Bahrain Grand Prix: Piastri delivers McLaren's first Sakhir win

Piastri delivered a strong drive for McLaren, surviving a first lap mess as George Russell tried to overtake him for the lead while fighting with the second-place starter, Charles Leclerc.

From their on, Piastri drove unchallenged into the lead, his McLaren team delivering a proper strategy and surviving a Safety Car period at Lap 33 taking the chequered flag first at what can be considered as McLaren's home race as their owners are Mumtalakat, the sovereign wealth fund of Bahrain.

Speaking in parc ferme after the race, Piastri said: "Great to have this result out here. It's been an incredible weekend starting with qualifying yesterday and finishing the job today in style is nice.

"I can't thank the team enough for the car they have given us. It's pretty handy out there. It's been a great weekend and I'm very proud to do this out in Bahrain.

"It's very important given our owners. It's never been a track that's been kind to us, so it's nice to have our first win here.

"I'm sure we will have a hell of a party but I won't get involved because I've got to race next weekend!" the Aussie quipped.

Piastri then commented about the Safety Car which wiped out his lead, but he said: "I would have preferred to not have it! But I was still pretty confident.

"The pace was good and I knew Lando and I had a medium and that was the tyre to be on. You obviously just try to get a good restart. I was never going to let that one go," he concluded.

Russell survived an array of issues on his Mercedes as he kept dropping from the timing screens, his transponder not working while he started suffering from failure in his steering wheel dash as well as a brake by wire issue.

Despite that, Russell managed to keep Lando Norris at bay towards the end to take the second place on the podium despite Mercedes putting him on the Soft compound for the final stint, a choice the Russell questioned, but turned out to be fine.

However, Russell will be investigated after the race for using the DRS when he wasn't allowed to, as his team gave him a manual override in order to use the system since his position on track was not known.

Commenting on his issues and fight with Norris, Russell said: "It was all under control for a moment and then suddenly we had a brake by wire failure so suddenly the pedal was going long and then it was going short so didn't know what was going on.

"The steering wheel wasn't working properly so it was really hard fought to keep Lando behind. I think one more lap he would have got me pretty comfortably but, nevertheless, really pleased with P2.

"Oscar was in a league of his own so congratulations to him and McLaren. For ourselves it's three podiums in four races all on different circuits, so it gives us confidence for the future," the Briton maintained.

As for the investigation, Russell added: "We were having all sorts of failures and basically we had to do an overdrive on the DRS and on one lap I clicked the radio button and the DRS opened.

"So I straight away closed it again, backed off, nothing gained. I lost more than I gained, it was only open for a split second. Kind of goes to show the amount of issues we were having."

Norris climbed up the order to finish on the final step of the podium, but the McLaren driver was not convincing with his drive but the supreme pace of his McLaren MCL39 meant he could get away with several moments.

Norris had a brilliant start from sixth and was up to third on the first lap but it soon turned out that he parked his car outside his proper grid box which earned him a five-second time penalty which the team managed to negate with an early pitstop going for the undercut.

Later on, Norris, on Mediums, struggled to pass a slower Leclerc on Hard tyres but finally managed to get the job done, a feat he could not replicate when chasing a struggling Russell in a malfunctioning Mercedes.

"I didn't think I was that far forward. Nothing more than that," Norris said of his wrong starting position. "A tough race. I made too many mistakes with the overtakes, out of position [at the start].

"A messy race from me. Disappointed to not bring home a one-two for McLaren because that would have been lovely at home. A tough one but still a few positives," he maintained.

At one point, Norris also had a tough time fighting Lewis Hamilton overtaking the seven-time F1 champion off track and having to give the position back.

Commenting on that incident, Norris said: "I just got told [about it]. It was close. It was good racing throughout, so no complaints. Good fun, good overtakes. Everyone was hard and on the limit as it should be.

"George did a good job. I thought I would be able to get him. I guess he was probably saving a bit before the end," he added of the fight with Russell.

"He did a good job, Oscar did a good job so congrats to him and the whole McLaren team. I will try to step it up next weekend."

Leclerc was fourth for Ferrari as Hamilton followed him home in fifth, which might feel far from ideal given that the #16 Scarlet car was fighting for a possible position while #44 was doing a decent job going through the field after the first pitstop.

Ferrari went opposite of the trend and started the race on the Medium tyres with both drivers and went long which gave them an advantage in the second stint.

But then Reds took one of their bizarre decisions by putting both drivers on the Hard tyres after pitting under the Safety Car. The Hard tyre turned out to be the worst compound of the evening which Ferrari should have known as Max Verstappen used it after his first stop and hastily disposed of it in favor of the Medium compound.

Speaking of Verstappen, the reigning F1 champion endured a horrible race. First he did not have a decent start and then he suffered an issue on his first pitstop as the green LED light did not illuminate when his wheels were on and he hesitated on the launch.

After that he was stuck in a DRS train behind Esteban Ocon in the Haas with Kimi Antonelli chasing him and eventually passing him.

Verstappen's second stop was slow as well as his front right tyre would not come off and he rejoined the race dead last.

After that, the Red Bull ace put his head down and drove back into the points, staying out under the Safety Car and finishing the race in sixth after a final-lap pass on Alpine's Pierre Gasly in seventh.

Gasly, after his best qualifying in 2025 starting the race from fourth on the grid finished in seventh having succumbed to Verstappen's pressure on the final lap after some valiant defense.

Hass had a horrible qualifying with Ocon crashing in Q2 while Oliver Bearman was eliminated in Q1, but what a difference 24 hours make.

Ocon delivered a solid performance to take eighth for the American F1 team mixing it up with the likes of Verstappen at some point and managing to keep him behind.

Bearman managed to tenth after starting the race from 20th, a brilliant drive from the youngster also delivering points for the Haas that currently sits sixth in the 2025 F1 constructors' championship.

Splitting the Haas driver was Yuki Tsunoda in the second Red Bull, the Japanese driver in the thick of fights throughout the race and at one moment having a major incident when he oversteered into Carlos Sainz damaging the Williams car badly.

Sainz, who started the race from eighth, retired the car after collecting a time penalty himself for pushing Antonelli off track. Alex Albon was 12th in the second Williams car, so no points for the James Vowles-led team.

Antonelli finished just outside the points having been unlucky as he got stuck in a DRS train behind Ocon and Verstappen after the first pitstop which cost him and meant he could not capitalize on his best qualifying result this season.

Overall, the racing was hard and intense with battles up and down the order but the tyres seem to have surprised the team as the Soft turned out to be a decent compound, holding on well on the abrasive surface of the Sakhir International Circuit.

The final result meant the Norris managed to hold on to his lead in the drivers' championship, three points clear of Piastri who moved into second dropping Verstappen to third, the latter now eight points away from Norris.