Ferrari's perfect weekend.
After dominating qualifying, Charles Leclerc held on to pressure from reigning world champion Max Verstappen (Red Bull), before the Dutchman retired three laps from the finish of the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday.
As a direct consequence, Carlos Sainz, third for almost the entire race, offered Scuderia Ferrari a double to start this 2022 season. Lewis Hamilton came to complete the podium, an almost unthinkable performance in view of Mercedes' pre-season tests.
đšïž "The scenario is not written before living!"
INCREDIBLE end to the Grand Prix with the victory of Charles Leclerc, the double for Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton who finished on the podium against all odds!
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â¶ïž https://t.co/7plkVVV12v pic.twitter.com/ZkjjTsUrkH
â CANAL+ F1Âź (@CanalplusF1) March 20, 2022
What twists and turns at the end of the Grand Prix, totally mastered by Charles Leclerc who thus gleaned his third career victory.
But before offering a victory finally rather quiet, a drama was tied in three acts.
The first stone was first laid, in spite of himself, by Pierre Gasly who, eleven laps from the finish, saw his single-seater catch fire, forcing him to retire.
This was followed by the logical appearance of a safety car.
The 19 cars still in the race then regrouped, before relaunching the debates for seven laps.
Read alsoFormula 1: Gasly, Ocon, Pourchaire... who will be the future French world champion?
While Max Verstappen was nearly 25 seconds behind leader Leclerc, the Dutchman failed to find the loophole to pass his opponent from the Italian team.
The two men had also fought a sumptuous duel at the start of the Grand Prix, finally won by the Monegasque.
But the final game between the two men was distorted by a mechanical problem on the Red Bull.
Chaos at Red Bull
The Austrian team then experienced a nightmare.
Hampered by a steering problem for several laps, Max Verstappen suffered from a second, much more serious problem, in terms of recovering energy from his single-seater.
The conclusion was ultimately an outright pit stop and the first retirement of the season for the reigning world champion, just three laps from the finish.
Sergio PĂ©rez then remained to save the furniture at Red Bull.
Unfortunately for Christian Horner and his two drivers, the second single-seater didn't hold either after a spin, and the Mexican's hopes of finishing on a podium that seemed certain to him went up in smoke just before the last lap. of track.
Lewis Hamilton therefore took the opportunity to climb on the third step behind the two Ferraris.
As for the surprises, the ghost Kevin Magnussen gave Haas a very nice 5th place just behind the new Mercedes driver George Russell, 4th.
Esteban Ocon took 7th place while rookie Guanyu Zhou (10th) scored his first points for his first Grand Prix.
