Charles Leclerc outwitted defending champ Max Verstappen in the most exciting part of F1's first race of the season

• Charles Leclerc won the opening race of the F1 season at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
• In the most dramatic part of the race, Leclerc and Max Verstappen traded the lead several times.

The Formula One season could not have started any better for Ferrari, and it could not have started any worse for Red Bull, including a moment where defending champion Max Verstappen was outsmarted by Charles Leclerc.

In preseason training, Ferrari appeared to have the fastest cars. However, after about 15 laps of the Bahrain Grand Prix, it appeared as though Red Bull and Verstappen had already narrowed the gap and were prepared to start the 2022 season right where they left off in 2021.

It turned out that the most exciting part of the race was largely well-executed strategy.

On lap 17, Verstappen powered past Leclerc in Turn 1. After weaving through Turns 2 and 3, Leclerc opened up his rear wing and used DRS to retake the lead.

The same scenario played out on lap 18, much to the thrill of the fans and the announcers.

—Formula 1 (@F1) March 21, 2022

But according to Leclerc, he was pulling a bit of a "rope-a-dope," luring Verstappen into a fall sense of confidence and using the track layout to his advantage.

"I was trying to be as clever as possible using the DRS as much as possible so I was trying to break early into Turn 1 just to be behind him at the DRS detection," Leclerc said after the race."Twice it worked out, so I took back my first position and just incredibly happy that we made it work."

From the layout of the track, you can see how Leclerc used the consecutive long straightaways to his advantage. Verstappen passed Leclerc both times at Turn 1. But that was almost immediately followed by another long straight where Leclerc knew he would have the DRS advantage over of Verstappen.

This allowed Leclerc to take the lead back heading into Turn 4.

After the move worked twice, the announcers speculated that Verstappen would lay off in Turn 1 and save his pass for Turn 4. Unfortunately for Verstappen, by the time they got back around to the front straightaway, Leclerc had built a one-second lead back, and DRS was no longer available to Verstappen.

The ruse may not have mattered in the end as Verstappen was later forced to retire from the race with a mechanical issue, and Leclerc cruised to victory with teammate Carlos Sainz in second. But in a race where Red Bull scored zero points and its rival finished 1-2, not only were they outdriven, they were also outsmarted.