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. It was the opening round of the 2023 Formula One World Championship.

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. The race also saw the Formula One debuts of Oscar Piastri and Logan Sargeant.

Background The event was held across the weekend of 3–5 March. It was the opening round of the 2023 Formula One World Championship.

Entrants

The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for the race.

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. This race also marked the return of Nico Hülkenberg, who last raced in the 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, this time, Hülkenberg returned to drive for Haas.

Tyre choices

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the C1, C2, and C3 tyre compounds (designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively) for teams to use at the event.

Track changes The third DRS activation point was moved farther ahead, being positioned after turn 15.

Qualifying Qualifying was held on 4 March 2023 at 18:00 local time (UTC+3).

Qualifying report 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. 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. During Q2, Alexander Albon went off track at the turn 5/6/7 esses, preventing him from setting a time. 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. Ultimately, Max Verstappen took pole position by nearly two tenths of a second, with a time of 1:29.708.

Qualifying classification DriverConstructorQ1Q2Q311 Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing-Honda RBPT1:31.295 1:30.503 1:29.7081211 Sergio PérezRed Bull Racing-Honda RBPT1:31.479 1:30.746 1:29.846 2316 Charles LeclercFerrari1:31.094 1:30.2821:30.000 3455 Carlos Sainz Jr.Ferrari1:30.9931:30.515 1:30.154 4514 Fernando Alonso1:31.158 1:30.645 1:30.336 5663 George RussellMercedes1:31.057 1:30.507 1:30.340 6744 Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:31.543 1:30.513 1:30.384 7818 Lance StrollAston Martin Aramco-Mercedes1:31.184 1:31.127 1:30.836 8931 Esteban OconAlpine-Renault1:31.508 1:30.914 1:30.984 91027Haas-Ferrari1:31.204 1:30.809 No time10114 Lando NorrisMcLaren-Mercedes1:31.6521:31.381 N/A111277 Valtteri BottasAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1:31.504 1:31.443 N/A121324 Zhou Guanyu1:31.615 1:31.473 N/A131422 Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri-Honda RBPT1:31.400 1:32.510 N/A141523 Alexander AlbonWilliams-Mercedes1:31.461 No timeN/A15162 Logan SargeantWilliams-Mercedes1:31.652N/AN/A161720Haas-Ferrari1:31.892N/AN/A171881 Oscar PiastriMcLaren-Mercedes1:32.101N/AN/A181921 Nyck de VriesAlphaTauri-Honda RBPT1:32.121N/AN/A192010 Pierre GaslyAlpine-Renault1:32.181N/AN/A20107% time: 1:37.362Source: Notes – Lando Norris and Logan Sargeant set identical lap times in Q1. Norris advanced to Q2 as he set his time earlier.

Race The race was held on 5 March 2023 at 18:00 local time (UTC+3).

Race report 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.

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.

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 two broken wrists and a broken 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.

Leclerc's race came to an end on lap 41, 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.

Race classification DriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredPoints11 Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing-Honda RBPT571:33:56.736125211 Sergio PérezRed Bull Racing-Honda RBPT57 +11.987218314 Fernando Alonso57 +38.637515455 Carlos Sainz Jr.Ferrari57 +48.052412544 Lewis HamiltonMercedes57 +50.977710618 Lance StrollAston Martin Aramco-Mercedes57 +54.50288763 George RussellMercedes57 +55.87366877 Valtteri BottasAlfa Romeo-Ferrari57 +1:12.647124910 Pierre GaslyAlpine-Renault57 +1:13.7532021023 Alexander AlbonWilliams-Mercedes57 +1:29.7741511122 Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri-Honda RBPT57 +1:30.87014122 Logan SargeantWilliams-Mercedes56 +1 lap161320Haas-Ferrari56 +1 lap171421 Nyck de VriesAlphaTauri-Honda RBPT56 +1 lap191527Haas-Ferrari56 +1 lap101624 Zhou Guanyu56 +1 lap13174 Lando NorrisMcLaren-Mercedes55 +2 laps11 31 Esteban OconAlpine-Renault41Withdrew9 16 Charles LeclercFerrari39Engine3 81 Oscar PiastriMcLaren-Mercedes13Electrical18Fastest lap: Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo-Ferrari) – 1:33.996 (lap 56)Source: Notes – Nico Hülkenberg received a 15-second time penalty for exceeding track limits. His final position was not affected by the penalty.

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Driver Points1 Max Verstappen252 Sergio Pérez183 Fernando Alonso154 Carlos Sainz Jr.125 Lewis Hamilton10Source:

Constructors' Championship standings Constructor Points1 Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT432 Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes233 Mercedes164 Ferrari125 Alfa Romeo-Ferrari4Source:

Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

See also 2023 Sakhir Formula 2 round 2023 Sakhir Formula 3 round

Notes

References

External links