Race

FIRE FOR GASLY BRINGS OUT THE SAFETY CAR

Pierre Gasly's AlphaTauri has caught fire, bringing out the safety car. Thankfully, the French driver climbs out.

Leclerc pits and comes out in the lead of the race, as expected.

SAINZ PITS

Sainz pits a lap later and comes out in third.

Meanwhile, Verstappen is going purple in sector one.

RED BULL'S PIT

Both Verstappen and Perez pit and are now on the soft compound tyres. The Dutchman is over 10 second behind Sainz and 28 behind Leclerc. Will Ferrari cover them off?

ONE SECOND QUICKER

Leclerc's out-lap after the second set of pit-stops was one second quicker than that of Verstappen's. It seems Ferrari have had the better race pace in this one.

OUT OF THE POINTS

Yuki Tsunoda pulls a similar move on Alonso and moves into 10th. Can the Spaniard fight back in the closing stages?

ALPINE'S FIGHT

The two Alpine's seen to be enjoying a tight battle with Esteban Ocon diving up the inside of Fernando Alonso going in turn one. They currently run ninth and 10th.

LEAD BATTLE

Here's a clip of Leclerc's battle with Verstappen just after the first pit-stops.

TRACK LIMITS

Hamilton is the first driver to be warned of track limits on the exit of turn four.

"FREE TO PUSH"

Red Bull have told Verstappen he is "free to push" after the Dutchman felt he could have got past Leclerc by pushing a lot more on his out-lap. This race is far from over!

LECLERC STAYS AHEAD

Leclerc pits and comes out ahead of Verstappen, who pitted a lap before.

STAT ALERT

The last time an engine manufacturer won on its Formula 1 debut, was Mercedes back at the 1954 French Grand Prix. Red Bull will be hoping Verstappen can re-write history with their new RBPT engine - he pits and opts for the mediums.

MERCEDES WOES

Mercedes have been the dominant force of Formula 1 in this hybrid-era, but the bottom six in this Grand Prix are all Mercedes powered cars.

MEDIUMS FOR HAMILTON

Hamilton pits again and goes on to the mediums. He's been told to look after them on the out-lap.

ONE-STOP FOR NORRIS?

Lando Norris has just pitted and has put on the hard tyres - could he be thinking about a one-stop.

Meanwhile, Verstappen has complained about having "dead tyres."

A CLOSE RACE

Despite now being over three seconds behind Leclerc, Verstappen could yet come back into this one.

He predicted a close race, and it seems he's being proven right.

THREE-STOP?

Carlos Sainz has told his Ferrari team to "think about a three-stop." Tyre wear is definitely going to play a factor in this one.

Big decisions coming...

OVERHEATING BRAKES

Red Bull seemed to enjoy that battle between Verstappen and Leclerc.

However, the Dutchman has been warned about his brakes overheating and is now two seconds behind Leclerc.

LOCK-UP FOR VERSTAPPEN

Diving up the inside of race-leader Leclerc gong into turn one, Verstappen locked-up the front right tyre, allowing Leclerc to cut-back on the exit and take back the lead of the race for the third time in as many laps.

NEW REGS SEEM TO BE WORKING

Verstappen dives up the inside of Leclerc again, but the Ferrari dives up the inside of the Red Bull going into turn four.

These new regulations seem to be making overtaking a lot easier - great news!

AWESOME STUFF!

Verstappen got the move done on Leclerc up the inside going into turn one, but the Ferrari responds and goes around the outside of the Dutchman into turn four to retake the lead.

LECLERC PITS

Leclerc pits, but the undercut seems to have worked wonders for Verstappen, he's now right on the gearbox of the Ferrari. This could get interesting!

Plan-B for Perez means he's on the mediums for this middle stint.

PLAN-B FOR PEREZ

Perez and Red Bull are opting for plan-B as his team-mate, Verstappen pits. Carlos Sainz also pits - both have opted for the soft compound tyres.

HAMILTON GETS BACK PAST

With the aid of DRS and slipstream along the main straight, Hamilton gets back past the Chinese driver and is up to 11th.

HAMILTON PITS

The Briton is the first to pit and goes on to the hard compound tyres. He comes out in between the two Alfa Romeo's, but gets a big snap of oversteer coming out of turn two, allowing Guanyu Zhou to overtake him.

The tyre wear could be worse than first feared...

PEREZ UP TO FOURTH

With the help of DRS, Sergio Perez has moved up to fourth, dropping Hamilton to fifth.

BOTTAS FINALLY GETS PAST ALBON

After a terrific defence from Alexander Albon, Bottas finally managed to squeeze through at turn 10 and is now up to 12th.

PLAN-A

Leclerc is opting for Plan-A, presumably a two-stop for the Monegasque driver?

THE SAME ISSUE

Magnussen locks-up again going into turn one, allowing George Russell to move up the inside and into sixth.

"THE ENGINE IS DOING FUNNY THINGS MID-CORNER"

Potentially early issues for the defending champion, he's told his Red Bull team that the engine is "doing funny things mid-corner." He's over a second behind Leclerc as things stand.

GOOD MOVE FROM PEREZ

After initially losing out to Magnussen at the start, Sergio Perez got past the Dane on the exit of turn four after the HAAS driver locked up going into turn one and lost valuable time. He's up to fifth.

POOR START FOR BOTTAS

After a brilliant effort in qualifying yesterday, Valtteri Bottas has found the going tough so far. He's 14th at the end of lap two.

LECLERC LEADS

Leclerc gets away cleanly and fends off Verstappen into turn one. Lewis Hamilton is up to fourth whilst Magnussen has made his way up to fifth. Some tight battles in the midfield but everything has remained clean so far.

MCLAREN'S OPT FOR MEDIUMS

Both Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo start on the C2 medium tyres, everyone else is on the C3 red-walled soft compound tyres. Expect the see the McLaren's go slightly longer in this opening stint.

"IT WAS A BIG OPPORTUNITY FOR US"

Charles Leclerc was very happy with his time in qualifying yesterday, but has also admitted there is still a lot of work to do. After a troublesome two years for Ferrari, they now have the chance to become title challengers again. Reigning champion Max Verstappen has identified the Italian manufacturer as his and Red Bull's main rivals for today's Grand Prix - who will come out on top?

Lights go out in just five minutes time!

RETURN OF THE MAG

Two weeks ago, Kevin Magnussen wasn't even a 2022 Formula 1 driver, he lines up in seventh place for today's season opener. His younger team-mate, Mick Schumacher, lines-up in 12th. Can HAAS score points?

"STILL SO MUCH TO LEARN"

Red Bull chief Christian Horner has said that there is "still so much to learn" about these new 2022 cars, especially in race trim. Today's Grand Prix is going to be a big learning curve for all the teams as they try to further understand these new generation cars.

TWO-STOP RACE?

Indications from the long runs on Friday during free practice two suggest this could be a two-stop race, even though Pirelli have opted to supply teams with slightly harder compounds than they did for the 2021 race. The much heavier cars we have this year won't make tyre conservation any easier.

LET'S TALK TYRES

In recent years, the top-10 cars on the grid have had to start on the same set of tyres that they set their fastest lap time on in the second part of qualifying - that rule has been scrapped for this year, so could we possibly saw some alternative strategies?

HERE WE GO!

Welcome to Eurosport's live text commentary from the Bahrain Grand Prix, the first round of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc starts on pole, Red Bull's Max Verstappen starts alongside him with Carlos Sainz third. Just over a tenth of a second covered the top-three in yesterday's qualifying session. Lights are out in just 30 minutes time!

Miss qualifying? Read our report here: