Rating the top 10 finishers from the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix

The 2022 Bahrain GP was well and truly one for the ages, as we witnessed a dramatic race all throughout. The top 10 finishers had a great race, and some of them even drove most of the race almost faultlessly! Here’s our rating for the top 10 finishers of the Bahrain GP along with a special mention.

Rating the Top 10

1^st: Charles Leclerc

The young Monegasque driver had a stellar start to the season, and thanks to it he is leading the driver’s championship for the first time in his career as well. A faultless race by him saw him get a great start, make the most of the tyres and stretch out a massive advantage to those behind which helped him win. A fantastic qualifying lap to take pole was also a welcome addition, and he simply had it all under control.

Thankfully for him, Ferrari seem to have upped their infamous strategy team as well this year and thanks to it Charles never had the misfortune of being on the wrong tyre at the wrong time here at least. In fact, when Charles was being told by the engineers that they have it under control, he stated “let’s focus” so as not to get excited before the end. His battles and overtakes on Max were so good that it was completely opposite to what one would have thought their battles to be. Especially since a Verstappen was involved. But, there were no crashes. Not even a millimetre of bodywork scraped. A simply faultless drive with the fastest lap in the bag as well, so he gets top honours.

Rating: 10/10

2^nd: Carlos Sainz Jr

Carlos finished P2 owing to double DNFs by RedBull so, it wasn’t exactly a drive even close to the other ferrari driver. But, he was so hard on himself after the race that it makes sense to not write him off so quickly about it. He had been stating that he is constantly looking to find pace. He certainly lacked some pace compared to teammate Leclerc, but it was a similar situation last year and we do know how good he can be. He benefitted from good strategy calls by the team as well, which helped him stay in a net P3 for the entire race until the last few laps.

He was at certain points falling into the clutches of Perez, and at the same time falling away from Max which was not good, but at least he did not get overtaken by Perez or his race would have been done. His approach to the Safety Car restart was also not the most optimal one, staying behind Max after a mistimed move around the outside which did not come to fruition. It was a good race by him, but if he is so disappointed with his P3 turned P2, then we can surely expect much better things from him in the future.

Rating: 8/10

3^rd: Lewis Hamilton

The 7-time champ out-drove his car, and it showed. Simply put, the Mercedes is not a good car right now in this 2022 season, but he still made the most of a bad situation. He drove the entire race in a net position of 5th, though was running 4th for the first 10 laps holding off the far quicker Red Bull of Perez in the process. That was a very hard pill to digest by Perez too given how easy it was to overtake the Mercedes as the RedBull was in a pace of its own.

At one point, Hamilton was over 35 seconds behind leader Leclerc, and was a distant P5 with little to no hope of salvaging a good result. This was not purely due to the lack of pace but also because of Mercedes’ startegy call for the hard tyres leading to an extra pit stop. All in all, Hamilton’s W13 was around 20 seconds off the leader. He got lucky with Red Bull double DNF, or he’d have finished P5 instead of a podium. Nonetheless, his race pace was beyond impressive especially considering how closely he was behind Sergio’s RedBull after the restart and how far ahead he was compared to his young, talented, hotshot teammate George Russell.

Rating: 9/10

4^th: George Russell

Mercedes’ new signing did not have the best of starts to a new season with his new team, and was generally just lacking pace everywhere compared to Lewis. After the pace he showed in the Williams last year and his outing in a Merc in 2020, almost everyone was of the opinion that he’d outperform the ageing 7-time champ. What happened was the opposite and THIS is what Toto meant being Lewis’ teammate does to you. Lewis’ consistency never fails and that hurts the confidence of the next driver that comes be it Russell, Bottas or Rosberg. It is exactly the situation that he’ll have to deal with for the rest of the year.

He was overtaken by Magnussen at the start and was just generally a long way off Lewis’ pace, and was at one point over 50 seconds behind leader Leclerc. We can’t be too hard on him though, if we go to easy it will be injustice to Bottas. If he does have the talent in him, he just needs to extract it and he should be fine. Let’s hope he does it and does it quick or Mercedes will be out of options.

Rating: 7/10

5^th: Kevin Magnussen

After the race, Kevin was told by team boss Guenther Steiner that he had just made a “Viking comeback”, and damn right he did! The Dane was absolutely on rails in the race, even battling with cars he shouldn’t have even been close to especially during the start of the race.

He battled the likes of Russell and Perez, though at some points when he locked up it was debatable whether he was taking too big of a risk at trying to retain a position he would eventually lose out on anyways. Regardless, his first race since the 2020 Abu Dhabi GP resulted in points, and that too double-digit points! He already has almost 50% of the points he scored in 2019 and 2020 combined earned in just this one race, and he has put himself into P5 in the driver’s standings and Haas into P3 in the constructors! Godt gået, Kevin!

Rating: 9/10

6^th: Valtteri Bottas

Ah, Valtteri. Always referred to as the perennial wingman, the Finn had a great qualifying but an appalling start, falling 8 places from P6 by the end of Lap 1. This was most definitely not an ideal start for the 10-time Grand Prix winner, who had to fight his way back up the field.

He demonstrated that even though he had moved to a lower team, the racing spirit was still there, as he made move after move to drag himself back into the points. He kept it clean and composed, and thanks to both Red Bulls’s misfortune he finished P6, and scored 8 points in the process. Overall, a great beginning to life at a new team for the Finn!

Rating: 8/10

7^th: Esteban Ocon

Esteban had quite honestly a scruffy race, but it worked out for him in the end. He spun Schumacher around on the first lap, and earned himself a 5-second penalty for his troubles. He was also the only driver to get a penalty during the race, not something he’ll be especially proud of!

He did overtake teammate Alonso after following him around for multiple laps, and then got past Tsunoda as well. It wasn’t the best of races by the 2-time podium finisher, but he headed Alpine’s charge into a new era with a great 7th place finish in the end, a good effort by him overall.

Rating: 7.5/10

8^th: Yuki Tsunoda

The Japanese driver in a car powered by a Japanese engine did not disappoint! Now in his second season, Yuki had a good race to come home in 8th, although he would certainly have wanted better. His race was quiet, and he was not showcased much on television either.

He showed glimpses of his speed, passing hero and idol Alonso in a similar manner to how he did on his debut 12 months ago, and staying ahead of the Spaniard. He was unfortunately the victim of a fantastic overtake by Bottas as he struggled in the middle part of the race, though he was the only RedBull driver to finish the race. But, don’t think he didn’t give Bottas a run for his money like he did last year. Let’s just say Bottas will try to out qualify him for the grid position for as long as he can from now on! Scoring 4 points has put AlphaTauri 6th in the constructors for now, though he will certainly have to perform better than he did last year.

Rating: 8/10

9^th: Fernando Alonso

The 2-time world champion drove a quiet race, finishing P9 in the end. His race was mostly quiet, with no real action in his race. He was overtaken by teammate Ocon and could not get past Tsunoda in the end, which hurt his chances a fair bit.

He did stay out of trouble, though found the car to be tricky on all 3 tyre compounds. Tyre management was crucial, and he struggled to maintain performance on all of the compounds. Crucially though he kept it on track, finishing 9th in the end to ensure a double points finish for Alpine.

Rating: 7/10

10^th: Zhou Guanyu

The only rookie on the grid this year, Zhou had an incredibly poor start and fell to last place on Lap 1. His race became one of recovery, and it was a tall order for him, but he did exactly that. Fighting his way through the pack, he muscled his way up to P13, but it only got better from there.

He was blessed by the F1 gods and inherited P10 thanks to 3 retirements ahead of him, and he was also involved in a small battle with Hamilton as the Briton exited the pits. With points on his debut, he became only the 66th driver to do so and also secured a double points finish for Alfa, and China’s first-ever F1 points in the process as well.

Rating: 7/10

Honourable Mention

Max Verstappen (DNF): The 2021 champion had a very difficult end to his race, having to retire with just under 2 laps to go. His battle with Leclerc for the lead while staying well clear of the faster Ferrari of Sainz in third was a feat some didn’t think Max could achieve. Although, there’s the IQ game that Max is yet to conquer. His battles with Leclerc left him with a lot of degradation which was already a known issue with his car. Then, there was the ‘different style’ of overtake on Leclerc to stay in the lead leading to a lock up. Yet, his race pace and handling of the car that wasn’t responding well to the steering was spectacular. Max can battle with poise and he showed it.

Without his car issues, he’d have certainly finished P2 in the end but it just wasn’t meant to be. He has got to grips with the new Red Bull car, which can either choose straight line speed or cornering speed at the moment. So, not exactly as good of a package as Ferrari. He will be hoping that his championship is defended better at the next race in Saudi Arabia, and that he can finally start his 2022 season off properly.

Rating: 8.5/10