Formula One's inaugural 2023 event took place under the lights and in the sands of the Bahrain International Circuit on Sunday, March 5th, with the 2021 and 2022 World Champion, Max Verstappen, taking the checkers for the 36th win of his F1 career.

Before Sunday's Grand Prix, Verstappen had never won a Grand Prix at the Bahrain International Circuit and Red Bull had not won a season opener since since Sebastian Vettel's victory at the Australian GP in 2011.

No team had much to challenge pole-sitter, Verstappen, who broke away at race start and had 8+ second lead over the rest of the field by Lap 12.

Verstappen's Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez, took over second position, which belonged to Ferarri's Charles Leclerc at race start, on Lap 26 of 57.

Leclerc eventually had to retire on Lap 41 with power unit problems.

Leclerc's teammate, Carlos Sainz, finished in P4.

"Of course we are disappointed, how could we not be," said Frederic Vasseur, Ferrari's Team Principal. "We knew we'd have to deal with tyre degradation, but we had not expected reliability problems."

"It's a shame for Charles, because in the first stint his pace was good and even with the heavy degradation on the Hard tyre, he could have brought home a third place, that would have been a good way to start the season. Carlos drove a solid race, running at a consistent pace and he gave it his all to finish fourth," added Vasseur.

Aston Martin continued an impressive season opening weekend with two-time World Champion Fernando Alonzo finishing third having endured an epic battle with Ferrari's Carlos Sainz on Lap 46 of 57.

Alonzo's teammate, Lance Stroll, finished sixth.

"Fernando has been buzzing all weekend and that energy has transferred throughout the team," said Mike Krack, Aston Martin's Team Principal. "As for Lance, just to be competing has been a heroic effort, and to see him finish sixth, after a great pass on George [Russell], is a superb effort."

The Silver Arrows of Mercedes racing finished in the fifth and seventh positions.

"That was one of our worst days in racing," said Toto Wolff, Mercedes Team Principal & CEO. "It was not good at all; we are lacking pace front, right, and centre. The Aston Martins are very fast, and the Red Bull is just on a different planet. It hurts that they are so far ahead; it reminds me of our best years where we put one second on everyone else."

Valterri Bottas logged in an impressive P8 for Alfa Romeo. Alpine's Pierre Gasly finished 9th with Williams Racing's Alex Albon rounding out the top 10.

“The team did a really good job tonight and we can be satisfied with the final result, which shows our continuous progress and the value of the work we did during pre-season testing: we were in the top five teams for the whole of the race, and we finished ahead of McLaren and Alpine, which is as much as we could have hoped to get tonight," said Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Alfa Romeo's Team Representative.

"In my opinion we were out of position on the grid due to a tricky Qualifying session but we had a really good start, made up some positions off the line and then had our elbows out at a couple of moments during the race. We were strong, we were fighting and our race pace was better than expected," said second year Williams driver, Alex Albon.

Formula One will take a week off before continuing their 2023 season back in the Middle East for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, March 17-19th.

Pos	Driver		Team		Laps	Gap


1	Verstappen	Red Bull	57	1h 33:56.736
2	Perez		Red Bull	57	+ 0:11.987
3	Alonso		Aston Martin	57	+ 0:38.637
4	Sainz		Ferrari		57	+ 0:48.052
5	Hamilton	Mercedes	57	+ 0:50.977
6	Stroll		Aston Martin	57	+ 0:54.502
7	Russell		Mercedes	57	+ 0:55.873
8	Bottas		Alfa Romeo	57	+ 1:12.647
9	Gasly		Alpine		57	+ 1:13.753
10	Albon		Williams	57	+ 1:29.774
11	Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	57	+ 1:30.870
12	Sargeant	Williams	56	+ 1 Lap
13	Magnussen	Haas		56	+ 1 Lap
14	de Vries	AlphaTauri	56	+ 1 Lap
15	Hulkenberg	Haas		56	+ 1 Lap
16	Zhou		Alfa Romeo	56	+ 1 Lap
17	Norris		McLaren		55	+ 2 Laps
	Ocon		Alpine		41	Retired
	Leclerc		Ferrari		39	Retired
	Piastri		McLaren		13	Retired

(image provided by Aston Martin F1 Media & Alpine F1 Media)