Unrivaled Piastri wins the Bahrain Grand Prix ahead of Russell and Norris

McLaren's Oscar Piastri has won the 2025 F1 Bahrain Grand Prix ahead of Mercedes' George Russell in P2 and Lando Norris completing the top 3.

How the 2025 F1 Bahrain Grand Prix unfolded

has won the 2025 F1 Bahrain Grand Prix ahead of in P2 and completing the top 3.

How the 2025 F1 Bahrain Grand Prix unfolded

Oscar Piastri got off the line well, as Lando Norris starting on the soft tyre lept from P6 to P3 behind George Russell in P2. Charles Leclerc fell to P4, with Pierre Gasly behind him in P5. Max Verstappen fell to P8, overtaken by Carlos Sainz, who also demoted Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli to P7. Lewis Hamilton and Yuki Tsunoda completed the top 10.

On lap 5, Antonelli did a late lunge on Sainz into Turn 1 and Verstappen later took P7 from Sainz in a move around the outside of Turn 4 and into Turn 5.

Antonelli and Verstappen proceeded to charge up the order overtaking Gasly, before Lando Norris was called to the pits for a tyre change as the softs tyres started to lose grip and speed. The Dutchman and Gasly followed the Briton, with Red Bull Racing’s pit crew again performing a slow stop for the 4-time world champion.

Mercedes’ Italian rookie was called to the pits at the end of lap 12, however, Verstappen and Gasly would benefit from the powerful undercut potential around the Sakhir International Circuit.

Russell then covered off Norris at the end of lap 13, managing to exit the pits ahead of the McLaren British driver, who was in the midst of clearing Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson.

At the end of lap 14, Piastri pitted for fresh rubber, leaving Leclerc and Hamilton, who both started the race on mediums, in clean air as both Ferrari drivers led the Grand Prix momentarily.

At the end of lap 17 both Ferrari drivers stopped for fresh tyres, with Leclerc arguing with the Scuderia’s pitwall as the Monegasque felt a different strategy was the better option. In the end, Ferrari committed their drivers to a two-stopped like the race of the grid.

On lap 18 Oliver Bearman was under investigation by the Stewards for an unsafe release, as Verstappen complained of an overall lack of grip, unable to overtake Esteban Ocon for P6, with Antonelli stuck behind the 4-time world champion, albeit not for long, as the Italian driver overtook Verstappen on the entry into Turn 5.

On lap 22, Hamilton overtook Verstappen for P8 with rather ease into Turn 11, demoting the Red Bull driver to P9, as he complained he couldn’t brake anymore.

Leclerc then started attacking Norris for P3, with the Monegasque driver going for late lunge on the Briton into Turn 1 which would prove unfruitful as Norris was able to fend off the overtake attempt, with teammate Hamilton moving past Antonelli on the following lap for P7, and Leclerc making the move stick on Norris for P3 into Turn 4 on the outside.

Hamilton continued his charge moving to P6 as he overtook Ocon into Turn 1, taking over P6 and setting off in pursuit of Gasly in P5.

Verstappen then came into the pits for medium tyres, but Red Bull again had a poor execution of the pit stop taking 6.2 seconds overall releasing the Dutchman onto the track in P20.

Sainz then suffered damage with the Spaniard getting tagged by Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda as he got past the Japanese driver into Turns 1 and 2, taking P6 in the end.

On lap 32, a safety car was triggered to clean up the debris from the Sainz-Tsunoda incident, prompting the final rounds of pit stops.

On the restart Leclerc struggled to ger the grip into the hard tyres, which allowed Hamilton to fight Norris for P4, however the McLaren driver was able to retain his position, as Oscar Piastri managed to keep the lead ahead of Russell.

Norris’ defense of his position, however was irregular as it happened off the track, on the outside of Turn 4, prompting McLaren to instruct their driver to give the position back to Hamilton. It was a Ferrari 3-4.

Sainz then performed a late lunge on Antonelli, allowing Albon to move past both drivers. Later on Verstappen took P6 from Ocon, and Norris regained his position as he got by Hamilton on the run up to Turn 4.

Antonelli then overtook both Williams, moving him up to P11, as Verstappen set himself up to attack Gasly for P5.

Norris was able to finally take P3 from Leclerc with a daring overtake on the outside of Turn 4. But the British driver was on three strikes for track limits, just short of one track limits violation from incurring in a 5 second time penalty.

Russell in P2 was able to keep his P2 ahead of Norris, whilst managing his soft tyres and dealing with reliability issues on his W16 which were hampering his gear shifting and his dashboard,