Full race report and results from the 2025 F1 Bahrain GP, as Oscar Piastri scored a dominant lights-to-flag victory in his 50th start of McLaren, ahead of George Russell and Lando Norris.
The top eight drivers started on the soft compound tyres, apart from Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari in second place, who went for the mediums, along with his team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who started down in ninth for the 57-lap race.
George Russell had a flying start from third on the grid, as he went ahead of Leclerc and nearly took the lead from Piastri, after locking-up dramatically, but kept his car on track.
Lando Norris was another driver which had a flying start, going from sixth on the grid straight to third, as he overtook Leclerc around the outside of turn four in a great move. He quickly set his sights on chasing Russell’s Mercedes, but he was noted by the stewards for a false start for being out of position on the grid.
By the start of the fifth lap, the order of the top 10 was: Piastri, Russell, Norris, Leclerc, Gasly, Sainz, Antonelli, Verstappen, Hamilton and Tsunoda.
Another big mover from the start was Ollie Bearman, who moved from down in P20 to 14th place.
Kimi Antonelli forced his way through on Carlos Sainz at the start of lap 5, with Max Verstappen following through – but the Dutchman made the move outside track limits, and reported he was forced off by the Spaniard.
Norris soon received a five-second time penalty for being out of position, as his McLaren race engineer Will Joseph willed him on to get past Russell quickly.
Charles Leclerc reported “inconsistent brakes” in his Ferrari, with his race engineer reporting back there’s “nothing they can do”.
Lewis Hamilton battled with Carlos Sainz at the start of lap nine, with the Briton having a scrap with the former Ferrari driver through turns five, six and seven, before finally getting ahead, with Yuki Tsunoda following through swiftly.
At the end of lap 10, McLaren called Norris into the pits for his first stop, as he served his 5-second penalty and switched to the medium tyres. At the same time, Verstappen and Gasly also made their first stops, with the Dutchman switching to the hard tyres.
The four-time world champion was held stationary in his pit box for a little longer than ideal, as a red light was still displayed for him.
Norris rejoined down in 13th place, behind traffic in the form of Gabriel Bortoleto’s Sauber and Lance Stroll in the Aston Martin.
Mercedes pitted Kimi Antonelli at the end of lap 12, with Piastri and Russell still not responding to Norris’ early stop for an undercut attempt.
Yuki Tsunoda also had a problematic pit stop, with a yellow light flashing on his pit gantry, as what seemed a malfunction that also affected Verstappen continued to trouble the Red Bull team.
George Russell finally responded to Norris’ pit stop on lap 13, and rejoined just about ahead of the McLaren – despite the latter serving a five-second penalty.
Piastri responded on the next lap, rejoining just two seconds clear of Russell.
At the start of lap 16, it was a Ferrari 1-2 with Leclerc nine seconds ahead of Hamilton, as both were still yet to make their stops from the mediums they started the race.
Alex Albon was another driver yet to stop, as he pitted from fifth place at the start of lap 17 and cleared the way for Norris to chase Russell and Piastri.
Ferrari committed to a delayed two-stop strategy with both cars – although Leclerc
disagreed and seemed to call for a one-stopper – as they pitted both Hamilton and Leclerc at the end of lap 17, for medium tyres again, which, by regulation, means they’ll need to pit again for another set of tyres of a different compound.
Leclerc rejoined in fourth, 3.5s back from Norris, and Hamilton rejoined the race in 10th, that same margin behind Jack Doohan’s Alpine.
Max Verstappen’s struggles continued on his hard tyres, as he lost two positions in just as many laps to Kimi Antonelli and Lewis Hamilton, as he reported that “everything is overheating” and he couldn’t “even brake” anymore.
With his seven-laps fresher medium tyres, Leclerc quickly eat into Norris’ gap. The Monegasque attempted a dive down the inside of turn one, but out-braked himself and had to settle back for another lap.
Leclerc got the move done a lap later, with a brilliant move around the outside of turn four. At the same time, the other Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton slipped down the inside of Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes, as their offset strategy started to move them forward – Hamilton soon made another move on Esteban Ocon’s Haas, who hadn’t stopped yet.
Verstappen’s nightmare race continued as he made his pit stop on lap 27, with the right-front tyre slow to come off, causing a 6.2 second stop that left him last in the order, temporarily behind Bortoleto’s Sauber.
By half race distance on lap 28, the order of the top 10 was: Piastri, Russell, Leclerc, Norris, Gasly, Hamilton, Ocon, Antonelli, Doohan and Tsunoda. Piastri held a comfortable six-second gap over Russell in P2.
Antonelli made his second stop on lap 29, as Mercedes put the young Italian on a new set of soft tyres – but he rejoined in a lot of traffic around Stroll, Alonso, Lawson and Ocon.
Carlos Sainz ans Yuki Tsunoda had contact at turn two, leaving a lot of debris on the race track as the Williams driver managed to get ahead of the Red Bull for P6 at the start of lap 30.
Piastri’s commanding drive continued throughout the second stint, as he extended his lead to 7.5s to Russell by lap 32, and a further second back to Leclerc, but the Australian lost all of that as the safety car was depolyed for the debris of the Sainz/Tsunoda incident.
The safety car, an unlikely appearance at the F1 Bahrain GP, meant the top five all pitted, along with most of the field. However, champiosnhip runner up Max Verstappen stayed out on his six-lap old medium tyres. There was quite a mixture of tyres between the leading contenders, with Piastri and Norris on mediums, Russell and Antonelli on the soft tyres, and the two Ferraris of Leclerc and Hamilton on the hard tyres. George Russell radioed in his worries about the soft tyres lasting for the next 24 laps of the race.
The safety car came in at the end of lap 35, with the drivers racing away for the next 22 laps. Piastri kept his lead the restart ahead of Russell, with Lando Norris temporarily losing a position to Hamilton, who went around the outside of turn 1, with the McLaren coming back at him around the outside of turn four – but crucially with all four wheels off the track, meaning he had to give the place back a lap later.
After giving the place back to Hamilton, Norris was patient and got the move done at the same corner on lap 38.
The order of the top 10, with just 20 laps remaining was: Piastri, Russell, Leclerc, Norris, Hamilton, Gasly, Verstappen, Ocon, Doohan and Tsunoda.
Lewis Hamilton reported to be struggling with his hard tyres – a common theme for all drivers throughout the F1 Bahrain GP – and that the car “won’t turn”.
Liam Lawson received a five-second penalty for causing a collision after hitting Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber at the first corner.
Carlos Sainz was another driver to be penalised, receiving a 10-second time penalty for forcing Kimi Antonelli off the track at turn 10. The spaniard soon retired from the race, as the damage to his sidepods proved too much to keep running at a competitive pace.
At the start of lap 46, Lando Norris continued to hound Leclerc’s Ferrari, but the McLaren suffered a horrible lock-up at the first corner and lost a bit of touch with the Ferrari.
With just 10 laps remaining, Piastri continued to calmly lead the race, five seconds ahead of Russell – who suffered from a DRS timing tower issue that meant he could only manually activate DRS – and the pair of Leclerc and Norris, who resumed their fight for third place.
Norris tried to go around the outside of the Monegasque at turn four, but was promptly forced to back out as the Ferrari driver smartly defended his position – although Norris believes he was “forced off” by Leclerc, as he was completely alongside.
On lap 50, George Russell was told by his team that there was a risk his steering wheel dashboard could go completely off, but that wouldn’t affect his driving – to which he replied that it was no problem, as long as the steering stays on, in reference to Fernando Alonso’s bizarre incident in the F1 Bahrain GP FP2 on Friday.
Norris finally made his move on Leclerc on lap 52, going all the way around the outside of turn four, as he’d teased to do for several laps. In the meantime, Russell started to struggle even more in his Mercedes, reporting his gears were having problems as well.
Lando Norris received a black-and-white flag for continuous track limits infringements, with his race engineer reporting that “no more” off-track excursions were allowed.
Max Verstappen’s frustrating race continued, as he couldn’t find a way through on Pierre Gasly’s Alpine, as the Frenchman continued to do a good job of keeping the four-time world champion behind.
Lando Norris’ McLaren also had DRS issues as he closed up on Russell, with Will Joseph advising the Briton to only use DRS when “100% sure” of being in DRS range, due to the constant timing issues. The championship leader tried one final move around the outside of turn 1, but Russell had him covered.
Out in front, Oscar Piastri led from lights-to-flag to win in dominant fashion at the F1 Bahrain GP, with Russell and Norris over 15 seconds back. Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton finished fourth and fifth respectively, ahead of Max Verstappen who overtook Pierre Gasly on the final lap for sixth, with Ocon, Tsunoda and Bearman completing the top ten.
Outside the top ten, Kimi Antonelli just missed out on a points finish with 11th place, ahead of Albon, Doohan, Hulkenberg, Hadjar, Alonso, Lawson, Stroll and Bortoleto – though Lawson will drop down to last once his two 10-second penalties for causing a collision get applied.
Jack Doohan was penalised after the chequered flag, for exceeding track limits.
Full results from the F1 Bahrain GP:
