Watch: Will the Ghosts of the Past Haunt Max Verstappen As He Starts the Bahrain GP Between Two Ferraris

Singapore Grand Prix five years ago is a race Max Verstappen probably doesn’t want to remember. The Dutchman had crashed against two Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen back in 2017. As of 2022, Verstappen again faces two Ferrari when he goes racing in Bahrain.

Max to start his first race of the season at Bahrain International Circuit behind Ferrari’s pole-sitter Charles Leclerc. Interestingly, Verstappen is ‘sandwiched‘ by another Ferrari of Carlos Sainz who starts from P3 on the grid.

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The Red Bulls and Ferraris have impressed everyone at Saturday’s qualification as they picked up the top four spots. This fourth spot is taken by Sergio Perez of Red Bull. However, all the eyes will be on the front three.

What happened to Max Verstappen in the 2017 Singapore Grand Prix?

Max qualified in P2 ahead of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen who was to start from P4. The pole-sitter back then was four-times world champion, Sebastian Vettel. As the race started, the two Ferraris closed in to take the first corner. This resulted in the Italian cars squeezing out the Red Bull.

Just before they make it to the first corner, Kimi Raikkonen came from behind to overtake Max. On the other side, Vettel pushed Verstappen towards the inside of the wall. As a result, both the Ferraris came side by side and hit the Dutchman.

It was Kimi who picked up the left front wheel of the Red Bull by his right rear and then hit Sebastian Vettel. Even though Sebastian carried on to retire a few moments later, Raikkonen took Max Verstappen as well as Fernando Alonso out of the race on that very corner.

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As it stands, Verstappen goes into today’s race in a somewhat similar situation. It’ll be interesting to see if the 2017 Singapore Grand Prix makes a return at the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix. Only time will tell. However, as this season seems a very stiff one already, it is expected that neither of the Ferraris or Red Bull will take each other out to give impetus to Mercedes or McLaren.