Oscar Piastri wins the 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix and given the night time kick off for this desert race in his part of the world, only the most die hard of Aussie supporters probably caught it live. Talking of down under, our 2025 Bahrain F1 Grand Prix Result Summary covers everything from top to bottom.
This 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix Result, Laps that Matter summary, Review & Ratings which gives you just enough to catch up with. With just a hint of cynicism, bias, opinion and colour. The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered, or don’t have enough time.
READ MORE: Bahrain Grand Prix-View
READ MORE: Bahrain Grand F1 Donkey Bold Predictions
READ MORE: Latest Driver Ratings
2025 Bahrain F1 Grand Prix Result Race Summary
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Here’s where we capture the laps where stuff happened. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Setting the scene – It looked academic for McLaren to take a qualifying 1-2, based on most of the weekend’s pace, but it was only Oscar Piastri who took advantage of their speed and he plonked the papaya car on pole position. Lando Norris lines up a disappointed 6th, but it is a reasonable track for overtaking, so progress almost guaranteed in that car. The Mercedes drivers were both dropped one place on the grid for a petty offence. Some joy for Carlos Sainz with 8th on the grid, and Yuki Tsunoda made the top ten, which we’d need to check, but could be the first for a Red Bull #2 in a long time. Talking of disappointed Red Bulls, Max Verstappen lines up 7th. Pierre Gasly one of the stars qualified 5th and starts 4th thanks to Mercedes penalties.
GRID (Starting Order) – PIA LEC RUS GAS ANT NOR VER SAI HAM TSU
Lap 1 – Oscar Piastri gets a good enough start but behind George Russell makes a better one from third passing Charles Leclerc and almost running into Oscar Piastri as they turn into the first corner. Also starting fast was Lando Norris from 6th who gets past Charles Leclerc after the first few corners for third. Carlos Sainz is also on the move from 8th to 6th. Moving backwards was Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen. Oscar Piastri attempts to clear out in front, and he might need to with his team mate getting so close to avoid any Papaya Rules later.
ORDER – PIA RUS NOR LEC GAS SAI ANT VER HAM TSU
Lap 2 – Proving that the Red Bull #2 gig is truly a curse, Isack Hadjar – who was praised by Helmut Marko after some impressive Practice pace – failed to make Q3 then lost five places at the start and is running around in 16th with Liam Lawson. Even the mention of being close to Red Bull #2 sees drivers go backwards instantly. For the record the current #2 is going ok in 10th.
Lap 3 – Bad news coming for Lando Norris, he is being investigated for an incorrect starting procedure, which would bring a penalty he sure doesn’t need. Replays show he was over his grid line, after his car jumped forward a little, and that Max Verstappen dobbed him via radio.
Lap 5 – Kimi Antonelli claws back one position by overtaking Carlos Sainz neatly into turn one. This then leaves Sainz vulnerable to Max Verstappen who also gets past a few corners later.
Lap 7 – Oscar Piastri is 2.2 seconds in front of George Russell who has Lando Norris close behind, and there are similar gaps back through the top ten. Just Piastri with a noticeable gap to the car behind, which is great for Australian fans. Isack Hadjar makes the first pit stop of the afternoon. Pit stops may well be the most interesting thing of this race from here.
Lap 8 – Five second penalty confirmed for Lando Norris who is informed via radio and instructed to get past George Russell like he didn’t know to do so before. Five seconds drops him 7th just behind Max Verstappen on current timings.
Lap 10 – Kimi Antonelli gets by Pierre Gasly for 5th after they swap positions for a few corners. Jack Doohan, who had done a good job in 11th so far, pits for tyres. Talking of tyres, there are complaints over radio from drivers that the tyres are struggling. Leclerc complains of brake trouble too.
Lap 11 – Lando Norriss, Pierre Gasly and Max Verstappen pit. Norris takes his five second penalty and rejoins 14th. Gasly 15th and Verstappen 17th.
Lap 14 – Oscar Piastri edges further away from George Russell in front, and the Mercedes pits from second and rejoins seventh in front of Fernando Alonso, and more importantly for the race to second, Lando Norris.
Lap 15 – Oscar Piastri pits from the lead and rejoins third behind the temporarily leading Ferraris. But, Piastri’s gap to Russell had been reduced to just a couple of seconds.
ORDER – LEC HAM PIA RUS NOR GAS OCO VER ANT DOO
Lap 18 – Charles Leclerc pits from the lead and they fit in a Lewis Hamilton pit stop a few seconds later. The longer stint does open up a potential different strategy for Ferrari. Meanwhile, Max Verstappen’s different strategy of taking hard tyres at his pit stop isn’t quite working out. He can’t get past Esteban Ocon’s Haas, and has Kimi Antonelli harassing him instead of getting closer to Ocon.
Lap 19 – Time to take stock with all the major pitstops done, no offence to Ocon. Oscar Piastri has grown his lead on George Russell out to 3.5 seconds, with Lando Norris 1.5 behind the Mercedes in third. Charles Leclerc nips by Pierre Gasly, and further back Verstappen’s woes continues as Antonelli does get by and he claims everything is overheating in his car. Probably including himself given his lack of patience for things going wrong. Lewis Hamilton getting past on lap 23 won’t help either.
ORDER – PIA RUS NOR LEC GAS OCO ANT VER DOO HAM
Lap 24 – Championship update time, with Oscar Piastri now five seconds in front of George Russell looking the goods at the moment. Charles Leclerc is gaining on Lando Norris and is within a second and passes Norris into turn one, only to be immediately retaken by the next corner. Leclerc isn’t done though and does it properly a lap later and takes third. Not Championship worthy, but Hamilton passes Antonelli for 7th and Ocon for 6th a lap later.
ORDER – PIA RUS LEC NOR GAS HAM OCO ANT VER DOO
Lap 27 – Bad to worse for Max Verstappen, who gives up on the hard tyres and pits for new mediums. But the pit stop takes over six seconds, which is still great for ordinary Joes in a Honda Jazz at a Bridgestone Tyre Centre but is nearly three times the usual stop time for F1. Verstappen rejoins in 19th, which for context o a bad afternoon is behind Lance Stroll.
Lap 29 – Double pit time for Alpine, which will hopefully keep their double points. Kimi Antonelli pits a lap before. With 28 laps to go, one wonders if they are those drivers last pit stops.
Lap 30 – Out in front, Piastri’s lead is 6.7 seconds with Leclerc sort-of catching George Russell and Lando Norris sort-of dropping back from Leclerc. Hamilton is 10 seconds further behind in 5th and is no major factor for a podium.
Lap 32 – SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
A bit of barging between Yuki Tsunoda and Carlos Sainz for a position that only matters to them sees bits of car splattered through corners one to five and so ruins the lead Piastri had built. At least the timing is convenient, as Piastri dives in for new tyres first. As do the rest of the top drivers. Except Pierre Gasly and Max Verstappen, who have pitted recently.
Interesting tyre selection at the pitstops for the remaining 24 laps or so. The McLarens went for Mediums. Ferraris are on hard tyres with the rest of the top ten except Max Verstappen. But George Russell is put of soft tyres. He calls it audacious over the radio. Which it is. He might be quick on the restart though. He’ll need to be.
Lap 35 – SAFETY CAR LEAVES
Oscar Piastri makes a good restart but has George Russell and his softs right on his tail. Lando Norris pressures Charles Leclerc for third only to be taken by Lewis Hamilton himself. A few corners later Norris takes back his position. But is ordered to give the position back by his team, so drops to fifth again.
ORDER – PIA RUS LEC HAM NOR GAS OCO VER DOO TSU
Lap 38 – Lando Norris overtakes Lewis Hamilton for real, for third. Meanwhile George Russell has disappeared from second place on the timing screen, but he is physically in that position. Can’t trust computers. Maybe F1 timing has been hacked mid race. To distract viewers from the lack of names and times, there’s some great racing in the midfield with a bunch of point scoring wannbes.
Lap 42 – The FIA confirm that there’s a problem with the timing. So you’re on your own for gaps and stuff and relying more on what the TV is showing. One of those TV showing things is a replay of the reason for Liam Lawson’s five second penalty for causing an accident with Fernando Alonso.
Lap 45 – George Russell has dropped off the back of Oscar Piastri as you’d expect on softer tyres, and there’s a nice battle between himself, Leclerc and Norris coming up hopefully to entertain us in the final laps. Norris fluffs his first attempt at Leclerc by locking his brakes into turn one and drops back a few seconds.
Lap 49 – Norris and Leclerc keep battling away, with the McLaren almost in front but runs out of room on the outside. Meanwhile, Piastri is five seconds up on George Russell, who has a little bit of clean air to Leclerc-Norris.
Lap 52 – Lando Norris finally gets past Charles Leclerc and takes third. That could be second soon enough, as George Russell says over radio that his gears are “f***d”. Not sure of the technicality of that. Oscar Piastri is nine seconds up on Russell so a win is unlikely but second would be great damage limitation for Norris.
Lap 53 – Black and White flag for Lando Norris for track limits. One more crossing of that lien will see his second penalty of the race. Norris is catching Russell.
Lap 56 – Lando Norris is right on George Russell’s tail as they dispute second place. Norris can’t run wide or it is penalty time. Russell has his own car issues, including somehow keeping the soft tyres good enough for that long last stint. So interesting last two laps coming up here.
FINAL LAP – Oscar Piastri is 15 seconds in front, so cruises around the last lap. Piastri’s dominance is so boring it is relegated to inset on the TV screens. Far from cruising, Russell and Norris fight over second place for the whole last lap, but second place eventually goes to the Mercedes. Piastri ends up with Fastest Lap too, ending the perfect race for the Australian. Driver of the Day voting continues to be a joke as Lewis Hamilton wins the award for a drive that could be best described at anonymous.
FINAL ORDER (Across the line) – PIA RUS NOR LEC HAM VER GAS OCO TSU BEA
Here we go through the field and highlight the very best (Great) of the race, and the plodders, the over-ambitious, the out of luck, and simply hopeless (Grape).
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. 5 points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 /-2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
THE GREAT-EST – OSCAR PIASTRI
Took pole position as the car deserved to, and he lead with confidence throughout, taking advantage of an off day for Lando Norris in qualifying.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
PIERRE GASLY – Qualified an outstanding fifth, ahead of Lando Norris and Max Verstappen. Was solidly in the top ten thereafter.
GEORGE RUSSELL – Best of the rest again and threatens to break up the McLaren party at every race. Last stint on soft tyres was impressive, as has most of his season so far.
JACK DOOHAN – Made Q2, with no practice crashes like Japan. Was in the points for most of the race. Lost out late, but a good weekend. Not enough to keep his drive though.
CHARLES LECLERC – A solid evening work from the Ferrari driver who got the maximum out of the Ferrari and shaded Lewis Hamilton again.
ESTEBAN OCON – A solid result for the Haas driver who has been struggling. He went a long stint for tyres and was rewarded with the timing of the Safety Car. But still, kept Max Verstappen behind for long enough.
OLIVER BEARMAN – Another point for Bearman from last grid position.
THE GRAPE-EST – LANDO NORRIS
Not a bad end result with third, but his 6th on the grid effectively ended his chances for a race win. Meanwhile, his team mate, and we presume main title rival, nails the weekend with pole and win. His lead is cut to 3rd and momentum ready to shift.
DISHONOURABLE MENTIONS
MAX VERSTAPPEN – 7th on the gird and sixth in the race is a mediocre return for someone who won from pole last weekend. Couldn’t get past Ocon during the race, and was a lot more midfield than he was used to.
LEWIS HAMILTON – Not terrible, just always off the pace of Leclerc. Got Driver of the Day, somehow.
CARLOS SAINZ – It all looked good for Carlos Sainz. Q3 and 8th on the grid, potential for points with a great start. But he slipped backwards through the race, got hit by Yuki Tsunoda, then got a penalty himself for an incident. Told to retire the car by his team towards the end of the race.
Was it a good race, loads of action, a tense ending, a surprise result or DNF, or just a big, fat, snooze-fest?
We rate the big race itself, so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
PRE RACE ACTION (FP, QUAL, SPRINT etc) – 2 / 5
Not much pre-race action, because it is Bahrain, but the lower qualifying positions of Lando Norris and Max Verstappen was the points of interest.
ON TRACK ACTION (RACE) – 6 / 10
Reasonable amount of action. Aside from cars in the top two there was changing of positions regularly enough through the field. Some good racing in the midfield. And the fun of seeing Max Verstappen battling the lower midfield in a car he hated for a while.
ANY SURPRISES? – 3 / 5
Lando Norris and Max Verstappen’s 6th and 7th on the grid was a mild surprise. As was Pierre Gasly’s 5th. Double points for Haas wouldn’t have been a popular betting option before the race either.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 4 / 5
Potentially huge throwing down of a marker from Oscar Piastri to Lando Norris. The McLaren is clearly the quickest car, so that qualifying becomes so important, as it allows the driver to cruise in front, like Piastri did. Piastri closes within three points of Norris now, with a 2-1 win advantage.
ENDING – 4 / 5
Decent ending with the battle of Leclerc and Norris, with potential George Russell car problems, and Max Verstappen v Pierre Gasly, plus further battles back down the midfield.
OVERALL RATING – 19 / 30
Not a bad Bahrain Grand Prix
2025 F1 Season Race Ratings
R1 – Australian Grand Prix – 27/30
R2 – Chinese Grand Prix – 11/30
R3 – Japanese Grand Prix – 18/30
2025 F1 Season Preview Gear
F1 2025 SEASON – THINGS TO LOOK FOR AND AVOID
F1 DONKEY AUSTRALIAN GP BOLD PREDICTIONS
2024 F1 Season Review Gear
Stay tuned for our Power Rankings from the race soon as it is currently being calculated and will be ready on Monday.
2024 F1 SEASON FULL RACE REPORT HISTORY
