Race report
Polesitter Oscar Piastri of McLaren successfully defended his lead into turn 1 after a challenge from George Russell of Mercedes, who gained one position to move into 2nd place. Piastri's teammate Lando Norris took third having started from sixth, before being awarded a penalty for not lining up correctly in his grid spot. Russell's teammate, Kimi Antonelli, initially passed Pierre Gasly of Alpine on the run to turn 1 to hold 5th place, but was then repassed by Gasly at turn 6. This forced Antonelli to run wide, resulting in him losing out to Carlos Sainz. Jr of Williams at the exit of the turn 8 hairpin, and he completed the first lap in 7th. On lap 5, Antonelli repassed Sainz at turn 1, with Max Verstappen of Red Bull following him through at turn 6. On lap 9, Leclerc's teammate Lewis Hamilton attempted to pass Sainz at turn 4, however ran wide exiting the turn; this allowed Sainz to retake the place at turn 6. Hamilton made the move stick at turn 11, with Verstappen's teammate Yuki Tsunoda also getting through at turn 12, dropping Sainz to 9th. [25]
On lap 10, Antonelli passed Gasly at turn 4 to take 5th after a short battle. At the end of the lap, Norris pitted for medium tyres and served his time penalty in the process, re-joining in 14th position. By pitting early, Norris was able to utilise the undercut effect, and therefore avoided losing positions to his rivals during the pit stop cycle. On lap 15, race leader Piastri pitted, re-joining on the medium tyre 2 seconds ahead of Russell. This left the two Ferraris leading the race. Both Ferraris would pit on lap 17 for a second set of medium tyres; Leclerc emerged behind Gasly but quickly passed him at turn 11 to retake 4th. On lap 20, Antonelli passed Verstappen exiting turn 4 to take 7th, having fallen behind him during the pitstops. Verstappen, struggling on hard tyres, was passed by Hamilton two laps later at turn 11. On lap 25, Leclerc passed Norris for 3rd at turn 4 as Hamilton simultaneously passed Antonelli for 7th at turn 1, younger tyres proving to be an effective advantage for both Ferraris. [25]
On lap 31, Tsunoda and Sainz made contact at turn 1 whilst disputing 6th position. This incident left a large amount of debris on track, which caused the safety car to be deployed. Drivers who had not yet make their second pitstops took advantage of the slowed pace to change tyres, led by Piastri, Russell, Leclerc, Norris and Hamilton. As the race resumed on lap 35, the top 10 was as follows; Piastri, Russell, Leclerc, Norris, Hamilton, Gasly, Esteban Ocon of Haas, Verstappen, Gasly's teammate Jack Doohan, and Sainz. Antontelli was the only driver to make a third pit stop behind the safety car, and as a result had dropped to 14th. Leclerc reacted slowly at the restart, and was immediately challenged by Norris entering turn 1. Norris could not make the move stick, and was himself passed by Hamilton. [25]
On lap 38, Norris passed Hamilton at turn 4 to take 4th position, with Verstappen passing Ocon at turn 1 to take 7th. Russell, still running 2nd despite concern about the durability of his soft tyres, began struggling with electrical issues on his car. Initially, this presented itself as a transponder failure, which forced his team to override his DRS as it would not activate due to the faulty transponder. Russell then reported issues with his brake-by-wire system, GPS, dashboard display, and the buttons on his steering wheel. The electrical problems also caused issues for the live timing system. This issue was circumvented by using a fallback lap-by-lap timing system. [26] On lap 46 Sainz, who had fallen down the field since the restart, retired due to ongoing issues resulting from his earlier collision with Tsunoda. As the race entered its final laps Norris was chasing Leclerc, who was struggling on hard tyres, for 3rd position, and he took the position on lap 52 at turn 4, after multiple attempts. On the final lap, Norris attempted to pass Russell around the outside of turn 1, Russell successfully defended the attack. [25]
Piastri crossed the finished line with a 15 second lead over Russell to take his 4th career Grand Prix victory, [27] achieving both his and McLaren's first win at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Russell took his best result in Bahrain with second ahead of Norris and Leclerc, although this was briefly thrown into doubt by an investigation over a suspected DRS infringement [28] , whilst Hamilton finished 5th to take his best Grand Prix finish with Ferrari so far. Despite being overtaken by Verstappen at turn 4 on the last lap, Gasly could still celebrate his and Alpine's first points of the season. Haas enjoyed a double points score with Ocon in 8th and Oliver Bearman in 10th, the latter having progressed from being last on the grid. Tsunoda's 9th place gave him his first points finish for Red Bull. [29] Having initially finished 13th, Nico Hülkenberg of Sauber was disqualified after the race, as his car's plank was discovered to be excessively worn down. [30]
Oscar Piastri 
