Verstappen Doubles His Gap To Second Perez In Bahrain Compared To 2023

Max Verstappen doubled his gap to the second Sergio Perez in terms of year-over-year race result comparison.

The triple World Champion Max Verstappen started the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix from pole position and then led all the laps of the race to bring his car home across the finish line in P1.

His teammate, Sergio Perez, who started from fifth place on the grid, finished second, completing the perfect one-two result for Red Bull Racing.

The 26-year-old himself said he couldn't have hoped for a better race as everything seemingly came together for him. He had a great launch off the line, covered off Charles Leclerc, pulled more than a one-second gap within a lap, and cruised until the finish line without any issues.

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The question was how far ahead of everyone Red Bull's would be in terms of race pace and it seems the team from Milton Keynes was able to retain their advantage.

On the one hand, Perez finished only 2.65 seconds ahead of Carlos Sainz in third place. On the other hand, the Flying Dutchman finished 22.457 seconds ahead of his teammate.

Interestingly, that is almost double how far the triple World Champion finished ahead of the Mexican driver in 2023. Last year, the gap between the two was 11.987 seconds.

It is important to note that there hasn't been a regular safety car during either of these two races, so there was nothing that could influence the result significantly. While in 2024, Perez started from a worse position on the grid, he was in P2 by lap 16 during both seasons.

If we averaged the gap between the 26-year-old and the 34-year-old in 2023 over the race distance of 57 laps around the Bahrain International Circuit, Verstappen was 0.21 seconds quicker per lap.

In 2024, the Flying Dutchman was faster by 0.39 seconds per lap. Could it be that Verstappen improved even more between the two seasons? 

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