2023 Bahrain Grand Prix

The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for the race.[5]

Oscar Piastri, Nyck de Vries and Logan Sargeant made their Formula One Grand Prix season debuts with McLaren, AlphaTauri and Williams, respectively, although De Vries made his Formula One Grand Prix debut at the 2022 Italian Grand Prix for Williams.[6]

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the C1, C2, and C3 tyre compounds (designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively) for teams to use at the event.[7]

The third DRS activation point was moved 80 metres (260 ft) farther ahead, being positioned 250 metres (820 ft) after turn 15.[8]

At the beginning of Q1, a piece of the front wheel brow of Charles Leclerc's car fell off during a lock-up at turn one, causing the session to be red flagged.[9] At the end of Q1 Lando Norris and Logan Sargeant set the same exact time to place fifteenth and sixteenth, but Norris was moved through to Q2, having completed his lap before Sargeant.[9] During Q2, Alexander Albon went off track at the turn 5/6/7 esses, preventing him from setting a time.[9] After the first runs of Q3, Charles Leclerc was seen getting out of his Ferrari, sparking reliability concerns for the Monagasque's car, but he later revealed that the team made the decision to save a set of tires for the race.[9] Ultimately, Max Verstappen took pole position by nearly two tenths of a second, with a time of 1:29.708.[9]

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Qualifying times			Final grid
				Q1	Q2	Q3
1	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT	1:31.295	1:30.503	1:29.708	1
2	11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT	1:31.479	1:30.746	1:29.846	2
3	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:31.094	1:30.282	1:30.000	3
4	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	1:30.993	1:30.515	1:30.154	4
5	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes	1:31.158	1:30.645	1:30.336	5
6	63	George Russell	Mercedes	1:31.057	1:30.507	1:30.340	6
7	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:31.543	1:30.513	1:30.384	7
8	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes	1:31.184	1:31.127	1:30.836	8
9	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	1:31.508	1:30.914	1:30.984	9
10	27	Nico Hülkenberg	Haas-Ferrari	1:31.204	1:30.809	No time	10
11	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	1:31.6521	1:31.381	N/A	11
12	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1:31.504	1:31.443	N/A	12
13	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1:31.615	1:31.473	N/A	13
14	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	1:31.400	1:32.510	N/A	14
15	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	1:31.461	No time	N/A	15
16	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams-Mercedes	1:31.6521	N/A	N/A	16
17	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	1:31.892	N/A	N/A	17
18	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	1:32.101	N/A	N/A	18
19	21	Nyck de Vries	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	1:32.121	N/A	N/A	19
20	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	1:32.181	N/A	N/A	20
107% time: 1:37.362
Source:[10][11]

Notes

• ^1 – Lando Norris and Logan Sargeant set identical lap times in Q1. Norris advanced to Q2 as he set his time earlier.[10][12]

Max Verstappen led comfortably from the start, only losing the lead briefly during the first round of pit stops. Sergio Pérez was slow away at the start and lost second place to a fast starting Charles Leclerc. Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton battled on the run down to turn 4, Alonso was hit by his teammate Lance Stroll, causing both Aston Martins to lose positions. Alonso came out on top in a wheel-to-wheel battle with George Russell on lap 13, both drivers lost out in the pit stops to Valtteri Bottas in the Alfa Romeo.[13]

Oscar Piastri retired after 13 laps in his Formula One debut with an electrical failure. Meanwhile his teammate Lando Norris also had engine issues, this time with the hydraulics, requiring six pit stops to manage the problem. Esteban Ocon picked up a five-second time penalty for lining up in his grid spot incorrectly. He did not serve the full five seconds in the pit, and was given a subsequent ten second time penalty, and then a further five second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane while serving the second penalty.[13]

Pérez made it past Leclerc on lap 26, with Red Bull Racing the only front running team to use the soft tyre for both the first two tyre stints. After the second round of pit stops, Stroll, who was racing with a broken wrist and toe, overtook Russell as the latter came out of the pit on cold tyres, with Stroll having pitted a lap earlier. Alonso and Hamilton engaged in a battle for fifth place. Alonso overtook Hamilton into turn 4 on lap 37 before a snap of oversteer on the corner exit for Alonso allowed Hamilton back past. One lap later Alonso pulled off an overtake at turn 10.[13]

Leclerc's race came to an end on lap 40, with his car suffering a mechanical failure while running in third, bringing out the virtual safety car. Alonso overtook Carlos Sainz Jr. using DRS on the run down to turn 11 on lap 45. Meanwhile, Pierre Gasly overtook Alexander Albon for ninth place, having started from last. Zhou Guanyu pitted on the penultimate lap for soft tyres, and set the fastest lap of the race on the final lap.

Verstappen took his first win in Bahrain by almost 12 seconds ahead of teammate Pérez and gave Red Bull their first win in Bahrain since Sebastian Vettel won in 2013. Alonso finished third, his first podium since the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix and Aston Martin's first since the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.[14][15]

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT	57	1:33:56.736	1	25
2	11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT	57	+11.987	2	18
3	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes	57	+38.637	5	15
4	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	57	+48.052	4	12
5	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	57	+50.977	7	10
6	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes	57	+54.502	8	8
7	63	George Russell	Mercedes	57	+55.873	6	6
8	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	57	+1:12.647	12	4
9	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	57	+1:13.753	20	2
10	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	57	+1:29.774	15	1
11	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	57	+1:30.870	14
12	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams-Mercedes	56	+1 lap	16
13	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	56	+1 lap	17
14	21	Nyck de Vries	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	56	+1 lap	19
15	27	Nico Hülkenberg	Haas-Ferrari	56	+1 lap1	10
16	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	56	+1 lap	13
17	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	55	+2 laps	11
Ret	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	41	Mechanical	9
Ret	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	39	Engine	3
Ret	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	13	Electrical	18
Fastest lap: Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo-Ferrari) – 1:33.996 (lap 56)
Source:[11][14][16]

Notes

• ^1 – Nico Hülkenberg received a 15-second time penalty for exceeding track limits. His final position was not affected by the penalty.[14]