Upset(s) In Bahrain !!!
Probably not the upset you were thinking about. So let's get obvious out of the way. Verstappen wins again!!! In their usual fashion, Max and Red Bull dominated in Bahrain yesterday. He finished nearly 12 seconds ahead of his teammate Sergio Perez, who finished just short of 40 seconds ahead of Fernando Alonso to round out the podium. So what about the upset, or upsets maybe?
Probably the biggest upset or disappointment rather would be Oscar Piastri's ride. The McLaren he was driving only lasted 14 laps before he was forced to the pits to retire. Piastri is a rookie driver from Australia and has won multiple championship titles in lower racing leagues. He was touted as one of the best young drivers out there. He only qualified eighteenth (18th), but a 14-lap DNF was probably upsetting to McLaren as well.
Charles Leclerc had high hopes as he consistently found himself in the top 5 of the speed charts all weekend. He was clearly upset as he exited his car that stopped on the track for mechanical issues. He is already twenty-five (25) driver points behind Verstappen with a DNF in the first race of the season which puts Ferrari in an upsetting fourth (4th) place in the constructors' race. But it's only the first race of the season.
Talk about upset with the refs. Race stewards awarded Estebon Ocon a few time penalties that saw him drop from starting the race in ninth (9th) to DNF. While serving a five (5) second time penalty in the pits for incorrect starting grid position, a mechanic jumped the gun 0.4 seconds too early, which got the Alpine driver an additional ten (10) second penalty. While on pit road, he was caught speeding, only going 0.1 km over the speed limit for another 5 second penalty. The team eventually retired the car to save on wear and tear.
After the race, Fantasy Racing points were tallied. My fantasy team is in an upsetting last place in the league. As stated previously, it is still early in the season. In race seasons before, the "best of the rest" started from sixth (6th) place back. Now, it seems there are more teams battling to be second best as compared to Red Bull. We'll see what happens next race in Saudi Arabia.
Top picture by Christophe Simon: Getty Images