SAKHIR, Bahrain (AP) — The ongoing drama surrounding Red Bull didn’t affect the team’s three-time world champion, as Max Verstappen prevailed by 22 seconds in the season-opening Formula One race on Saturday.
Verstappen started the Bahrain Grand Prix from pole position and was never seriously challenged before leading Red Bull to a commanding one-two finish with teammate Sergio Pérez. Embattled team principal Christian Horner was with his former pop star wife, Geri Halliwell, before the race and during the podium celebrations.
“Today went better than I expected,” Verstappen said. “It was a lot of fun.”
Carlos Sainz Jr. finished third for Ferrari after a fierce battle with teammate Charles Leclerc.
As the longest ever F1 season gets underway at 24 races, Verstappen is already showing signs of repeating his near-perfect record in 2023, when he won 19 of 22 races.
Bahrain was Verstappen’s eighth consecutive win since last September, after he set an F1 record with 10 consecutive wins last season.
The attention of the F1 paddock was entirely focused on Horner, with Verstappen saying on Saturday that his boss was “probably a bit distracted”.
“Obviously it’s not fun to get unwanted attention but right now the focus is on the car,” Horner said. “I’ve been focused on what’s going on on the track and today’s result shows where the focus is across the team and I think we’re making progress.”
On race day, Horner arrived holding hands with Halliwell, also known as Ginger Spice from the pop group Spice Girls, and the pair celebrated as Verstappen collected the trophy. The race came after FIA president Mohamed Ben Sulayem said in comments to the Financial Times that the furore surrounding Horner was “damaging the sport”.
The team’s parent company on Wednesday dismissed allegations that Horner had misconducted team employees, the day after a file purportedly containing evidence against Horner was emailed to around 200 people in the F1 paddock, including Liberty Media, F1, the FIA, nine other team principals and several media outlets, during practice in Bahrain.
The authenticity of the files has not been confirmed by The Associated Press, but they were sent from a generic email account.
In another sign that Red Bull are significantly faster than any other team, Perez worked his way up from fifth on the grid to second and was barely challenged thereafter.
Sainz’s third place was his first podium since the United States Grand Prix in October, as he ended the challenge of George Russell for Mercedes.
After qualifying second, Leclerc said Ferrari had taken a “step forward” compared to their dismal performance in 2023. But the Italian team could not get closer to Red Bull on race day.
Leclerc’s challenge on Verstappen ended when the Dutchman stayed on the inside line into the first corner, before being passed in succession by Russell, Perez and then Ferrari team-mate Sainz.
Sainz in particular fought closely with his teammate and then again after Leclerc briefly took the lead during a pit stop – in Sainz’s first race since announcing he will hand over his Ferrari seat to Lewis Hamilton in 2025.
It was a bad day for Leclerc after he complained to Ferrari that his car was pulling sharply to the right under braking in a “dangerous” way that meant he couldn’t defend his position, but he later recovered to overtake Russell to finish fourth.
Russell was fifth, McLaren’s Lando Norris sixth and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton was seventh after an uneventful race in his second Mercedes. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was eighth, ahead of the Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.
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