Christian Horner breaks silence after being cleared of alleged ‘inappropriate behaviour’
Formula 1’s 2024 season is well underway as the teams prepare for Saturday’s race with the noise surrounding Christian Horner refusing to fade.
Friday’s action in Bahrain saw Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz top the leaderboard in the third free practice session to set up a Ferrari-Red Bull clash in qualifying. McLaren’s Lando Norris also found some quick pace though the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were unable to maintain their strong showing from Thursday.
In qualifying, Max Verstappen won the battle against Ferrari and finished on pole thanks to an improved lap time of 1:29:179 beating out Charles Leclerc by 0.228 seconds. Hamilton starts in P9 though teammate Russell had a storming final lap to clinch P3 and will be in with a chance of challenging the leaders today. Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso round out the top five.
Elsewhere, Christian Horner drew the media’s attention again after Whatsapps allegedly sent by him to a female colleague were leaked to the press, in what could be an embarrassing development for the Red Bull team principal who had previous been investigated and cleared over alleged ’inappropriate behaviour’.
Follow updates from the Bahrain Grand Prix with The Independent:
F1 2024 season predictions: World champion, biggest shock, and who will replace Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes?
Another Formula One off season has come and gone – with its fair share of dramatic stories – but now we are set to go racing once again.
This Saturday’s season opener in Bahrain is the first of a record-breaking 24 races in 2024, which sees the season stretch from Bahrain GP practice on 29 February to the finale in Abu Dhabi on 8 December.
Max Verstappen is the unquestionable favourite to claim his fourth straight world championship this year, with Red Bull winning 21 out of 22 races last year and the likes of Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren all playing catch up.
But will there be a surprise in store? Can anyone make the jump up into the midfield contenders? And how will a fascinating driver market develop throughout the year?
Mike Jones2 March 2024 10:00
What is the race schedule?
How can I watch it online and on TV?
The Bahrain Grand Prix will be broadcast live on Sky Sports in the United Kingdom – and ESPN in the United States.
Highlights of qualifying in the UK will be aired on free-to-air Channel 4 at 7:30pm (GMT) on Friday; the race highlights are at 7:50pm (GMT) on Saturday.
Mike Jones2 March 2024 09:45
F1 grid: Starting positions for Bahrain Grand Prix
What is the starting grid?
Mike Jones2 March 2024 09:30
George Russell after qualifying third:
“Max is still some way out in front…
“Huge amount of work. Time will tell tomorrow if we’ve made a big step forward, I think it will be a close fight between everybody other than Max!
“Red Bull are doing such a strong job. If there’s an opportunity to take the lead we’ll go for it, but really it’s about the battle for second.”
Mike Jones2 March 2024 09:15
Charles Leclerc after finishing P2 in qualifying:
“I’m a bit disappointed. We did a good qualifying, it’s been a tricky weekend. I found the sweet spot in qualifying. Unfortunately we put on two sets of new softs which compromised a bit Q3.
“I think we lost a little bit of rhythm with the used set in Q3, then you have to re-adapt to the tyres, but overall a solid quali.
“I’m confident we did a step forward, we have to wait and see tomorrow. We really think Red Bull is still ahead by quite a bit in the race.”
Mike Jones2 March 2024 09:00
Max Verstappen after securing pole position:
“A lot of fun, the track had a lot of grip. Very happy to be on pole – to be honest it was a little bit unexpected but luckily the car came to us.
“We needed to fine tune a few little things to get that balance. We could really push with the car and another step in qualifying.
“The race is going to be close as well. I’m confident we can have a strong race!”
Mike Jones2 March 2024 08:45
Charles Leclerc annoyed with Ferrari for ‘compromising’ final stage of Bahrain GP qualifying
Leclerc was right in contention for top spot in the first qualifying session of the season, alongside team-mate Carlos Sainz and Verstappen.
However, the Monegasque only finished second in the end – two-tenths of a second slower than Verstappen – and was “disappointed” given pole position was within his reach.
Mike Jones2 March 2024 08:30
Max Verstappen continues where he left off in 2023 with pole position in Bahrain
The build-up to the first race of the campaign has totally been overshadowed by allegations whirling around Horner.
The 50-year-old was exonerated by Red Bull Racing parent’s company, Red Bull GmbH, following an internal probe into “inappropriate behaviour” against a female colleague on Wednesday – before hundreds of WhatsApp messages appearing to be written by him were leaked to the F1 world a day later.
Mike Jones2 March 2024 08:15
Good morning!
Welcome to The Independent’s coverage of the first Formula 1 grand prix of the season.
The race takes place in Bahrain with Max Verstappen picking up where he left off last season and earning pole position ahead of Charles Leclerc and George Russell in qualifying on Friday night.
Lewis Hamilton starts in ninth but will be hoping for a stronger showing during the race. We’ll have all the updates throughout the day stick around for all the action from the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Mike Jones2 March 2024 08:00
Olivia Martin is a dedicated sports journalist based in the UK. With a passion for various athletic disciplines, she covers everything from major league championships to local sports events, delivering up-to-the-minute updates and in-depth analysis.
