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TOPICAL
Photo: F1world.it
Max Tveit
Writer
Bahrain Grand Prix recap
The sparkling car of red bulls then second driver Daniel Ricciardo taken in
2018 before his departure from the team after the 2018 season finale.
Race recap
The formula 1 season returned in full force on the 29th of february
with the season opener at the Bahrain grand prix. After an arduous
three days of testing the week before, causing uncertainty among
some of the teams, their answers were finally revealed during the
first race week of the year.
The race week began with three sessions of testing, where the Racing
bull car of Daniel Riccardo took the first step on the leaderboard
with the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in second
and third. Continuing on. The second practice session saw both
the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and his teammate George Russel
on top with the two-time champion Fernando Alonso taking the
third position. The final and the most important practice session of
the week saw the two Spaniards on top, with the Ferrari of Carlos
Sainz junior and the Aston martin of Fernando Alonso clear out
the two top spots followed closely by the three-time champion Max
Verstappen.
With free practice over, the first qualifying session of the year
took place shortly after the ending of free practice three. The first
qualifying session, q1, ended with both the Alpine cars dead last,
with Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon taking the two last positions.
After an unlucky qualifying Logan Sargeant ended in p18, with the
Sauber cars of Zhou and Valtteri following in p17 and p16 rounding
out the first qualifying session. The second qualifying session ended
with the Danish driver Kevin Magnussen ending up in p15, with
Daniel Riccardo following alongside him in p14. The Williams of
Alex Albon and the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll ended p13 and p12,
with Yuki finishing ahead in p11. In what came as quite a shock to
many, the Haas car of Nico Hulkenberg roared into p10 by a stellar
drive by the Dutch driver. Following ahead was Lewis Hamilton
and Oscar Piastri ending up p9 and p8 respectively. The p7 and p6
positions were taken by Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso, with
the Red Bull of Sergio Perez following shortly behind and ending
up p5. Rounding out the top four positions were Carlos Sainz taking
the p4 spot, with George Russel alongside him in p3. With a stellar
drive once again by the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc taking p2 with
the fastest qualifying lap being taken by Max Verstappen.
Then came the first race of the season, and we didn’t have to wait
long for action to ensue as a turn 1 accident for Lance Stroll caused
by Nico saw him end up last on the first lap of the race. But hope
wasn’t out for Lance yet, and during the remainder of the race we
saw him climb up positions on the leaderboard to end up in points
scoring positions alongside his team mate Fernando Alonso.
Thanks to an excellent start by the Red Bull of Max he roared away
taking the lead early on and never letting go and finishing the race
in p1 alongside teammate Sergio Perez in p2. After an excellent
race for Carlos, he ended up in p3 taking the last podium place of
the weekend, with his teammate behind who had spent most of
the race with brake issues following behind in p4. The Mercedes of
Russel and Hamilton had not had the pace they had hoped during
the race and by the end they finished in a respectable P5 and P7
position with the McLarens splitting them both and ending up p6
and a p8 finish with Lando and Oscar taking home a solid batch of
points. The Aston Martins finished in the last points position of the
race thanks to an excellent recovery drive from Lance Stroll.
This week for Norwegian
formula drivers
Norwegian junior formula driver Martinius Stenshorne finished
his first formula 3 weekend by narrowingly missing out on points
in his first race finishing p11, and p14 in the second. For Dennis
Hauger in Formula 2 he finished in the points in the first race of the
season with p8 and finished Saturday’s main race also in p8.
For now, that would be all for the Bahrain Grand Prix. Next on the
calendar is the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
MARS 2024 UNIKUM NR 3 31