McLaren’s Oscar Piastri dominated the 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix to blow the title race wide open.
Piastri led from lights-to-flag aside from the first pit stop phase ahead of George Russell who fought off a late charge from Lando Norris to take second.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished fourth ahead of Lewis Hamilton whilst Max Verstappen passed Pierre Gasly on the final lap for sixth.
Esteban Ocon, Yuki Tsunoda and Oliver Bearman rounded out the top ten.
In the drivers’ standings, Norris’ title lead was reduced to three points as Piastri climbed to second in the order although Verstappen is eight points off the summit.
At lights out on his 50th Grand Prix start in F1, Piastri made a clean getaway as Leclerc paid the early price for his medium-tyre start as he lost positions to Russell and Norris, although Norris had been beyond his grid box and was consequently hit with a five-second time penalty.
Sainz leapt up to sixth ahead of Antonelli and Verstappen and held position until Antonelli and Verstappen cleared him on Lap 5 at Turns 1 and 4 respectively, before Hamilton further demoted his precedessor on Lap 9.
Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar was the first to pit on Lap 7 which steadily triggered the pit window earlier than expected for those running the soft tyres, which saw Leclerc inherit the lead on Lap 15 for three laps.
Reigning champion, Verstappen continued his difficult weekend with complaints of “overheating” as Antonelli and Hamilton demoted him to ninth on Laps 20 and 22.
Hamilton went on to climb to fifth when the safety car was deployed on Lap 32 due to debris on track which forced the top seven to pit to save some time unlike a normal stop, of which Sainz and Tsunoda in sixth and seventh lost out as they re-joined in 10th and 11th respectively.
Mercedes meanwhile gambled on soft tyres for Russell and Antonelli, whilst Tsunoda, Bearman and Lawson also opted for the gamble, whilst Piastri and Norris opted for fresh mediums but Leclerc and Hamilton went for the hard tyre.
Racing resumed at the start of Lap 36 as Piastri continued to fend off Russell whilst Leclerc fought off Norris who found himself passed by Hamilton on the outside of Turn 1, only to repass the seven-time champion at Turn4 despite harshly adjudged to be off-track which forced him to return the position a lap later.
Norris however managed a much cleaner overtake on Hamilton into Turn 4 on Lap 38 to retake fourth but he soon found himself stuck behind Leclerc, although a wide moment on Lap 46 as he closed the gap down lost him a bit of time to the Monegasque driver.
Norris eventually managed to get the momentum and slipstream to clear Leclerc on Lap 52 with an outside move at Turn 4.
Up front, Piastri cruised to his fourth GP victory to move up to second in the drivers’ standing but Russell’s soft-tyre gamble paid off as he saw off Norris by 0.774 seconds to finish runner-up.
Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg was disqualified post-race after his plank was found to be below the minimum thickness permitted under Article 3.5.9 e of FIA Technical Regulations, which promoted everyone from 15th below up a position.
Isack Hadjar however gained another position to 13th position after Alpine’s Jack Doohan received a post-race five-second time penalty for exceeding track limits on four occasions after his black-and-white flag, which dropped the Aussie to 14th in the classification.
F1 now concludes the first triple-header of the season with a trip to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from 18-20 April.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 57 | 1h 35m 39.435 |
| 2 | George Russell | Mercedes | 57 | + 15.499 |
| 3 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 57 | + 16.273 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 57 | + 19.679 |
| 5 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | 57 | + 27.993 |
| 6 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 57 | + 34.395 |
| 7 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 57 | + 36.002 |
| 8 | Esteban Ocon | Haas | 57 | + 44.244 |
| 9 | Yuki Tsunoda | Red Bull | 57 | + 45.061 |
| 10 | Oliver Bearman | Haas | 57 | + 47.594 |
| 11 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 57 | + 48.016 |
| 12 | Alex Albon | Williams | 57 | + 48.839 |
| 13 | Isack Hadjar | Racing Bulls | 57 | + 56.314 |
| 14 | Jack Doohan | Alpine | 57 | + 57.806 |
| 15 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 57 | + 60.340 |
| 16 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | 57 | + 64.435 |
| 17 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 57 | + 65.489 |
| 18 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Sauber | 57 | + 66.862 |
| DSQ | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber | 57 | Skid Plank |
| RET | Carlos Sainz | Williams | 45 | Damage |
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