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BAHRAIN GP – Oscar Piastri takes a dominant fifteen-second win from George Russell, taking McLaren’s first win in Sakhir

Testing & Race Reports
Jack
13-04-2025

Oscar Piastri has taken a dominant victory beating George Russell by fifteen seconds to take McLaren’s first win at their second home race. The Australian won the start from then on and looked in control of the race where he didn’t look threatened once he had managed to get into the lead.

Piastri pulled away from Charles Leclerc as his teammate Lando Norris fought back for sixth to finish third despite making up ground and a five-second time penalty for a false start Norris fought his way back to third. Piastri couldn’t put a foot wrong during the race and just controlled things, despite having his lead wiped out by a mid-race safety car for debris.

The Melbournian looking as a real contender as his teammate had a tough weekend when McLaren was expected to dominate the race, they had been expected to cruise to a one-two, but Norris bungled his final flying lap to fall to sixth on the grid as Piastri calmly delivered pole.

However, on the final lap Norris couldn’t find a way past Russell for a McLaren one-two. The Bristolian appeared to miscalculate his last real opportunity on the last lap at Turn One, which dropped him behind allowing the Norfolkian to pull away. But the truth looks to be Russell on the final stint after the restart despite managing electrical issues had the edge on soft tyres.

A long what Russell called an “audacious” opening stint brought him into play.

Mercedes later explained it was a bake-by-wire, or BPW issues, which also prevents the car from recovering energy from the rear axle. That meant he had to reset the systems several times a lap, which led to the error in which he used the DRS when he was not meant to.

The stewards decided not to penalise Russell for the issue with the DRS due to it being an issue beyond his or the teams control as their was an issue with the connection with the timing loop, provided by a external supplier. They stated “whilst technically a breach occurred the Stewards decide that as there was no sporting advantage gained, no penalty is imposed”

It was a good race for Norris who made up places throughout, passing Leclerc with eight laps to go before closing to winning seven hundredths off Russell on the closing laps. But its been a messy weekend for Norris, during the race he also went wide fighting Leclerc and had to give Lewis Hamilton the place back after forcing him wide.

Key in Norris fighting back was a start which saw him move from sixth to third on the opening lap despite a five-second penalty for being out of position at the start. Despite that penalty he was able not to lose further ground in the race, but perhaps cost him the chance of challenging for second, though he did regain the position lost to Leclerc around a third distance.

At the mid-race safety car, the gap Piastri had was seven seconds, McLaren had the advantage with a set of new mediums which gave them the advantage over Russell. On the restart, Piastri calmly controlled the restart and was in a league of his own on the final stint, comfortably pulling clear to become the first driver to secure two wins this season and reaffirming him as a championship contender.

Piastri’s cool and calm nature could see him grow into his teammate’s main rival for the championship. The race really seeming to sum up the weekend for both McLaren’s, Piastri effortless and collected as he got the most from the car and Norris frustrating weekend after spending most of it on the backfoot with mistakes.

A win twenty years in the making, McLaren have never won until now in front of their Bahraini main shareholders, leaves Norris three points ahead of Piastri at the head of the championship.

Piastri, who takes his second win of the season in Bahrain: “Great to have this result out here, it’s been an incredible weekend, to start off in qualifying yesterday and to finish off the job today in style was nice. I can’t thank the team enough for the car they’ve given us, it’s pretty handy out there, it’s been a great weekend and very proud of what I’ve done as well.”

Russell, who finished second at the Bahrain Grand Prix: “It felt under control and then suddenly we had a brake-valve wire failure. Suddenly the pedal was going long, then it was going short, I didn’t know what was going on. The steering wheel wasn’t working properly so it was hard to keep Lando behind. I think one more lap and he would have got me very comfortably. But nevertheless, really pleased with P2.”

Norris said “It was a tough race I made too many mistakes with the overtakes and being out of position. It was a messy race from me and I’m disappointed not to bring home a one-two for McLaren because that would have been lovely at home, it’s a tough one but still a few positives.”

Piastri’s win sees him close to within three points of Norris in the drivers with Max Verstappen three behind. McLaren have extended their lead at the top of the standings to 58 points over second-placed Mercedes with another double podium this season.

It appeared that Leclerc’s decision to go longer was the right call until a safety car mid race to clear debris allowed all the cars a free stop. Russell, Leclerc and Norris came out on three different compounds – Russell on softs, Leclerc on hards and Norris on mediums.

After a few laps of stasis, Norris eased up towards Leclerc. They battled for several laps, and Norris accused Leclerc of forcing him off the track when he tried one move around the outside of Turn Four. He finally got the move done on lap fifty, but in the remaining eight laps Norris was unable to chase after Russell.

Leclerc meanwhile dropped back finishing nearly three and a half seconds but he was on the back foot from the start after a poor start saw him lose second to Russell and then coming through from sixth, Norris first got past teammate then Hamilton on lap thirty-nine. Though he briefly gave it back after his first attempt was off track, before making it stick a few corners later.

Hamilton then dropped back finishing the race eight seconds behind Leclerc on what appeared to be a very uneventful evening for the seven-time champion. The Ferrari driver finished six seconds ahead of Max Verstappen, the Dutchman coming back to reality to the issues facing Red Bull if they are to fight for wins this season.

Adding to Verstappen’s frustrating evening in Sakhir was two slow stops which saw him lose ground in the race, before a late pass on Pierre Gasly to claim sixth as he finished a second and a half ahead of his former teammate.

The current champion facing a possible uphill battle to retain his title, after an anonymous and uncompetitive, is eight points off the lead in third. Also, at both his stops issues cost him even more time and position on track, he could face more problems going to the fastest street circuit in Jeddah next weekend.

Gasly scored Alpine’s first points of the season as he finished eight seconds ahead of Esteban Ocon, it was a strong recovery drive after a crash at the end of Q1 saw him start fifteenth. The Frenchman was eight-tenth ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, who scored his first points for Red Bull, while his teammate Ollie Bearman continued Haas’ strong start to the season four tenths behind the Red Bull.

Kimi Antonelli dropped out the points following his first stop which dropped him to seventeenth before recovering to eleventh as he missed out on the points by four tenths. The second Mercedes finished eight tenths ahead of Alex Albon, with Nico Hulkenberg four and a half tenths behind.

But at one stage Antonelli had a thrilling battle late on with Verstappen.

Isack Hadjar was fourteenth with the Alpine of Jack Doohan dropping to fifteenth after a five second time penalty. Fernando Alonso was promoted to sixteenth after Liam Lawson was given a ten second time penalty for a collision with Hulkenberg.  Lance Stroll was a second ahead of Gabriel Bortoleto, while Carlos Sainz was the only retirement following contact with Tsunoda.

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