Bahrain GP Qualifying: Piastri denies Russell. Norris, Verstappen nowhere
F1 NewsSaturday, 12 April 2025 at 23:15
Oscar Piastri will start the 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix from pole after beating George Russell as Lando Norris and Max Verstappen were nowhere close to the front.
Piastri delivered on the promise McLaren showed in Bahrain with everyone expecting a two-way fight between the Papaya cars.
But when the heat was on, Norris failed to deliver and was only manage sixth place as Russell emerged as the real challenger for pole but fell short by less than two tenths.
Up next, in third, was Charles Leclerc who did well to make the best out of Ferrari's upgraded SF-25 despite being over three tenths off the pace.
Kimi Antonelli also delivered for Mercedes and will start the race from fourth despite pushing Russell hard throughout qualifying, but he survived a track limits error in Q3 to deliver fourth.
The positive surprise of the evening in Bahrain had to be Alpine as Pierre Gasly qualified fifth while his teammate Jack Doohan missed out on Q3 by a negligible 0.0017s.
The comes the nasty surprise, as Norris delivered a scruffy Q3 and only managed sixth in a car that should've easily been on pole but was ahead of Verstappen, another disappointment as the reigning Formula 1 champion failed to deliver the same magic we saw in Japan last week.
Carlos Sainz, for the first time since joining Williams, outqualified Alex Albon who was 16th as the Spaniard posted the eighth fastest time of the session.
Behind Sainz was another disappointed driver, Lewis Hamilton, who struggled throughout the weekend with his Ferrari and was only good for ninth.
Yuki Tsunoda was tenth in the sister Red Bull, a decent achievement for the latest Verstappen teammate.
Aside from Albon, it was a disappointing qualifying for Oliver Bearman who was out in Q1 as well as Isack Hadjar who was eliminated in Q2 as Liam Lawson went for an early shower after a DRS issue meant he could not progress from Q1.
Update: Nico Hulkenberg's lap that took him through into Q2 was deleted for track limits after qualifying which promoted Alex Albon into 15th... It was a late decision which meant Albon could not take part in Q2 and maybe improve his starting position...
What the top three said
After taking his second F1 career pole, Piastri said: "I've felt confident out there pretty much all weekend. FP1 was an experience, for us all I think, it felt more like a rally car than an F1 car.
"But from then on, I've felt really comfortable with the car. FP3 we had good pace. In qualifying, the others caught up a little bit closer than what I wanted.
"But I still delivered the laps when it mattered, which was the most important thing at the end. So very, very happy," the Australian concluded.
It was also McLaren's first pole ever around the Sakhir International Circuit.
Russell admitted a hint of throwing in the towel after McLaren's early form in the weekend, but was satisfied with second, he said: "I think if anybody said we'd have been within half a second of the McLarens we'd have taken it.
"We would have thought that would have been P3 on the grid. So to be second on the grid is a bonus. Congrats to Oscar, great lap, and excited for tomorrow now.
"To be honest, I think the strides were being made with the night time coming in and the track temperature being a bit cooler. We saw it this morning when it was roasting hot the McLarens were down the road and now as this session unfolded we just seemed to get quicker and quicker.
"So lining up P2 is a great chance for tomorrow, but I think being realistic it will be a challenge to fight with Oscar," the Briton concluded.
It was a decent effort from Leclerc to take third especially with Ferrari's struggle to get the upgraded SF-25 working.
"Honestly, I didn't expect P3," he said. "I knew that in Q3 there was some lap time. I knew that in Q1 and Q2 I just had to be patient and wait for the track to come to us.
"It was a bit tricky because at the beginning of Q3 everything felt really bad with the old tyres but then as soon as we put on the new tyres it was quite a bit better.
"We explored quite a lot of extreme setups in the last few weekends, and it feels like I've found my way a little bit," the Monegasque revealed. "And little by little, I hope there will be more performance to extract from the car in the weekends to come.
"The team has pushed like crazy to bring those upgrades here. I don't think it's the best track to have upgrades on, but it's always good. It's a small gain, not a big one, but hopefully next week it should be a bit more of a step.
"If we are P3 today, especially considering such fine margins with P3, the upgrades helped," Leclerc concluded.
Q1: No heroics from Bearman and Albon
With the floodlights on, qualifying for the Bahrain GP started as conditions cooled down with track temperatures registering 31 degrees Celsius while ambient temperature was 26 degrees. The wind was also another factor teams and drivers had to deal with.
Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll and Nico Hulkenberg were the first drivers to head out on track after the green light for Q1 was shown. The three had the track for themselves as the remaining 17 drivers waited.
Verstappen and Tsunoda were out next with Gasly and Doohan following in the Alpines. Then Hadjar, Lawson and Bearman were out.
Hulkenberg went fastest then Alonso went faster while Stroll's time was deleted for track limits.
Esteban Ocon was out of his car in the Haas garage as the mechanics worked on changes to his seat as Hamilton, Leclerc, Piastri, Norris, made their way out.
Verstappen went on a flying lap but botched it towards the end of the lap (Turn 14) and aborted it going back to the pits. Tsunoda went fastest as Gasly was second behind him.
Verstappen reported something wrong with the car.
Tsunoda's time was deleted for track limits and Doohan took the top spot, and then Hamilton was second behind the Australian.
Leclerc followed and took the top position but then Piastri dropped him to second only for Norris to go even faster as Antonelli and Russell followed.
Antonelli went fourth fastest as Russell was sixth as Ocon joined the session with seven minutes remaining. He goes ninth on his first run as the track improved and the times dropped.
With four minutes remaining, the second runs were on with Leclerc not taking part. Red Bull, on the other hand, opted to take their time and go for one run.
A bit risky as both Verstappen and Tsunoda did not put any banker laps in.
In the end Norris led the way with a 1:31.107. 0.112s ahead of Hamilton while Verstappen was third, 0.196s off the pace.
Piastri was fourth fastest in the second McLaren as Doohan was a superb fifth ahead of Antonelli in sixth and Leclerc in seventh.
The order further down: Gasly - Russell - Hadjar - Sainz - Ocon - Alonso - Tsunoda - Hulkenberg.
The first to miss out on Q2 was Alex Albon who was 16th failing the cut by 0.042s and was ahead of Lawson, 17th in the Racing Bulls. The Kiwi suffered an issue with his DRS.
Gabriel Bortoleto was 18th in the other Sauber ahead of Stroll in 19th as Bearman was 20th.
Q2: The Bulls make it by the skin of their teeth
The second round started as scheduled as drivers rushed out into the pitlane to begin their attempts to make the top ten.
Tsunoda was the first to start a timed lap but then Ocon lost control of his car over the kerbs coming out of Turn 2 and ended up in the barriers. He radioed that he was ok, but his car wasn't and the Red flag was out with 11 minutes remaining in Q2.
With the stricken Haas cleared, the remaining drivers lined up in the pitlane waiting for the green light for what would be a hectic remainder of Q2. Tsunoda stayed behind.
Antonelli went first with Russell behind him on track. Both drivers were being looked into for failing to follow race director instructions and leaving the garage before Q2 resumption time was announced after Ocon's crash.
Antonelli went to the top with Russell second behind him as Hulkenberg went third. Sainz then went second and Gasly fourth.
But then Norris jumps to the top but was dropped to second by Piastri as Verstappen, once again, aborts his lap and goes back to the pits. Hamilton also bailed on his lap as well as Hadjar who had a huge lockup.
Leclerc managed third and the order was: Norris - Piastri - Leclerc - Antonelli - Sainz - Doohan - Russell - Gasly - Hulkenberg.
Drivers with no time with less than five minutes remaining were: Hamilton - Verstappen - Hadjar - Tsunoda - Alonso.
With less than three minutes remaining, the final runs were on and in the end, Piastri went fastest into Q3 with a 1:30.454 as Norris was second and Gasly in third.
Russell was fourth in the Mercedes as Antonelli was fifth followed by Leclerc in sixth and Sainz in seventh while Hamilton was eighth.
Verstappen and Tsunoda were ninth and tenth... Shocking for the former... Not bad for the latter.
The five drivers that dropped out of Q2 were Doohan who missed out by 0.017s to Tsunoda. Sad as the Aussie was doing a great job up to that point.
Hadjar was also out and ended Q2 12th ahead of Hulkenberg in 13th as Alonso was 14th while Ocon was 15th after crashing and failing to take part.
Q3: Russell challenges but is denied
Red Bull sent their drivers out first in Q3, Tsunoda ahead of Verstappen as the remaining ten drivers lined up in the pitlane.
Tsunoda started the sequence of timed laps with Verstappen behind him in the sister car. The former went fastest then Verstappen went second after a snap early in his lap at Turn 4 cost him.
Verstappen said: "My brakes are so terrible. I can't brake at all."
Antonelli then went to the top then Russel went faster with Hamilton slotting into second behind his former teammate.
Leclerc went second but then Piastri went to the top while Norris only goes third fastest on his first run.
Provisional pole for Piastri and behind him, the order was: Russell - Norris - Leclerc - Tsunoda - Gasly - Sainz - Verstappen.
Hamilton and Antonelli got their laps deleted for exceeding track limits. Extra pressure for those two.
With three and a half minutes remaining, the final runs. Tsunoda went first and posted the fourth time as Antonello followed to take the fastest time as Russell followed.
Russell went fastest and Hamilton went to fifth while Leclerc was second behind Russell.
Verstappen was only seventh as Piastri jumped to the top on his second attempt as Norris failed to make the front row and was only good for sixth.
Final order: Piastri - Russell - Leclerc - Antonelli - Gasly - Norris - Verstappen - Sainz - Hamilton - Tsunoda.
Bahrain GP Qualifying Classification
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