Bahrain Grand Prix 2024

 The 2024 season kicked off with the 20th Bahrain Grand Prix. Lights out was 8:30pm local time and after 57 laps and 192 miles of racing Max Verstappen took his 55th F1 victory, with Sergio Perez in second and Carlos Sainz in third.  

Max started on pole and led every lap of the race, his fastest lap (1:32.608s) was 1.4s faster than any other lap of the race. On lap 38 Verstappen was +41s ahead of Perez in P2. Carlos Sainz was voted Driver of the Day and for the first time in Bahrain GP history all 20 drivers finished the race with no retirees or red flags.

All drivers opted to start on the soft compound tyres with most doing 2 pitstops and ending up on the hard compound to finish. It was a race with minimal drama with Hulkenberg and Stroll having contact on lap 1 resulting in front wing damage for Hulkenberg and a yellow flag on lap 10 when Logan Sargeant ran into the gravel. Both George Russell and Alex Albon had trouble with overheating which has led to speculation of a Mercedes power unit issue. Charles Leclerc seemed to struggle with the car from the beginning of the race right until the end but battled through it and still got P4, despite from lap 18, complaining of the car turning right under breaking. Valtteri Bottas had his race ruined by a 52s pitstop on lap 32, dropping through the pack to finish P19, due to a wheel nut issue. 

Here at The Pitstop Bloggers we love a night race and one of our favourite things about it is the sparks. Between those and the lit up palm trees the race was very pleasing to the eye with the battle between the 2 Ferraris being a thing of beauty.