Verstappen started his second title defence with a dominant drive to win i🌳n Bahrain for the ꧅first time in his F1 career.

Remarkably, it was the first time Red Bull has won a season-opener since 2011, when 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Sebastian Vettel was victorious in Melbourne.

Red Bull are the class of the field, with their race pace nearly one-second per lap faster than 💮their nearest challenger.

Thus, Verstappen is the heavy favourite to takeﷺ the title in F1 2023, but there’s one curse he needs to be aware of.

Since 2017, the driver that has won the openin꧂g race of the seaso✨n hasn’t gone on to win the drivers’ title.

2017

Vettel won the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, but it was 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Lewis Hamilton who ultimately won the title with ⛦three races to go.

2018

History repeated itself in 2018 as Vettel made the most 🍌of a fortunate Virtual Safety Car to get ahead of Hamilton. The Mercedes driver would take the title in Mexico.

2019

168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Valtteri Bottas dominated the 2019 Aus💞tralian Grand Prix, however, he couldn’t maintain it as Hamilton won his sixth title in Austin.

2020

Again, it was Bottas who started the ye🎶ar strongly for Mercedes, but🤪 Hamilton hit back, taking the title in Turkey.

2021

Hami✱lton would win his first season-opener since 2015 ahead of Verstappen. He would controversially miss out on the title to Verstappen in Abu Dhabi.

2022

168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Charles Leclerc kicked off F1’s ne𝓰w era strongly with a win in Bahrain. Ferrari imploded as Verstappeওn ran away with the title, taking his second crown in Japan.