Dominant Piastri wins action packed Bahrain Grand Prix

Australia's Oscar Piastri has won the Bahrain Grand Prix for McLaren as if there was nobody else on track. Starting from pole he was never really challenged. Behind him, lots of action that eventually saw Russell battle his own car to finish second as Norris finished third.

The Bahrain Grand Prix was set to be a game of tyre wear, or rather who would best be able to manage the degradation of the Pirelli tyres around this track. Temperatures though ended up slightly lower than earlier in the weekend. Interestingly, only Leclerc, Hamilton, Alonso, Lawson and Bortoletto started on medium tyres with softs for everybody else.

When the lights went out, Piastri managed to get into the corner first despite a fierce challenge by Russell who even briefly locked the front left while braking as late as possible. Leclerc didn't really have a poor start but he lost one spot before Turn 1 to Russell and then has Norris in his mirrors who powered out of the Turn 1 - Turn 2 complex to get aside of the Ferrari, eventually overtaking him through the outside of Turn 4.

Norris however was found to be out of position on the starting grid, at least a meter too far ahead. Even though that didn't really take away the fact he made a great start, the 5-second penalty for Norris will undo his gains.

Carlos Sainz meanwhile also had a strong start and gained two positions. The put him right behind Gasly who maintained 5th and ahead of Antonelli, Verstappen, Hamilton and Tsunoda. On the fifth lap Antonelli recovered his starting position with Verstappen quick to follow through as Sainz seemed to struggle.

Another 5 laps later, as we started to see pitstops, Sainz lost another two positions to Hamilton and Tsunoda, bringing the two Williams together in 10th and 11th position.

Antonelli and Verstappen had meanwhile put the pressure on Gasly resulting in the young Mercedes rookie to overtake the Alpine in that same lap. Verstappen couldn't pass but was pitted at the end of that lap to switch to hard Pirellis. The stop though wasn't great and took a couple of seconds longer than it usually does.

Norris pitted just before that time on the same lap, taking medium tyres and rejoining in 13th place. This would've been 9th if he wouldn't have had to serve that starting penalty.

Antonelli pitted two laps later, also switching to medium. Despite the fast stop, Verstappen's fastest lap moments earlier saw Antonelli rejoin the track behind Verstappen, therefore losing a position to the Dutchman. The two however were then stuck behind Ocon. It would soon appear that the hard tyres weren't really working well for Verstappen, and rather than challenging Ocon, the Red Bull driver was more often looking in his mirrors until getting passed by Antonelli on lap 21.

Russell pitted yet another lap later and Piastri one lap after that. This brought the Ferrari duo in the lead with Leclerc leading Hamilton by 9 seconds. Piastri was third, then Russell, Norris, Gasly, Ocon, Verstappen, Antonelli and Doohan.

On lap 18 Leclerc and Hamilton are pitted right after each other. Whether that was to make the tyre change Leclerc wanted isn't clear as his engineer called for "plan B" while Leclerc insisted he wanted to be on "Delta".

Two laps after Verstappen had to let Antonelli go, Hamilton also passed the Red Bull, only half a lap after Hamilton cleared Doohan. Verstappen by then had lost 2.5s to Antonelli and reported "I can't even brake anymore, it's ridiculous".

The Ferrari duo were clearly on the move with Hamilton quickly closing in to Antonelli while Leclerc was pressuring Norris for third. One lap later, the two simultaneously passed their rivals, putting Leclerc in third place and Hamilton into 7th. One lap later Hamilton was already on Ocon's tail, easily passing the Frenchman on the main straight.

On lap 27 Verstappen was the first to make a second stop. Yet again there was a problem in the stop, this time with the right front tyre that made the stop last 6.2 seconds. Back on medium tyres, Verstappen returned to the track in last place. Antonelli was pitted the next lap, probably to prevent getting overtaken by Verstappen again. The Mercedes switched to softs but was very unlucky to end up in a battle between Lawson and Stroll, costing time to still staying ahead of Verstappen.

Only a few laps later Tsunoda and Sainz came together at Turn 2, shedding a few pieces of carbon fibre across the track. As more bits flew off ahead of Turn 4, race control decided one lap later to bring the safety car out, triggering a big series of pitstops.

The cars who had just stopped, like both Alpines and Verstappen didn't pit. Antonelli did however, taking on yet another set of soft tyres. Russell, like his teammate, took softs whereas Leclec switch to hard tyres. Piastri maintained the lead and took a new set of mediums, just like Norris. Hamilton, Gasly and Ocon followed the SC on hard tyres with Verstappen in 8th having mediums. Doohan and Sainz completed the provisional top 10 on hard tyres.

Two laps by the safety car were enough to get going again. At the restart, Piastri backed up the pack aggressively as soon as the lights went out, launching through the final corner and leaving Rusell behind.

As Leclerc kept third, Hamilton briefly passed Norris before being re-passed at Turn 4. Hamilton quickly reported that action as Norris went beyond the track limits on the exit. To avoid a penalty, Norris switfly returned the position. The lasted for another two laps until Norris found another way to get past the Ferrari.

After that, and despite the very different tyre choices made, positions seemed a bit fixed. Norris however went on his way to close the gap to Leclerc ahead, performing an overtake attempt at Turn 1 of lap 46. Norris though outbraked himself and locked up the front right, only just staying on track and giving Leclerc again a bit of breathing room.

Sainz meanwhile retired from the race as damage on his right hand sidepod and a 10 second penalty for forcing Tsunoda off track left them without any chances of a decent result.

Norris returned to haunt Leclerc by lap 49. Russell meanwhile was only 2s up the road and fighting some issues with his car. At first he had to set a default for a DRS timing issue on his car, and next he is told to keep on driving as he is "if the dash switches off". At that time he joked "As long as the steering wheel doesn't fall off", but a single lap later he reporting gearshifting issues, forcing him to switch modes.

When Norris overtook Leclerc at Turn 4, Russell only had a second in hand. A little bit of hope for the Mercedes driver meanwhile was a black and white flag for Norris for track limits, meaning one more time for Norris off track would mean a penalty.

At the start of the penultimate lap Norris is right behind Russell and it was clear Russell was fighting his heart out, edging on the limit of grip of traction out of the final corner to not fall victim of the McLaren with DRS wide open. Same situation for the final lap though this time Russell had to defend the inside line, which he did perfectly. This left Norris without a chance in Turn 4 as well and despite being very very close, Russell secured a well deserved second place while Norris can be happy with third after the disappointment of qualifying.

The Mercedes driver however was to be enquired after the race about the DRS problem which may result in a penalty that could drop him off the podium.

The final lap did still provide a position change as after continuing pressure, Verstappen made it past the Alpine of Gasly to take 6th place. A decent comeback, especially if we compare that to Antonelli who essentially got caught out by the safety car after having been on soft tyres for only 5 laps.

Bearman ended up being the best rookie today by securing a point for Haas, in addition to 8th place for Ocon.

All this happened without worrying race winner Oscar Piastri. The Australian drove an impeccable race after laying the foundations in qualifying on Saturday.