Oscar Piastri started from pole and never looked back in the F1 Bahrain Grand Prix, taking a convincing win after easily controlling the race from the front.
The McLaren driver built a comfortable seven-second lead before a safety car for debris erased it on Lap 32. He then put the hammer down to cruise to an easy win, crossing the line 14.131 seconds ahead of George Russell’s Mercedes.
“An incredible weekend starting off with qualifying yesterday and to do the job today in style was nice,” said Piastri, who also put up the fastest lap of the 57-lap race. “I would have preferred to not have it [the safety car] but I was still pretty confident. I knew that Lando [Norris] and I were the only ones on mediums and that was the tire to be on, so it was relatively straight forward. I was never going to let that one go.”
The win moved Piastri into second in the drivers’ standings, with 74 points, just three behind teammate Lando Norris, who ended the day third, followed by the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. Max Verstappen dropped to third, with 69 points, just six ahead of Russell.
The finishes of first and third in Bahrain saw McLaren extend its lead in the constructor standings to 58 points over Mercedes, 151-93. Red Bull Racing lies third, with 71 points.
Russell experienced an eventful drive to second, after a litany of problems kept him on his toes, including a transponder failure, which saw his car disappear from the timesheets for several laps late in the grand prix and also affected his use of the drag reduction system.
“Basically, we were having all sorts of failures — we are really pleased with P2,” he said. “It felt like everything was under control and then we had a brake-by-wire failure so suddenly the pedal was going long and then it was going short, I didn’t know what was going on. The steering wheel wasn’t working properly, it was really hard for me to keep Lando behind. I think one more lap and he would have gotten me.”
It turned out to be an untidy day for Norris, who started sixth after a poor qualifying session and spent the race recovering. He started the event with a five-second penalty for moving on the grid before the lights went out, which he served on his first pit stop, on Lap 11. That erased a good start that saw him jump from sixth to third on the grid.
After the safety car period, Norris got past Hamilton but needed to give the spot back after making the overtake off track. While he re-passed Hamilton for fourth, he lost ground to Leclerc ahead and needed to push hard to catch the second Ferrari. That caused him to miss the braking point at Turn 1, on Lap 47, and go wide, which meant he needed to regain ground again.
Norris finally got past Leclerc with 5 laps to go, which proved significant because it meant that he left Bahrain still leading the world championship. In the end, errors trying to clear the two Ferraris meant that Norris didn’t have enough left to get past Russell.
“It was a messy race for me and I’m disappointed not to bring home a 1-2 for McLaren,” said Norris. “[George] did a good job — I would be able to get him but I think he saved a little bit for the end.”
While TV viewers voted Hamilton driver of the day for his eighth-place finish, Haas driver Oliver Bearmen deserved recognition for moving up 10 spots, from last on the grid, to score points in the Haas. He finished just two spots behind his teammate Esteban Ocon, who started the race six spots ahead.
Canadian Lance Stroll experienced another tough day after starting next to Bearmen in the last row and staying there for most of the race. In the end, the Aston Martin driver moved up one spot to 18th at the finish, but only because of a retirement.
“There’s not much to say about today — it’s been a really tough weekend for us,” said Stroll. “We are not where we want to be at the moment and we are pushing hard to change that.”
