2010 Bahrain Grand Prix

The 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix (formally the 2010 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 14 March 2010 at the Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain. It was the seventh Bahrain Grand Prix and the opening round of the 2010 Formula One season. It was the first time since 2006 that Bahrain had hosted the opening round and the race took place on a lengthened layout of the track.

The race was won by Fernando Alonso, his first as a Ferrari driver and his first F1 victory overall since the 2008 Japanese Grand Prix. His new teammate, Felipe Massa ensured a good start to the year for the team by finishing second. McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton completed the podium by finishing in third position.

All of the race had been led by polesitter and Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel, until lap 34 when a power issue forced him to concede the lead to Alonso. This meant that he was eventually overtaken by Massa and Hamilton too, meaning that he finished in fourth place. Vettel's teammate, Mark Webber qualified sixth before finishing the race in eighth place. Michael Schumacher's first race of his return to Formula One for the Mercedes team resulted in him finishing sixth, one place behind teammate Nico Rosberg. Reigning world champion Jenson Button completed his first race for the McLaren team by finishing seventh. It was also the Grand Prix debut of Nico Hülkenberg, who finished fourteenth for his team Williams.

The three new teams—Lotus, Hispania and Virgin—did not have a very successful debut race. Their six cars occupied the last six places in qualifying, and only one, the Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen, finished the race, although Jarno Trulli's Lotus was also classified in last place. As a consequence of the race, Fernando Alonso and Ferrari led their respective championships with maximum points. The race was also the first since the 1993 Australian Grand Prix not to feature refuelling during in-race pit stops, the first Grand Prix weekend since the 1997 Australian Grand Prix to have 24 initial entries and the first Grand Prix to have more than 22 starting drivers since the 1995 Japanese Grand Prix. The extended 'Endurance Layout' of the Bahrain International Circuit proved unpopular with drivers and teams and as of 2025 has never been used by the series again.

The race saw the debut of three new teams: Hispania, Virgin and the new Malaysian-owned Lotus (not a direct descendant to Team Lotus, even though it is part owned by the same company which at present owns Lotus Cars), as well as the return of Mercedes after Daimler AG's take over of Brawn GP after the end of the 2009 season, and of Sauber, having competed as BMW the previous year. New drivers Nico Hülkenberg, Karun Chandhok, Bruno Senna, Lucas di Grassi and Vitaly Petrov also take part in their maiden races. Hülkenberg joined Williams, Petrov joined Renault and di Grassi became part of the Virgin team, while Hispania had an all-rookie line-up of Senna and Chandhok. Petrov became Russia's first ever Formula One World Championship driver; Chandhok became India's second following Narain Karthikeyan; Senna is a nephew of the legendary three-time Formula One world champion Ayrton Senna.

2009 World Drivers' Champion Jenson Button made his debut for McLaren after changing teams from 2009 Constructors' Champion team Brawn in November 2009. Seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher made his return to Formula One with Mercedes, Felipe Massa returned for Ferrari after his head injury at the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix, and Timo Glock returned with the Virgin team following his accident at the 2009 Japanese Grand Prix.

All the previous winners of the event were present: Jenson Button won the 2009 Bahrain Grand Prix, with the Ferrari pair of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa both being two-time winners at this circuit. Schumacher won the first event in 2004.

The race also saw a return to the banning of refueling of the cars during the race, a practice which had been allowed since the 1994 Formula One season. Additionally a new points scoring system to decide the World Drivers' Championship was implemented, the most radical revamp of the system since the formation of the World Championship in 1950. The 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 system used from 2003 to 2009 was replaced by a new system which awards points to the top ten finishers on a 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1 basis.