What a relief it was to hear David Croft’s “It’s lights out and away we go!” on Sunday!

The 2023 Formula One season is officially underway, and with the Bahrain Grand Prix under our belts, it's time to reflect on everything that went down during the weekend.

There was a lot of excitement and buzz going into qualifying on Saturday, with Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin surprisingly topping the time sheets in Free Practice 2 the day before, and 12 drivers (and 8 different teams) behind him all within 1 second of his lap time. This excitement was only fuelled in Q1, when all 20 drivers were separated by just 1.128 seconds!

This sort of phenomena is usually seen on much shorter tracks such as Monaco or Interlagos in Brazil, where the lap times are around 70 seconds, but Bahrain’s lap time is 90 seconds, where there is more time in a lap for the slower cars to be separated out from the faster cars.

For all the cars to be this close is just amazing to see, not just for the neutrals, but for all F1 fans! It’s something to keep an eye on for the rest of the season for sure!

At the end of qualifying however, it was the 2 Red Bulls leading the pack, with the formidable Max Verstappen taking pole position, and Sergio Perez a tenth behind him.

The Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz took third and fourth respectively, and the ever-impressing Fernando Alonso took 5th in his Aston Martin. Mercedes’ Brit duo George Russell and Lewis Hamilton started 6th and 7th, and Lando Norris’ McLaren just missed out of Q3 and started 11th.

You’d be forgiven for thinking it was 2003 with Fernando so far up the grid!

On Sunday, Verstappen led the pack away on lap 1, and a slow start from Perez meant he was overtaken by Leclerc at the first turn. Behind them, Hamilton passed Alonso down the inside of turn 4, and the fast-coming Lance Stroll couldn’t stop in time and wacked the back of his teammate Alonso with his front wing, almost sending them both into a spin.

However, both Aston Martin cars incredibly got away without damage and carried on racing, arising suspicion that their cars are built out of pure concrete. It will go down alongside the City of Atlantis as one of the greatest mysteries in history.

Apart from that, the rest of the field made it through unscathed, a real surprise for the first lap of the season.

By lap 10, Norris was the first driver into the pits, however it wasn’t routine. A pressure problem in the engine forced him in, and the McLaren pit crew would have to refill the system with air every 10 laps until the end of the race. Matters only got worse for McLaren, as by lap 13 teammate and F1 debutant Oscar Piastri was the second driver into the pits, also not routinely, with an electrical issue.

The team tried to swap out his steering wheel to fix the issue but to no avail, and Oscar became the first driver to retire this season. Not the greatest of starts in the world for the team in papaya.

McLaren don’t get the plaudits for being the unluckiest this weekend however, as Alpine’s Esteban Ocon matched the record for the most penalties (3) in the same race: 5 seconds for parking the car wrong at the start of the race, 10 seconds for doing the first penalty wrong, and another 5 seconds for speeding in the pitlane by 0.1kph when doing the second penalty. He would retire before the end of the race to save parts, and possibly more penalties.

Fast forward to lap 26 and Perez finally made the move on Leclerc into turn 1 for 2nd place. The Ferrari driver tried to fight back into turn 4, but the Mexican Minister of Defence fought him off.

Lap 37 and Alonso had closed up to the back of Hamilton. Alonso dived down the inside into turn 4 but ran wide, allowing Hamilton to switch back and retake 5th. Fernando tried again 1 lap later, and in what will be one of the best overtakes of the season, dived down the inside of Hamilton out of nowhere at turn 9, a tight corner where nobody dares to overtake! Brilliant from the veteran.

Many fans (me included) hoped Ferrari had left their reliability woes in 2022, however when Leclerc grinded to a holt with an engine problem on lap 41, a lot of hearts sank, and so did my top 3 prediction from the last column… thanks Ferrari.

By lap 45, Alonso had caught up to Carlos Sainz in the other Ferrari, and quickly dispatched him down the back straight into P3! 41 years old by the way, what a legend.

Nobody was any match for Max Verstappen though, as he crossed the line to win the Bahrain Grand Prix in dominant style, 12 seconds ahead of teammate Perez, a whole 26 seconds ahead of the next car. 1-2, rivals retiring - it couldn’t’ve gone better for the Red Bulls.

Fernando Alonso came home for a very popular third place on his debut for Aston Martin, ahead of Sainz and Hamilton in 4th and 5th. A valiant Lance Stroll, who drove all weekend with broken wrists and toes, came home in 6th place and deserves a pat on the back and a few celebratory cookies.

George Russell was 7th, followed by Valtteri Bottas for Alfa Romeo, Pierre Gasly on his Alpine debut, and Alex Albon just about claiming 10th and the final point for Williams.

The next race is in 2 weeks at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, with the race on 17 March. Considering Ferrari ruined my prediction for this week, I will boycott them for this race.

I predict that the top 3 for the Saudi Arabian GP will be: Perez P1, Verstappen P2, Alonso P3. A lot bolder I know, but Perez loves a good street circuit...

It’ll be all to play for at Round 2 of the 2023 Formula 1 season in Jeddah. Don’t miss it, I’m sure it’ll be a cracker!

🏃 Tour of Tameside 2023 🏃

We're proud to be delivering this year's four-day running festival, which takes place from 15 to 18 June. 

Find out more and book your place here. 

Want more local sport stories?

Head to https://www.questmedianetwork.co.uk/news/sport/ to see more of our coverage - from community and non-league football to local and county cricket, boxing, athletics, basketball, Esports and golf.