The 2023 F1 season has kicked off with Max Verstappen winning the opening Grand Prix and our summary covers the 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix Result and as much of the action from the race so you don’t have to.
This 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix Result, Lap by Lap, Review & Summary gives you just enough to catch up with. With just a hint of cynicism, bias, opinion and colour. The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered, or don’t have enough time.
And to see how close our bold predictions were – look back on our 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix Preview.
Check out some of our other F1 gear too…
Our 2022 F1 Season Driver Ratings
Our 2023 F1 Bold Predictions
Our 2023 F1 Betting Sepcials
Our 2023 F1 Calendar & Results
2023 Bahrain Grand Prix Result Race Summary
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Well here are the top laps where stuff happened. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Setting the scene – F1 is back, and so it appears is the Red Bull dominance, with that team taking the top two qualifying positions and looking mighty strong. But behind them the chasing pack now seems to include Aston Martin along with Ferrari and Mercedes, but will they too far back to make any difference? The sandbags are officially off as the F1 season gets underway……
GRID (Starting Order) – VER PER LEC PER ALO RUS HAM STR OCO HUL
Lap 1 – Pole sitter Verstappen gets off the line great, so do the Ferraris and not Perez and so Verstappen pushes the entire grid to the right but stays in front into the first corner. Behind him there’s sparks a-plenty and potentially a clash between the Aston Martin. They drop to 7th and 9th but there appears to be no damage, amazingly so as Lance Stroll appears to forget to brake for turn three. No damage anywhere else, to disappoint those who like a first lap prang. Big winners of the first lap are Leclerc, Hamilton and Bottas.
ORDER – VER LEC PER SAI HAM RUS ALO BOT STR NOR
Lap 5 – Max Verstappen is already three and a half seconds ahead of Charles Leclerc, with the race result appearing to be sorted already. Unless there’s an introduction of some rain, sandstorm, or sabotage. Behind him, it’s the standard aero-affecting just over a second gap between all the cars.
ORDER – VER LEC PER SAI HAM RUS ALO BOT STR OCO
Lap 9 – This 1am kick off is starting to hurt already. Same detail as the last entry with Verstappen 6.3 seconds ahead. Except the drinks taken to stay awake are wearing off. For something interesting in this part of the world, Daniei Riccardo’s replacement Oscar Piastri is going slightly better than Ricciardo did last year. He qualified 18th and is currently running 16th – Lando Norris is 12th, and falls to dead last when pitting a few laps later.
Lap 12 – The question of which car is fastest? Mercedes and Aston Martin is being answered with Alonso all over the rear end of the Mercedes and looking to overtake.
Lap 13 – Great battle between Alonso and Russell ends with Alonso squeezing past Russell for 5th after turn three.
Lap 14 – Both the Ferraris have pit now, leaving the Red Bulls to do whatever they want. And Max Verstappen decides to pit a lap later, leaving his beloved team mate in the lead.
Lap 16 – What was that about Oscar Piastri? Nothing. He is retired by his team after previous tinkering didn’t work. Lando Norris isn’t far behind, and pits on lap 19.
Lap 18 – Perez is the final front runner to pit. He rejoins third.
ORDER – VER LEC PER SAI HAM ALO RUS BOT STR ALB
Lap 20 – Max Verstappen chats to his team over the radio about some dodgy downshifts on his car. Which is a worry for the rest of the grid, he’s more than ten seconds ahead of second place now, imagine if the car is trouble free.
Lap 24 – Forget about first, we at least have a battle for second looming. Sergio Perez closing up on Charles Leclerc. Perez gets past a lap later, but not without a bit of fight from Leclerc who pushes back hard for a bit, but then like most people watching the race, are resigned to Red Bull winning everything.
ORDER – VER PER LEC SAIN HAM ALO RUS STR BOT ALB
Lap 28 – Esteban Ocon is being investigated for another Stop/Go penalty. First was for incorrect grid position, then another one for not doing that penalty properly, now for Pit Lane speeding. Amazingly, he is still not last, there’s a pair of Haas-holes behind him.
Lap 29 – It’s halfway, and that second half can come soon enough. Max Verstappen is 13 seconds ahead of Perez, who is five + second in front of Charles Leclerc. Noteworthy is rookie Logan Sargeant is in the top 10.
ORDER – VER PER LEC SAI HAM ALO RUS STR SAR ZHO
Lap 34 – The next round of pitstops have begun, which breaks up the 2am long blinks. Verstappen pits on lap 37 to complete the front runners.
Lap 37 – Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton are battling for 5th. Alonso gets in front, only for Hamilton to take back his opportunity. A few laps later and Alonso takes Hamilton for good, on the inside of the track’s tightest corner where overtaking rarely happens. And, Sainz is only a few seconds up the road. Perhaps this Aston Martin is the dark horse after all.
Lap 41 – Charles Leclerc is Out!!! The Ferrari pulls over to the edge of the track and the Virtual Safety Car is deployed. Poor Charles. And poor F1 fans. We needed a strong Ferrari to push the Red Bulls.
ORDER – VER PER SAI ALO HAM STR RUS BOT ALB GAS
Lap 43 – Esteban Ocon’s miserable Grand Prix finally ends in the pitlane.
Lap 44 – Alonso is now right on Carlos Sainz’s tail. Sainz is on the radio saying if he defends too much his tyres won’t make the race end. They almost collide on lap 45 as an out-of-shape Alonso drives so close to the Ferrari. Half a lap later, the Aston Martin is ahead and on the podium.
Lap 48 – Lewis Hamilton continues to chase Carlos Sainz for 4th. But the gap and effort seem static at his stage,
Lap 53 – Unless there are some more car failures, or Lewis Hamilton has a crack, we’ve probably seen the last of the action.
Last lap – The TV cameras pick up Max Verstappen with two laps to go, and hang around long enough to see him start 2023 much like most of 2022 – with a win. He is trailed home by his team mate Sergio Perez, but the big new is Fernando Alonso coming home third.
FINAL ORDER – VER PER ALO SAI HAM STR RUS BOT GAS ALB
| Pos | Drivers | Grid | Time |
| 1 | Max VERSTAPPEN | 1 | 57 Laps |
| 2 | Sergio PEREZ | 2 | 11.987 behind |
| 3 | Fernando ALONSO | 5 | 38.637 behind |
| 4 | Carlos SAINZ | 4 | 48.052 behind |
| 5 | Lewis HAMILTON | 7 | 50.977 behind |
| 6 | Lance STROLL | 8 | 54.502 behind |
| 7 | George RUSSELL | 6 | 55.873 behind |
| 8 | Valtteri BOTTAS | 12 | 1:12.647 behind |
| 9 | Pierre GASLY | 20 | 1:13.753 behind |
| 10 | Alexander Albon | 15 | 1:29.774 behind |
| 11 | Yuki TSUNODA | 14 | 1:30.870 behind |
| 12 | Logan Sargeant | 16 | 1 lap behind |
| 13 | Kevin Magnussen | 17 | 1 lap behind |
| 14 | Myck de Vries | 19 | 1 lap behind |
| 15 | Nico Hulkenberg | 10 | 1 lap behind |
| 16 | Guanyu Zhou | 13 | 1 lap behind |
| 17 | Lando NORRIS | 11 | 2 laps behind |
| DNF | Esteban OCON | 9 | Lap 42 |
| DNF | Charles LECLERC | 3 | Lap 40 |
| DNF | Oscar Piastri | 18 | Lap 14 |
Here we go through the field and highlight the very best (Great) of the race, and the plodders, the over-ambitious, the out of luck, and simply hopeless (Grape).
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. Five points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 /-2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
THE GREAT-EST – FERNANDO ALONSO
OK, so he didn’t win, but he was sensational in the Aston Martin, fully justifying the move from Alpine. The car was mega in the second half of the race as he overtook the Mercedes and Ferraris.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
MAX VERSTAPPEN – Can confirm he was at the Grand Prix, but you wouldn’t know for the ease of his victory.
SERGIO PEREZ – Sort of a ditto to Max Verstappen.
LANCE STROLL – Decent effort to be racing at all after his bike accident which was looking like keeping him out.
VALTTERI BOTTAS – Another anonymous performance from Bottas, but unlike his Nottas Mercedes days, this is a good thing. 8th place is good enough for the start of the season.
PIERRE GASLY – From last to 9th is a quality drive.
ALEX ALBON – Remember when a point for Williams was big news, Alex Albon has made it less so, and here’s another point.
THE GRAPE-EST – ESTEBAN OCON
No less than three Stop / Go penalties, and eventually retired on lap 42. Meanwhile, new team mate Gasly goes from last to 9th.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
LANDO NORRIS – And he thought 2022 was disappointing.
OSCAR PIASTRI – Qualified 18th, and despite some OK progress during the race, suffered a DNF.
CHARLES LECLERC – Not the best start to a season. Car is slower than Red Bull. And perhaps Aston Martin. A DNF doesn’t help either. At least Ferrari didn’t have a chance to stuff the strategy.
Was it a good race, loads of action, tense, or just a big, fat, snooze-fest.
We rate the big race itself so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 10 / 10
The first trace of the year is important to see the cars finally in action without sandbags and talk. Red Bull look even better than last year, and Aston Martin have joined the other top three teams. At least.
ON TRACK ACTION – 3/10
Pretty dull race, with only Fernando Alonso’s race being anything worth getting excited about.
ENDING 2 / 10
Depends how far back we go, if you include Alonso’s charge. We didn’t and the last few laps we pretty dull.
OVERALL RATING 15 / 30
The first race is always exciting, and the novelty hasn’t worn off yet. But it was a pretty boring race.
2022 SEASON RATINGS SO FAR
Want to know what we thought of previous races? Or which ones to to back and watch?
R1 Bahrain Grand Prix 26/30
R2 Saudi Arabia Grand Prix 21/30
R3 Australian Grand Prix 16/30
R4 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix 17/30
R5 Miami Grand Prix 19/30
R6 Spanish Grand Prix 17/30
R7 Monaco Grand Prix 24/30
R8 Azerbaijan Grand Prix 22/30
R9 Canadian Grand Prix 21/30
R10 British Grand Prix 26.5/30
R11 Austrian Grand Prix 24/30
R12 French Grand Prix 17/30
R13 Hungarian Grand Prix 23/30
R14 Belgian Grand Prix 17/30
R15 Dutch Grand Prix 21/30
R16 Italian Grand Prix 11/30
R17 Singapore Grand Prix 15/30
R18 Japanese Grand Prix 22/50
R19 US Grand Prix 23/30
R20 Mexican Grand Prix 9/30
R21 Brazilian Grand Prix 22/30
R22 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 15/30
2023 F1 Season Power Rankings
Stay tuned for our Power Rankings from the race soon as it is currently being calculated and will be ready on Monday.
Who not check out last season: Our 2022 F1 Season Driver Ratings
