Oscar Piastri took command at the Bahrain Grand Prix, earning three points from the World Championships lead.
The Piastri was released neatly from the pole and was temporarily challenged by George Russell, who first attempted an ambitious outer move on the first turn, using an Australian slipstream from third place on the grid.
However, the Mercedes driver was trapped when he hit the brakes, blunting the attack, preventing McLaren from squeezing out of the race line, allowing Piastri to hold the lead. He never headed again, but he handed over the first pit stop sequence in a short time, building a comfortable 7S lead on lap 32 as the safety car reset the order.
Piastri learned to restart and fired early despite the risk of slipstreams that went straight down the long front, but at first it struggled to break.
Russell, who ran second during the race, switched to a set of soft tires during his safety car, with Mercedes in contact with lead medium-shod McLaren. The soft started wilting and Russell’s challenge to fade took 10 laps, and Piastri was the second of the season and took off to Bahrain’s first McLaren victory in the 15th.
“It was an incredible weekend,” he said. “It’s good to finish today’s work in style.
“We can’t thank the team enough for the car they gave us. It was pretty handy. It was an amazing weekend and I’m proud of what I did this weekend too.”
Russell worked out that the cascade of technical issues that became his car after the safety car later ended in second place.
The transponder failure was the first problem, and soon his car could not automatically detect when it was in the DRS zone, requiring manual overriding. The Steward later noticed him due to a DRS violation that was investigated after the race.
Russell was then warned that his dash – the screen at his steering wheel – could shut down and that he had to drive to the finish without it. He also suffered from failures on each brake.
About five laps to report Russell’s problem changing gears, he was suddenly in the clutch of Landnoris on the final lap of the race. Norris tried the outside on the first turn, but Russell was wise to travel, disrupting momentum by running Norris off the road, taking the widest line to secure the spot.
“I didn’t know what was going on,” he said. “It was really hard to put Rand behind me, and I’m still really happy with the P2.
“Congratulations to him and McLaren because Oscar was in his own league.”
The Safety Car had good news for Norris, who rescued the final spot above the grid from sixth place, despite offering a 5S penalty at his first stop.
The penalty counted him from the second fight despite the hot start that put him in third place at the start of the race, starting the race too far ahead of his grid box. He was later handed over to Charles Leclerc after the Ferrari driver acquired a 7-lap tire offset at the later pit stop.
However, the safety car brought Britton back into the mix and Norris saw the opportunity to attack when Leclair was placed on hard tires to finish the race. He tried his first attempt on lap 46, but locked up thinking about the outside movement to the first turn, so he held back momentum and made three more laps to try again.
The Leclerc was perfect for the next defense, placing the car to attack the faster McLaren at the top of Turn 2, slowing the Norris’s run down to four turns, where he kept the orange car busy from the truck and holding the position.
However, by lap 52, Norris’ momentum was overwhelming. Much closer from the first three turns he swept the outside of the Leclerc into turn 4. There, a big snap of Oversteer ensured that Leclerc couldn’t fight back.
Wrap 52/57
A complete commitment in turn 4! 💪
Norris turns outside and takes p3 from leclerc #F1 #BAHRAINGP pic.twitter.com/iuufqgan4f
– Formula 1 (@f1) April 13, 2025
Out of hours that put Russell on pressure more than laps, Norris collected 15 points in third place to retain the title lead.
“Tough race,” he said. “I made too many mistakes in passing. I’m out of position. It was a troublesome race for me. I’m disappointed not to take home a 1-2 for McLaren.”
Leclerc placed fifth and fourth by teammate Lewis Hamilton. Both suffer from hard tyres in the final stint.
Max Verstappen finished sixth after a last lap overtaken at the end of a difficult night, slowing down with a mid-stint in the hard tyres and a slow pit stop by Red Bull Racing, which was malfunctioned with pit gantry equipment.
Pierre Guthrie remained seventh for Alpine ahead of the rising Esteban Ocon. Esteban Ocon finished 14th and crashed from the qualifying round.
Tsunoda scored his first points from the ninth as a Red Bull racing driver and as the first point for the second Red Bull racing car, but Oliver Bearman completed the top 10 after taking advantage of the timing of the safety car. Bareman’s score moved fifth past Williams in the team’s title table.
Andrea Kimi Antoneri, on the other hand, was punished for the timing of the safety car and just made her second pit stop. He dropped to 14th on the restart and recovered to 11th on the flag.
Alex Albon came in 12th place after Nico Halkenberg, Isaac Hajar, Jacques Douhan and Fernando Alonso.
Liam Lawson has two penalties for causing a clash on the way to 17th place ahead of Lance Stroll and Gabriel Boltreto.
Carlos Sainz was the only retirement in the race after Williams got damaged by the terminal side pod after coming into contact with the Red Bull in Hornada.
