by F1 correspondent Michael Butterworth
BEIJING, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Red Bull's Max Verstappen started the 2024 Formula One World Championship season with a dominant victory in the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday.
Starting from pole position, Verstappen headed off the threat of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc at the start, and was never headed as he cruised to victory, setting the race's fastest lap and crossing the line 22 seconds ahead of teammate Sergio Perez.
"Unbelievable. I think today went even better than expected. The car was really nice to drive on every compound," said Verstappen, who has won the last three World Championship titles and is the hot favorite to claim the 2024 crown.
"We had a lot of pace and it was just super enjoyable to drive today. We stayed out of trouble and it's a great start of the year, it couldn't have been better.
"It was a lot of fun and I felt really good in the car. It's always very special to have these kinds of days because they don't happen that often where it all goes perfect and you are at one with the car."
Red Bull won a record 22 of 23 Grands Prix last season, with Verstappen emerging victorious in 20 of them, and anyone hoping for a closer fight at the front this year would have been disheartened by the drinks-backed squad's dominance in 2024's season opener.
Behind Verstappen came Perez, who emphasized Red Bull's supremacy in race trim by rising from fifth on the grid to second by the chequered flag, with Ferrari's Carlos Sainz rounding out the top three.
Sainz's teammate Leclerc was an unhappy fourth after struggling with a lack of rear grip throughout the race, with Mercedes' George Russell fading to fifth after having run second early on.
Lando Norris took sixth for McLaren, with Russell's teammate Lewis Hamilton a low-key seventh, ahead Norris' teammate Oscar Piastri.
Fernando Alonso faded from sixth on the grid to finish ninth, with his Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll recovering from an early spin to round out the top ten.
Unusually for a season-opening race, there were no retirements, with all 20 drivers seeing the chequered flag.
In other F1 news, Red Bull's early on-track dominance is in danger of being overshadowed by off-track matters, with allegations of inappropriate behavior having been leveled against Team Principal Christian Horner by a female employee in early February.
Though an internal Red Bull investigation had on Wednesday cleared Horner of any wrongdoing, a dossier of photographs and text messages purporting to be from Horner to the complainant was subsequently leaked to numerous media outlets.
With FIA and F1 chiefs set to discuss the allegations surrounding Horner, it remains to be seen what, if any, action will be taken against the Briton, who has led Red Bull's F1 team since the drinks-backed squad entered the sport in 2005.
The second round of the 2024 F1 season is next weekend's Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, which also takes place on a Saturday so as to avoid clashing with the start of Ramadan on Sunday. ■
