That's all for a thrilling opening Formula 1 race of 2022.

Ferrari are back, both Red Bulls fell apart late on, Mercedes claimed an unexpected podium, Kevin Magnussen came fifth after a year away and there was a point on his debut for Zhou Guanyu.

What a day. What a race. What a sport. Thanks for joining us, until next time, goodbye.

Here's how a brilliant first race of the season unfolded...

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

Richard Berridge: Great race for the Tifosi, great save for Mercedes. A chastening first 2022 GP for Red Bull What a a season we have ahead of us!

Regular Jon: Quite a fitting start to the new season for Red Bull given the events of Abu Dhabi.

The Chequered Flag Podcast is always entertaining and it's definitely going to be worth a listen tonight.

It will be live on the BBC Sport Formula 1 pages later on today.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Bahrain

Image source, Getty Images

Charles Leclerc won a close battle with Red Bull's Max Verstappen before taking a classy victory as Ferrari took a one-two in a dramatic season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

Leclerc and Verstappen staged a thrilling wheel-to-wheel dice after their first pit stops, swapping places five times in two laps before Leclerc moved ahead.

The closing laps were packed with drama, with a safety car period and then reliability problems forcing Verstappen's retirement promoting Carlos Sainz to second.

And then the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez suffered an engine failure at the first corner of the final lap leaving Lewis Hamilton to take the final podium place for Mercedes.

Hamilton had looked set for fifth place as Mercedes' pace problems became ever clearer during the race but Red Bull's nightmare provided the seven-time champion an unexpected boost.

The irony that Hamilton gained from Red Bull's misfortune in the first race after he lost the world title in the controversial climax to last season will be lost on few.

Leclerc's victory was out of the top drawer and underlined his quality as one of the leading lights of the new generation. And if Ferrari can stay competitive throughout this long, 23-race season, he will be a serious contender for the championship.

• Read the full race report

New FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem likes what he saw...

Not long before we do it all again as it's Saudi Arabia next weekend for race two.

Image source, .

Red Bull principal Christian Horner, speaking to Sky Sports F1: "It was a brutal race for us. It looks a similar issue on both cars, we don't know exactly what it is yet but we have to understand what has caused it.

"Of course, he [Max Verstappen] was disappointed when looking at a comfortable second place, but I think Ferrari had a quicker car today so congratulations to them for a one-two finish. Finishing with no points is tough for us, but it is a long season.

"We have got to get on top of the car's issues quickly. On the whole it was gutting not to get that podium today but we know we have got a good car, we just need to get on top of these reliability issues.

"The race between Max and Charles [Leclerc] was gripping. If we are going to have a season of that it is going to be quite some season.

"So the negative is zero points, but the positive is we know we have a great car."

Max Verstappen on the issue with his car that saw him not finish the race when he had been second: "We don’t fully know or understand why it happen. It happened after the tyres came on and I drove off.

"It wasn’t that the steering wheel just got heavy, It was almost impossible to steer. The faster I was going, there was like a second delay. Every time I was turning right, it took a while before something was happening."

"That’s why my restart was very bad because I wanted to go on throttle but I couldn’t open my wheel because it was stuck. It was very hard out there, a lot of different issues we had to deal with and this is of course what you don’t what to have on the first race weekend."

"The pace wasn’t amazing. Just a lot of things to analyse to be honest and of course you can say problems can happen but at this level it shouldn’t happen."

"I didn’t really push on my out lap. I could have been ahead twice."

On the car’s performance: "It’s there. it was not great today we didn’t show what we could do for whatever reason but there is potential. we’ve already lost a lot of points in this weekend, that’s really not good. I would have preferred to have at least 18 points."

China's Zhou Guanyu got a point on his F1 debut and have a listen to the below clip from BBC Radio Sheffield on how he started out in Yorkshire.

Six of the 10 teams picked up points today, with Aston Martin, Williams, McLaren and Red Bull those missing out.

Image source, .

Race one of a record-breaking 23 in 2022 and this is how it stands in the drivers' championship.

Maximum points of race win and fastest lap for Charles Leclerc.

Image source, .

It could only be the race winner...

New Mercedes driver George Russell, speaking to Sky Sports F1, on his fourth-placed finish: "We definitely thought we would be able to carve our way into the field, so I am pretty pleased. We made a good start but we know out limitations.

"It was a difficult weekend with a great result, but we know we have a lot of work to do.

"I don't know if we will find the silver bullet soon. While we will find it, it will be a few races before we unlock the true pace of the car."

George Russell's position of fourth is his best ever Formula 1 finish when we've had a proper race.

He did get on the podium and second spot in the farce of Spa last year when we only saw two laps of action, just enough for it to be called a 'race' with half points awarded after heavy rain.

Andrew Priestley: A very quiet full-time Mercedes debut from George Russell, but a positive one nonetheless. He was lapping relatively closely to his teammate and at the end of the day it’s 12 World Championship points. It’s also 12 points more than both Verstappen and Perez.

Richmond Quaye: Ferrari is back and we’re all going to dance to the Italian anthem!

Alex Williams: Make no mistake about it, Toto Wolff will be under no illusions despite that ending. Mercedes were 45 seconds behind until the SC. They have a lot of work to do

Fifty-seven laps, fifty-eight pit stops. Frantic, chaotic, brilliant.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff speaking on Sky Sports F1: "We were overwinged and had too much drag, mainly because we were lacking parts.

"Hopefully we can remedy that, but we will also leave no stone unturned on improving the power unit as well."