Oscar Piastri Scores First McLaren Victory in Bahrain

With pole position, race win, and fastest lap, Australian driver Oscar Piastri secured his first career hat trick under the lights of Sakhir, in a Grand Prix marred by technical issues.

Piastri Shines, Norris Struggles, Ferrari Ultimately Too Slow

While Piastri delivered the drive of a future champion and dominated the Grand Prix from start to finish, teammate Lando Norris could only extract a mixed performance from what is arguably the fastest car on the grid.

Norris' troubled race began with a false start due to being out of position in his grid box, earning him a 5-second penalty. While he was able to make up several places from his underwhelming starting position of 6th in lap one, Norris settled into a shaky race, displaying questionable race craft on several occasions while trying to overtake Charles Leclerc. P3 is a flattering result for the Brit, aided by Ferrari's inability to sustain their early-race pace.

The Maranello outfit started the race strong and looked to have finally been on the right side of strategy calls with both drivers in the top 5 before the  Safety Car. In the end, their pace was still too far off that of the McLarens and Mercedes to be a serious challenge for the podium positions, with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton finishing P4 and P5, respectively.

Russell Against the Machine

Mercedes has firmly positioned itself as the second-strongest team this season, with George Russell once again delivering a stellar performance. Both he and teammate Kimi Antonelli received one-place grid penalties for being released into the pit lane before a restart time was set after a red flag in Q2 caused by Esteban Ocon.

Russell quickly regained P2 from Leclerc and seemed to be managing a calm race until his Mercedes began to suffer a cascade of electronic failures: transponder glitches, gearbox issues, brake inconsistencies, and a malfunctioning DRS. So serious were the issues that, towards the end of the race, Russell was informed by his engineer that his dash might turn off. In a display of superb racecraft, Russell held off the charging Lando Norris towards the finish line.

In the later stages of the race, Russell inadvertently activated his faulty DRS system (more on that later) without meeting the required conditions, but, according to the stewards, didn't gain an advantage as he immediately lifted off afterward.

Kimi Antonelli's result of 11th is an unlucky one. He ultimately missed the points due to being stuck in traffic after his first pit stop, but had delivered an excellent performance up until that point, going wheel-to-wheel with and beating out reigning world champion Max Verstappen.

Red Bull Sees Red

Max Verstappen, finishing 6th, was highly frustrated with his Red Bull package, claiming that everything was overheating, including himself, at one point. 

Teammate Yuki Tsunoda, finishing 9th with an overall decent performance, delivered the first points of a second Red Bull driver since the Las Vegas Grand Prix of 2024.

Red Bull’s malfunctioning pit release lights — stuck on red — cost both drivers several seconds during their opening stops.

Midfield Madness

The Bahrain Grand Prix was everything but a dull affair, with close racing, constant battles and frequent overtakes throughout, especially in the highly contested midfield. Williams' Carlos Sainz once again confirmed his lack of form in 2025 with an erratic performance, coming off his best qualifying session of the season so far. On his way backward through the field, the Spaniard produced aggressive moves against Hamilton, Tsunoda, and Antonelli, with the latter two resulting in huge and ultimately race-ending damage to his car and a 10-second time penalty, respectively.

At the other end of the spectrum, Pierre Gasly delivered a flawless performance, finishing P7 and earning Alpine its first points of the season. Haas also enjoyed a strong outing: Esteban Ocon came home in P8, and rookie Ollie Bearman clawed his way from last on the grid to a P10 finish.

The Times They Are A-Failin’

Fans and teams alike were left confused as the timing loop failed mid-race, causing live standings and lap times to disappear from screens. DRS detection was also affected.

Further hiccups in the broadcast included live scenes mislabelled as replays, and once again, race direction missed several key on-track moments.