Bahrain Grand Prix: Piastri schools the field amid Red Bull pit-stop chaos

Oscar Piastri delivered a mighty drive from pole to chequered flag at the Bahrain Grand Prix, becoming the first two-time winner of the season.

Lando Norris recovered to the podium, unable to deny George Russell P2 whose DRS issues were just the start of his gremlins. Light failures and stubborn tyres blighted Red Bull meanwhile.

Oscar Piastri in control as Bahrain Grand Prix chaos unfolds behind

Soft tyres were the Pirelli compound most in demand for the Bahrain GP start, with only Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Liam Lawson and Gabriel Bortoleto on mediums.

Leclerc launching from the front row on that alternate strategy made for an interesting dynamic, as polesitter Oscar Piastri looked to become the first two-time grand prix winner of F1 2025.

And it was the ideal start for Piastri, who saw off the fast-charging Mercedes of Russell into Turn 1, while Norris was rapidly up from P6 to P3 in the sister McLaren!

Leclerc and Pierre Gasly followed after that exciting first lap, while Verstappen was down a place to P8, between Kimi Antonelli ahead and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton right behind. Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the last of the top 10 runners.

Norris soon latched onto the back of Russell, but disaster struck as the stewards noted a potential false start for the championship leader, Norris too far forward in his grid box. That soon became an investigation, with Verstappen having pointed out that out-of-position McLaren over Red Bull radio.

Hamilton meanwhile was reporting “poor” grip on the medium tyres as Ferrari waited for this strategy to, hopefully, swing back towards them.

Onto Lap 5 and Sainz was coming under pressure. Antonelli made the move at Turn 1, as Verstappen harried through the following sequence of corners, completing the move, but was it off the track?

Verstappen quickly came on the radio to defend himself, stressing that Sainz had not left him a car’s width. The stewards took no further action.

Isack Hadjar was the first driver to ditch the softs on Lap 7 for a set of medium tyres, but Piastri was looking strong out front on the compound, having opened up the gap over Russell to 2.5 seconds, as news of Norris’ punishment came through… a five-second penalty.

“If we can get past Russell, we need to try. We will recover these positions,” was the call to Norris from race engineer Will Joseph.

Lap 9 and it was Sainz and Hamilton now going at it over P8, all while Leclerc was complaining of “inconsistent” and “annoying” brakes.

Hamilton got his move done on the driver he replaced at Ferrari come Turn 11, as Tsunoda quickly helped himself to a position too, putting Sainz to the foot of the top 10.

Antonelli took P5 from Gasly, as Verstappen quickly latched onto the gearbox of the Alpine driven by his former Red Bull team-mate. But respite soon came as Verstappen pitted.

Norris and Verstappen both boxed for the first time on Lap 11, Norris serving those five seconds before work began and mediums were fitted, while Verstappen went for a set of hards.

But it was a slow stop for Verstappen, who lost a couple of seconds with the light remaining red in the Red Bull pit box. That triggered a disapproving radio message from the Dutchman.

Tsunoda also suffered from dodgy lights down at Red Bull, unsurprisingly also leaving him unimpressed.

Lap 14 and Russell was in for the first time, fitting mediums, Mercedes avoiding the undercut from Norris. And to keep Piastri safe from that threat from the pair of them, he came in on the next lap for mediums, as Leclerc took over the lead of the race, Hamilton behind in a Ferrari one-two ahead of their first stops.

Ferrari wanted Plan B, but Leclerc wanted Plan D, leaving work to do on finding a common ground over strategy.

The team called Leclerc in on Lap 18, much to his frustration as they double stacked with Hamilton, both taking on mediums. Leclerc returned to the track P5, but quickly cleared Gasly, while it was a similar story for Hamilton against Tsunoda, having briefly dropped out of the top 10.

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Verstappen was not enjoying life on the hard tyre, and his mood would not have been helped by Antonelli battling his way through out of Turn 4. Now, “everything” was “overheating” in the Red Bull, just to make matters worse for Verstappen, who now had Hamilton behind him again after he cleared Jack Doohan.

With medium tyres and DRS, Hamilton left Verstappen powerless to stop an overtake at Turn 11.

“I can’t even brake anymore. It’s just ridiculous,” was the latest Verstappen frustration, as he dropped to P9 in what was becoming a terrible advert for the hard tyres in Bahrain.

Verstappen’s woes were music to the ears of McLaren in P1 and P3, but Leclerc was looking to ruin that double podium party, as he sent a lunge on Norris into Turn 1, Norris clearing the path to keep the momentum, cut back and re-take P3 out of the first turn.

But, on the next tour, Leclerc made his way into the podium spots, clearing Norris at Turn 3, while Hamilton cleared Antonelli into Turn 1 at the exact same time, Hamilton up to P7 as Ferrari’s strategy proved a triumph.

Make that P6 for Hamilton, Turn 1 the spot again one lap later with Haas’ Esteban Ocon his next victim.

Verstappen finally ditched his hard tyres on Lap 27, but there were more dramas in the pits.

The front-right hard tyre reluctant to detach, it was a 6.2-second stop for Verstappen who moved onto mediums, his trying evening in Bahrain continuing.

McLaren meanwhile were investigating a “right red light” which Norris reported he could not turn off in the cockpit.

Norris soon confirmed that it had gone off, while Tsunoda and Sainz were banging wheels out of Turn 1 as Tsunoda’s Red Bull slid its way towards the Williams.

Piastri had extended his lead over Russell to north of seven seconds, but then, Safety Car! Another Tsunoda tap on Sainz – a harder one this time – left debris on the track at Turn 1. Lawson had also tagged Stroll at Turn 3, which resulted in a five-second penalty.

The Aussie was perfectly placed to peel off into the pit lane, followed by the rest of the front runners, and indeed the rest of the field, with a real range of compounds now out on track after those mass stops. In the top three, Piastri was on mediums, Russell softs and Leclerc hards.

Verstappen did not pit, elevating him to P8, but he predicted “people behind me will fly past, with the extra grip”.

Hamilton was a big winner, up to P5, as he thanked the Ferrari crew for a “great job”.

Lap 36 of 57 and the race resumed, Piastri nailing his restart as Norris and Hamilton both lined-up Leclerc. That ding-dong battle ended with the order as it were, though Hamilton complained Norris has re-passed him off the track at Turn 4.

McLaren agreed and told Norris to yield, which he did, promoting Hamilton to fourth.

Norris only needed to wait until the next lap to take that place back at Turn 4, while Verstappen’s concerns were proving unnecessary, the Red Bull driver up to sixth.

As it stood, Norris was set to relinquish the championship lead to Piastri, but that one was far from set, as Norris homed in on Leclerc and P3.

With Russell battling a DRS issue, and told the dashboard may turn off, it was still all to play for in the Norris camp.

“As long as the steering wheel doesn’t fall off,” Russell came back with, a nod to Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin steering wheel which made a bid for freedom in practice.

Sainz meanwhile was hit with a 10-second time penalty for a robust lunge on Antonelli at Turn 10, the Spaniard running at the back with a huge hole in his right sidepod, as he called for Tsunoda to be investigated, an investigation which did not come.

He soon got the call to retire the car.

Things were going far better for Norris, though a huge lock-up and off at Turn 1 was not what he needed against Leclerc. Was that game over for his tyres?

The answer was no. Norris came back for more. Lap 49, Turn 4 was the scene of his next attempt, but as Leclerc showed him to the run-off, it was back to the drawing board. Norris was convinced Leclerc had forced him off the track.

DRS, dashboard, and now gears were a problem for Russell, just as Norris this time got the move done at Turn 4 and could go on the attack.

The FIA announced a post-race investigation into Russell over a potential DRS infringement, while Leclerc was now without the aid.

Onto the last lap and Norris looked around the outside of Russell into Turn 1, but a poor exit meant it was perhaps all she wrote for the chances of a McLaren one-two.

And that was indeed the case. A classy victory for Piastri, as Russell and Norris completed the Bahrain podium.

Full Bahrain Grand Prix timesheet to follow…