Oscar Piastri took a commanding victory at the Bahrain Grand Prix to put himself three points off the world championship lead.
Piastri launched cleanly from pole and was only briefly challenged at the start by George Russell, who used the Australian’s slipstream from third on the grid to attempt an ambitious around-the-outside move at the first turn.
But the Mercedes driver locked up when he hit the brakes, blunting his attack and preventing him from squeezing the McLaren off the racing line into Turn 2, allowing Piastri to hold the lead. He wasn’t headed again, ceding the lead only briefly through the sequence of the first pit stops while building a comfortable 7s lead by lap 32, when a safety car reset the order.
Piastri mastered the restart, firing early despite the risk of a slipstream down the long front straight, but at first struggled to break away.
Russell, who had run second throughout the race, had switched to a set of soft tires during the safety car, keeping the Mercedes in touch with the medium-shod McLaren in the lead. It took 10 laps for the softs to begin to wilt and for Russell’s challenge to fade, leaving Piastri to skip off to a 15s victory, his second of the season and McLaren’s first ever in Bahrain.
“It’s been an incredible weekend,” he said. “To finish the job today in style is nice.
“I can’t thank the team enough for the car they’ve given us. It was pretty handy out there. It’s been a great weekend — and I’m proud of what I’ve done this weekend as well.”
Russell did well to finish second after a cascade of technical issues befall his car following the safety car.
A transponder failure was the first issue to manifest, and soon his car couldn’t automatically detect when it was in a DRS zone, requiring a manual override. The stewards later noted him for a DRS infringement, which will be investigated after the race.
Russell was then warned that his dash — the screen on his steering wheel — could shut down and that he would have to drive to the finish without it. He also suffered a brake-by-wire failure.
With around five laps to go Russell reported problems shifting gears, and suddenly he was in the clutches of Lando Norris on the final lap of the race. Norris tried around his outside at the first turn, but Russell was wise to the move, taking the widest line to run Norris out of road and disrupt his momentum and secure the place.
“I didn’t know what was going on,” he said. “It was really hard to keep Lando behind. Nevertheless, really pleased with P2.
“Oscar was in a league of his own, so congratulations to him and McLaren.”
The safety car was good news for Norris, who salvaged the final place on the podium, up from sixth on the grid, despite serving a 5s penalty at his first stop.
The penalty, for starting the race too far forward of his grid box, counted him out of the battle for second despite a sizzling start that put him into third at the start of the race. He was later passed by Charles Leclerc after the Ferrari driver earned a seven-lap tire offset with a later pit stop.
But the safety car brought the Briton back into the mix, and when Leclerc was put on the hard tire to finish the race, Norris saw an opportunity to pounce. He made his first attempt on lap 46, but a lock-up while thinking of an around-the-outside move into the first turn cost him momentum, and it took him another three laps to try again.
Leclerc was inch-perfect in defense next time around, positioning his car to balk the faster McLaren on the apex for Turn 2 to slow Norris’s run up to Turn 4, where he crowded the orange car off the track to hold position.
But by lap 52 Norris’s momentum was overwhelming. Much closer out of the first three turns, he swept around Leclerc’s outside into Turn 4, where a big snap of oversteer ensured Leclerc couldn’t fight back.
LAP 52/57
Total commitment at Turn 4! 💪
Norris goes around the outside to snatch P3 away from Leclerc #F1 #BahrainGP pic.twitter.com/iUUfQgan4F
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 13, 2025
Out of time to pressure Russell for more than a lap, Norris collected 15 points for third to hold his title lead.
“A tough race,” he said. “I made too many mistakes with the overtakes, out of position — it was a messy race for me. I’m disappointed not to bring home a one-two for McLaren.”
Leclerc finished fourth ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton in fifth, both suffering on the hard tire in the final stint, a decision forced upon them by starting on the medium tire rather than the soft.
Max Verstappen finished sixth after a last-lap overtake at the end of a difficult night, slowed by a middle stint on the hard tire and by a slow series of pit stops by Red Bull Racing, which suffered malfunctions with its pit gantry equipment.
Pierre Gasly impressively held onto seventh for Alpine ahead of a high-rising Esteban Ocon, who crashed out of qualifying in 14th but gained massively through an early pit stop just eight laps into the race to undercut his way forward.
Yuki Tsunoda scored his first points as a Red Bull Racing driver — and the first points for the second Red Bull Racing car — from ninth, while Oliver Bearman completed the top 10, up 10 places after capitalizing on the timing of the safety car. Bearman’s score moved Haas past Williams into fifth on the teams’ title table.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, inversely, was penalized by the safety car timing, having just made his second pit stop. He fell to 14th at the restart and recovered to 11th at the flag.
Alex Albon finished 12th ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, Isack Hadjar, Jack Doohan and Fernando Alonso.
Liam Lawson picked up two penalties for causing collisions on his way to 17th ahead of Lance Stroll and Gabriel Bortoleto.
Carlos Sainz was the race’s only retirement after his Williams picked up terminal sidepod damage in contact with Tsunoda’s Red Bull.
