished a very distant fifth.

It seems unfathomable that Mercedes will not improve, but it is also difficult to recall a season where a team has started so far behind and ended it by producing a world champion.

Charles Leclerc delivered possibly the best weekend of his F1 career to convert his 10th pole position into a third victory.

Ferrari are convinced that Leclerc is the man to end a championship drought which stretches back 15 years, and to his credit, the Monegasque did not put a foot wrong in Bahrain, with team-mate Carlos Sainz following him home to complete a dream one-two for the Italian team.

After a number of poor seasons, hats off to team principal Mattia Binotto for spearheading Ferrari’s comeback by taking advantage of the sport’s rule change and producing a race-winning machine straight out of the blocks. On the early evidence of the new campaign, the Scuderia will be title challengers.

While