Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix - Sakhir 2025
STARTING GRID:
1) PIASTRI 2) LECLERC 3) RUSSELL 4) GASLY 5) ANTONELLI 6) NORRIS 7) VERSTAPPEN 8) SAINZ 9) HAMILTON 10) TSUNODA 11) DOOHAN 12) HADJAR 13) ALONSO 14) OCON 15) ALBON 16) HULKENBERG 17) LAWSON 18) BORTOLETO 19) STROLL 20) BEARMAN
Lap 1: A chaotic first corner as George Russell gets a good start but locks up and almost goes into the back of Oscar Piastri but manages to avoid the Aussie. Into the next few corners Lando Norris with a great start as he goes past Charles Leclerc to move into the podium positions. Kimi Antonelli loses places as he tries to get past Gasly but is too overzealous and it costs him.
At the end of the lap, Charles Leclerc is one of the drivers to lose many places as he drops out of the podium places from 2nd to 4th. Whereas, Oscar Piastri has a gap to George Russell that is close to out of DRS range. Lando Norris is then over 1 second away from George Russell as they move into lap 2.
LAP 3: Unfortunate news for Lando Norris as he is noted by the stewards for a potential false start. Which replays show, he was ahead of his grid position before the lights came on to start the race. Max Verstappen was quick on his radio to say “Lando is over his grid box” when on the starting grid. Lando would later be given a 5 second time penalty for the incident.
LAP 7: Replays show Carlos Sainz being overtaken by Kimi Antonelli into the first corner. A bold and brave move into turn 1 as Antonelli dived into the first corner, just about missing the front end of the Williams. Martin Brundle described the move as a “hospital pass” as he thinks that if it was against a relatively inexperienced driver it may not have been as straightforward for the Italian driver.
Carlos Sainz then passed by Max Verstappen around the outside of turn 4 and continued the move into turn 5. Verstappen wasn’t happy with Sainz’s defending as he thought he was not left with enough room. Although he did make the overtake and keep the place, moving up to 7th.
LAP 9: A great battle between Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz as they go back and forth for multiple corners for 8th place. From turn 4 to turn 11, the pair go back and forth trading places. A slightly personal battle for Sainz as he goes up against the man that replaced him at Ferrari. However, on the straight from turn 10 to 11 Hamilton moves past to make the move stick.
To make things worse for Sainz, Yuki Tsunoda takes advantage of the battle ahead of him and moves past Sainz moving into turns 12 and 13. Sainz drops down to 10th by the end of lap 9.
LAP 17: Charles Leclerc is told on the radio that he is going to box for mediums at the end of the lap. Leclerc replies with a frustrated tone as he seems to want to go for the 1 stop strategy as they have extended the first stint on the tyres. However, the team decides to stick with the mediums as they commit to a 2 stop strategy with Leclerc starting on the medium tyre. An interesting move from the Scuderia as they seem to play the long game yet again.
LAP 20: A great move from Kimi Antonelli as he gets past Max Vertsappen into 7th. From biding his time going into turn 1 to forcing Max to go deep into turn 4, by turn 6 Antonelli is past the reigning World Champion with great driving from Antonelli. A round of applause from the Mercedes garage for the move follows.
LAP 21: Another rookie in the spotlight, with Ollie Bearman going round the outside of Isaac Hadjar into turn 4. A sweeping move as the inside was blocked off but proved no problem for the young Brit as he moved up to 15th for Haas.
LAP 22: A frustrating race for Max Verstappen gets worse as he is overtaken on the straight into turn 11 by his former championship rival in Lewis Hamilton. A move done with relative ease as Crofty says Hamilton “cruises” past Verstappen on commentary. This time the move is for 8th place, a dramatic difference to the battles of 2021 from the pair.
LAP 25: A busy start to the lap for the front of the field with 2 key overtakes happening within the top 8 cars. Lewis Hamilton had been gaining on Kimi Antonelli for many laps before using the DRS on the pit straight to make a move into turn 1. Another battle between drivers and former teams which have both involved Lewis Hamilton. He gets past the young rookie that has taken the seat at his former team which he had great success with in Mercedes.
On the other hand, almost simultaneously, Charles Leclerc makes a move on Lando Norris for the final podium place. He goes round the outside of Lando into turn 4 as many other drivers have done in this Grand Prix. A double boost to Ferrari in the space of a few corners. Leclerc may be thinking of the benefits of the medium tyre which his team went against his recommendation with.
LAP 32: The Safety Car is deployed due to a collision between Carlos Sainz and Yuki Tsunoda which caused pieces of debris to be on the track. The Safety Car lasted until lap 35 with various strategies altered during the cause of those 3 laps.
LAP 35: As the restart is led by Oscar Piastri, he does get a good start and manages to keep his place in front of George Russell going into the first corner. However, behind him the battle for third intensifies as Charles Leclerc comes under pressure from Lando Norris going down the pit straight. Norris looks to go down the inside which Leclerc tries to defend from.
Then Lewis Hamilton appears as they go into turn 1 with an attempt at an outside overtake on both of the people in front of him. A move in which he manages to get past Lando Norris. Lando then tries to get the place back going into the next corner but out brakes himself and goes off track to do so. As a result, he is told by his team to give the place back to Hamilton.
LAP 46: Lando gets back past Lewis Hamilton and puts pressure back on Charles Leclerc. He tries to go around the outside of turn 1 but misjudges the braking and locks up. With Martin Brundle on commentary saying “Oh Lando, that’s the last thing you needed to do.”
LAP 52: Once again Norris is on the back of Charles Leclerc as he piles the pressure on. Coming out of turn 3 he is just 0.6 seconds off as he opens the DRS. He tries to go around the outside but is blocked and goes around the outside. In which he manages to keep all 4 wheels on the track and maintain the grip that Leclerc doesn’t quite have as he moves into the podium positions.
Lando Norris now looking to close in on a struggling George Russell who is on the radio saying about gear shifting problems. In which his engineer responds with options for dealing with the problem. The Mercedes driver seemed panicked on the radio as he seemed desperate to keep the place and frustrated with the car.
LAP 57: A last lap shootout for 2nd place between Lando Norris and George Russell. The gap is just 0.6 seconds as they go down the pit straight and into the first corner. Lando opts to go around the outside once again on his attack but Russell gets his elbows out and forces Lando to yield. Despite the best efforts of Lando Norris, he is unable to make a move during the final lap and has to settle for 3rd.
Meanwhile, in a league of his own out front Oscar Piastri wins the Bahrain Grand Prix by over 14 seconds! The first repeat pole sitter of the season marks it with a dominant victory as he was unstoppable today running a perfect race.
The rest of the top 10 was rounded out by both Ferraris behind the podium sitters in 4th and 5th. A disappointing day for Max Verstappen as he finished in 6th with his teammate Yuki Tsunoda in 9th in his second race for the team. A solid performance from Pierre Gasly in 7th for Alpine. Another good result for Haas with both of their drivers in the top 10 again, picking up a solid haul of points for the team.
RACE RESULT: 1) PIASTRI 2) RUSSELL 3) NORRIS 4) LECLERC 5) HAMILTON 6) VERSTAPPEN 7) GASLY 8) OCON 9) TSUNODA 10) BEARMAN 11) ANTONELLI 12) ALBON 13) HADJAR 14) DOOHAN 15) ALONSO 16) LAWSON 17) STROLL 18) BORTOLETO 19) SAINZ (DNF) 20) HULKENBERG (DSQ)
