Max Verstappen conquers the Bahrain Grand Prix in a chaotic race in Sepang

Max Verstappen turned predictions into reality. With a little more suspense than expected, the Dutchman achieved his first victory this season in an absolutely chaotic Bahrain Grand Prix. The fact that it was a test resumed from the start of the course, postponed due to the war in the Middle East, and finally held at the Malaysian circuit of Sepang already gave a certain idea of ​​the chaos that was to come. First, due to an intense downpour that delayed everything. Then, due to a massive failure, apparently in the electronics. Both factors caused the race to start one hour and forty minutes late than the scheduled time, with disparate bets by the teams regarding tires. Those who opted for the intermediate were right: Those who did it for slicks almost bordered on disaster.

In the end, Kimi Antonelli, after Russell abandoned due to mechanical failure six laps from the end, with the Safety Car on the track, achieved a second place that allows him to mark even more distances with his teammate in the World Championship classification and Lewis Hamilton, who started from second place on the grid, had a more than outstanding performance, after the failure in the choice of tires by Ferrari, to climb to the third step of the podium. And if the Englishman's performance was meritorious, it was no less so than that of Fernando Alonso who, despite seeing how his start was also compromised by the tires that his Aston Martin had at the start, made a great overtake on Lindblad to climb to tenth place and who, after taking advantage of Russell's abandonment and a mistake by Piastri, who tried to harass him in vain until the end, ended up in a more than sweet eighth place. Carlos Sainz, who promised them a very happy time in the opening stages, however, saw his performance condemned by a touch from Bortoleto and was finally seventeenth.

«With the year we have had and the progression we have experienced, I am very proud of everyone. “It is incredible to win here,” said a more than smiling Verstappen after the test. «The race was crazy, at the start many things happened at the same time. Then, we got the intermediates right and then, step by step, we overtook and were able to do our race until the end, keeping everything under control," insisted the Dutchman, who was surprised at the beginning by a brilliant start from the two Mercedes, but who in turn knew how to take advantage of his opportunity to, after the first of several Safety Car interventions, make a great pass on Antonelli and set an infernal pace throughout practically the entire race. So much so that even when things got closer again, the Italian seemed really capable of standing up to him.

«It was the most we could achieve, my congratulations to Max and Red Bull. We have a lot of work to do, it has cost us more than usual, but I am very happy to be second," Antonelli confessed at the end of the race. «Congratulations to Max, what a tough race it was... We didn't get it right at the beginning, it got difficult, everyone was moving away, I was a minute off the lead and thought 'it's over', but we did a great job with the stops and tire changes. "Of all my years here, it has been the best race," said Hamilton.