Piastri Pulls off Perfect Performance, Wins Bahrain Grand Prix
It’s race win number two this season for McLaren’s Oscar Piastri. An extra special win, given this weekend, was his 50th Grand Prix start in Formula One. At Bahrain International Circuit, Piastri reminded his competitors that he’s not backing down without a fight, winning handily with a 15-second gap to second-place finisher George Russell. The cool, calm, collected Aussie also earned his second pole position, both of the season and his career, on Saturday and did not look back once during the race. His McLaren teammate, Lando Norris, rounded out the weekend’s podium.
Speaking of Russell, the Brit had a very strong showing this weekend, qualifying second before dropping down to third after a team penalty. He was quick to overtake Charles Leclerc, who benefited from Russell’s qualifying penalty and was never too far behind Piastri. However, due to debris on the track, the stewards decided to send out a safety car mid-race. This led Mercedes to pit Russell onto softs, tasking him with their management for another 20 laps. In true George Russell fashion, though, he was able to keep Norris at bay and snatch another podium finish, going three-for-four thus far in the season.
All is not well in the house of Red Bull, though. After a disappointing seventh-place qualifying position, Max Verstappen looked to find the pace in his RB21 during the race but was only able to reach P6. A poor race start, plus a disastrous six-second pit stop, did not do the Dutchman any favors in his pursuit of the win. “Basically, everything went wrong!” Verstappen told F1.com. “[At] the first stop, I think the lights got stuck on, but of course, I don’t want to drive through the lights – you want to stay and stick to the protocol of the team – so that put me into traffic as well, then the hard tires, unfortunately, didn’t work so I was sliding around even more than I was on the soft.”
In other news, Williams’ Carlos Sainz had a race-ending contact with newly-appointed Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda, continuing the Spaniard’s streak of worse race results than teammate Alex Albon. Both the Haas of Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman scored points today, now quintupling the points their team had scored this time last season. Finally, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly scored the French team, who are in the final year of their historic run with Renault, their first points of the season. The final race of this whirlwind triple-header is next week at Jeddah International Circuit in Saudi Arabia.
