Bahrain Grand Prix live – Max Verstappen begins Formula 1 title defence with a win, Sergio Perez seals Red Bull one-two

Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton offer their assessments after the Formula 1 season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

Thanks for joining us for this race.

What a season-opener for Red Bull as they start 2023 with a 1-2! Verstappen finally wins in Bahrain and takes the chequered flag 11 seconds ahead of his teammate. Alonso rounds off the podium with a superb third place for Aston Martin!

With eight laps to go, Alonso has now pulled out a gap of over six seconds to Sainz behind him. The Ferrari man, in P4, now has it all to do to hold off the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton behind him as he continues to struggle with his hard tyres.

Vamos!

The Aston Martin manages to get past the Ferrari into Turn 10 and down the back straight as Sainz locks up his front tyres whilst trying to defend!

The pair came close to contact coming out of Turn 4 as the back end of the Aston almost collided into the side of the Ferrari!

With Leclerc's retirement, Alonso is now pushing to catch Sainz ahead of him, and the gap is less than a second! The final podium place is now on the line!

What drama! The power unit of the Ferrari has completely conked out down the back straight! The chances of a podium for the Monegasque driver have slipped away! A Virtual Safety Car has been deployed, but it looks likely that a full Safety Car won't be deployed.

What a move! After a couple of laps of some tight but fair racing between the two, Alonso makes an incredible move down the inside of Turn 10! He is up into P5!

Verstappen comes in from the lead, and pits for a fresh set of hard tyres. The win looks all but wrapped up as he maintains the advantage and is over 10 seconds ahead of his teammate. With just twenty laps to go, there probably will be no need to manage this set.

Perez comes into the pits for a set of hard tyres despite a slower than usual pit stop. He remains in P2, nine seconds ahead of Leclerc.

As for Alonso, the overcut has not worked as he remains behind Hamilton. He comes back out in P6, 1.5 second behind the Briton. However, his tyres are four laps fresher so expect a charge in the next couple of laps.

Leclerc has come into the pits for a fresh set of tyres, and he comes back out in P4 behind Alonso, who has continued to stay out on his scrub set of hard tyres. Will this gamble cost the Aston?

Red Bull look like they are gearing for activity in the pit lane.

Russell pits a lap after his team-mate, and comes out neck-a-neck with the Aston Martin of Stroll. The Aston gets the job done at the top of the hill into Turn 4. Intriguing stuff!

Stroll is up to 7th, with Russell in 8th.

Hamilton has come into the pits for a fresh set of hard tyres as Mercedes want to protect the threat of the undercut from Alonso behind him. The Aston Martin opts to stay out. Could that cost him?

The race leader has come on the radio to his engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, to tell him that he has started to feel some degradation on the front-left tyre. The tyre life of his current set of softs is running low, and we might see some action in the Red Bull garage fairly shortly. It looks likely that they will fit a set of hards on the car until the end of the race.

A great overtake by the Mexican! Despite being quite far behind the Ferrari down the main straight, the Red Bull makes the lunge down the inside of Turn 1. Despite Leclerc trying to get back past straight away, he is unable to do it and Perez holds on to P2.

Leclerc is now looking in his mirrors as Perez has closed the gap down to just five tenths. He may have a real chance of getting past using DRS.

It is as you were at the front of the pack, as Verstappen leads Leclerc by over 10 seconds. However, despite being on the harder tyres, Leclerc continues to lap quickly. The differing strategy calls by Ferrari and Red Bull may make for a very interesting final stint later on in the race. Perez, in third, is now just 2 seconds behind the Ferrari.

Perez, who has done well to extend his opening stint to make his soft tyres last 18 laps, comes in for another set of softs in what is another interesting strategy call by the Red Bull team. He has come back out in P3.

It looks like Verstappen has come for a fresh set of tyres, and he has interestingly opted for another set of soft tyres. The reason he has done this is because he only has one set of hard tyres available to him! He comes back out in P2 behind his team-mate.

Meanwhile, at McLaren, Oscar Piastri's first F1 race has come to a premature end as he is forced to retire the car due to an electrical issue with the gearbox!

Hamilton boxes at the beginning of Lap 13, but Russell stays out! After some hard racing, Alonso makes the move stick into Turn 8 before the back straight hairpin.

At the end of the lap, both Ferraris opt to pit for fresh hard tyres. Verstappen is still out, as is Perez.