Red Bull’s Max Verstappen sent out a chilling message to his Formula 1 rivals with a crushing victory in the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.
He brushed off controversy surrounding his team principal Christian Horner to dominate after a brief challenge at the start from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Verstappen led team-mate Sergio Perez home ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
Leclerc recovered from dropping to fifth early on to pass Mercedes’ George Russell for fourth in the closing laps.
The weekend in Bahrain had been dominated by Horner, who has been at the centre of a complaint of inappropriate behaviour from a female employee for the last month.
On Wednesday, the day before the on-track action started, Red Bull’s head office announced that the grievance had been dismissed.
An email containing a cache of messages purporting to involve Horner was sent to Formula 1 personnel and media less than 24 hours later.
After qualifying, Verstappen was asked twice whether he had full confidence in Horner as Red Bull team principal, and both times declined to give a definitive reply.
Horner’s wife, the former Spice Girl Horner, flew into Bahrain for the race, as the pair made what appeared to be a studied and calculated appearance for the cameras.
Red Bull’s main shareholder, the Thai businessman Chalerm Yoovidhya, also flew in for the race to offer public support for Horner. Yoovidhya declined to answer BBC Sport’s questions before the race.
Horner was asked before the grand prix by BBC 5 live pit-lane reporter Rosanna Tennant whether the messages were genuine and replied that he “couldn’t comment on messages from an anonymous sender”.
Verstappen, meanwhile, admitted after taking pole that Horner had been “of course a little bit distracted” but said that the controversy was “not our business” and that he was “focused on the performance”. And what a performance it was.
Total dominance from Verstappen
Verstappen went into the race as a strong favourite, after winning a closer-than-expected battle for pole position with Leclerc.
The three-time champion suffered a little wheelspin in the second phase of his start, which allowed the Ferrari driver to challenge on the outside at the first corner.
But Leclerc backed out on the exit and that was the end of the race for victory.
Verstappen pulled away from his pursuers at an average of around 0.8 seconds a lap to take total control of the race on his way to his 55th grand prix victory.
The race was all behind him, as Leclerc struggled in the early laps, frequently locking his front brakes, and coming under pressure from behind.
First Russell passed him, then Perez and Sainz.
Perez closed on Russell but had to wait until after their first pit stops to take second place behind Verstappen on lap 14, Sainz following him through four laps later.
Sainz kept Perez honest, but the Mexican was able to fend off the Spaniard to secure second place and a perfect start to the the season for the world champions.
After the first pit stops, Leclerc’s struggles reduced. He recovered some pace through the second stint, and after his final stop he closed in on Russell to challenge to Mercedes for fourth place.
Leclerc took the position after Russell locked his front brakes into Turn 10 on lap 46, as the Ferrari driver had done regularly when he was struggling in the first stint, and Leclerc was able to slip by along the straight to Turn 11.
McLaren’s Lando Norris was sixth ahead Lewis Hamilton in the second Mercedes.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri took eighth, with the Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll completing the points finishers in ninth and 10th.
