Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen eased to victory in the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday despite the turmoil surrounding his Red Bull team principal Christian Horner.

Verstappen started on pole position and was never seriously challenged on his way to a commanding one-two win for Red Bull ahead of his teammate Sergio Perez.

Carlos Sainz Jr was third for Ferrari after fighting hard with Charles Leclerc.

At the start of the longest-ever F1 season of 24 races, Verstappen already showed signs of repeating his near-perfect record from 2023, when the Dutch driver won 19 of 22 races on his way to a third straight title.

Saturday was the eighth win in a row for Verstappen going back to September last year. He set an F1 record of 10 consecutive wins last season. This was the Red Bull driver’s 55th career Formula 1 win.

No FIA probe

The president of Formula 1’s governing body told the Financial Times that the controversy around Horner is damaging the sport but that the FIA won’t conduct its inquiry unless it receives a complaint.

Mohammed Ben Sulayem said any complaint lodged with its compliance officer would be investigated. But, it had not received one related to Horner’s situation and would not “jump the gun,” the newspaper reported.

“It’s damaging the sport,” Ben Sulayem said after meeting Horner. “This is damaging on a human level.”

On Wednesday, the team’s parent company dismissed a complaint of alleged misconduct by Horner towards a female team employee.

Horner and his wife Geri Halliwell walked into the paddock hand-in-hand on Saturday in a rare public show of unity.