Max Verstappen vanquishes rivals at Bahrain Grand Prix

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.

While Mercedes have already pushed the panic button, Red Bull, with the sublime Verstappen at the wheel, are in a class of one.

Verstappen, the man who won 15 of last year’s 22 rounds, put his Red Bull on pole and then raced off into the distance to deliver on his billing as the pre-season favourite.

Following a smooth getaway, the Dutchman – keeping a fast-starting Leclerc at bay – was six seconds clear of the Ferrari man after only eight laps, and 17.7 seconds clear of fifth-placed Hamilton with 10 of the 57 laps on the board.

Hamilton started seventh and moved past Russell and Alonso at the start to take fifth but the 38-year-old was finding it difficult to get up to speed in his Mercedes.

Hamilton was the first of the top six to pit, and after the opening stops unravelled, Verstappen held a commanding 10-second lead over Perez, who, in his