These race weekends come around very quickly, and it feels strange to say that it’s Bahrain next. The track length of Bahrain is 5.412km and has 15 turns. The circuit made its debut in 2004 and has held 20 races since, plus a one-off Sakhir Grand Prix, which was held on the outer layout of the circuit in 2020. 2011 was the only year in which Bahrain has not helped a grand prix due to political unrest in the country. Lewis Hamilton remains the most successful driver at the venue, having won 5 times, the last being in 2021. Ferrari is the team with the most wins. There are four drivers on the current 2025 grid that have won at Bahrain, those being Hamilton, Verstappen, Alonso, and Leclerc. The smallest win margin at this track came in 2018 when Vettel was chased down by Bottas for the victory. However, Vettel won by 0.699 seconds. The largest win margin here was in 2024 by Max Verstappen, who won by a total of 22.457 seconds. Now you have some facts, and let’s unpack the drama of the highly anticipated Bahrain weekend.
I feel a bit like a broken record at this point, but across all three practices, McLaren dominated once again. It wasn’t easy for all drivers. In practice two, we saw Verstappen complaining about how his car was jumping a lot. Alonso also encountered a steering wheel problem where mechanics in the pits had to change parts of its steering system in the same practice session. Russell, in practice three, also suffered a small spin exiting turn 10, but it’s what happens in qualifying that matters. Oscar claimed pole position in qualifying with George completing the front row. In the second row, we had Leclerc in third with the company of Kimi in fourth. However, due to leaving the garage before the allowed resumption time, both Mercedes drivers were handed a one place grid penalty. The drama didn’t stop there though, in Q1 Albon was knocked out by Hulkenberg for the stewards to then decide 45 minutes later on that the Sauber driver had in fact exceeded track limits, robbing the Williams driver potentially several places. What a farce.
Well, this has been the first race on the calendar so far this year that I have enjoyed watching from start to finish. Both Piastri and Russell got a great start. However, the pair nearly touched when Russel locked up, causing Piastri to start to peel away from the group. Lando gained three places into third, and Leclerc dropped one place into fourth. From the back of the grid, Bearman also got a good start climbing from last to fifteenth in his Haas. Norris on lap 7 gets slapped with a five second time penalty for being out of position on the grid at the race start. He served this on lap 11, leaving him to fall back into fourteenth place. Max also pitted on the same lap however this was the start of Red Bulls’ pit issues as the red light above him fails to change to green, causing him and later on Tsunoda to have longer pit stops than we are used to seeing from the team. However the bad luck didn’t stop there as Max is then overtaken by Kimi lap 20, placing Max now in eighth and him coming on the radio to say everything is overheating.
Lap 27 and things went from bad to worse for Max as he pits for mediums, and it looked as though a tyre wouldn’t come off and rejoins in last. We then got a safety car shortly after, due to what looked like some debris left from Sainz’s Williams after making some slight contact with Yuki. The safety car didn’t work out so well for Ferrari as they lost their early advantage of being on the tyre offset. Max was one of the few cars to not pit under the safety car, which was a good call. Lap 47 and the only car to retire from the race is Sainz because of the damage caused by the contact of Tsunoda. It’s a shame because he was having a good race before that. Which then leads me on to how the race finished. Piastri was calm and composed and took the win, with George following in second. To take the last podium place was Norris. Next up was Leclerc in fourth after being passed by Norris towards the end of the race. Lewis goes from ninth to fifth, Max is sixth, and Gasly delivers Alpine their first points of the season with his seventh place. Ocon is eighth, Tsunoda is ninth, and taking the last top ten place is Bearman after starting last on the grid.
Standout performance wise, I think Piastri is one of them. He showed control throughout the race and was pretty much dominated from start to finish. He didn’t let the pressure of the safety car get to him and kept George behind. It’s also worth mentioning that he is closing that championship gap between him and Norris, which will be interesting to see how that pans out. George also performed really well, considering his car was experiencing all different kinds of failures. Despite them, he still finished in second and held a really good defence throughout. I do feel this season he is a much stronger driver and not someone who should be forgotten about in the championship either as things are quite close points wise. I also want to mention Gasly for getting the teams first lot of points. I think he can be quite underrated and deserves a mention because finishing in seventh when you don’t have the strongest car is an achievement. I hope he gains more points this season.
Overall, this was a fun race to watch. I didn’t get bored halfway through as there was plenty going on to keep you entertained. I must apologise for how long it’s taken to get this post up. I love back to back races but I said to myself that I would do a post every race weekend to talk about my thoughts on the weekend as I wanted to do this last season but failed miserably at it. With there being not much of a break recently and trying to get other blog posts up as well, mixed in with life being super busy and also throwing a lot of curveballs this year, I have found things a bit difficult but I will keep trying and it’s better late than never right? Anyways enough about that, we have Jeddah this weekend, and I’m hoping it’s going to be equally as good, if not better. I’m hoping Max can get a decent place finish and keep going close in points still with Norris and Piastri. I’m also hoping Sainz can finish in the top ten, as I so badly want to see him do well, but we’ll have to see what happens!
Current Driver Standings
| Pos | Driver | Nationality | Car | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Norris | GBR | McLaren Mercedes | 77 |
| 2 | Piastri | AUS | McLaren Mercedes | 74 |
| 3 | Verstappen | NED | Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT | 69 |
| 4 | Russell | GBR | Mercedes | 63 |
| 5 | Leclerc | MON | Ferrari | 32 |
| 6 | Antonelli | ITA | Mercedes | 30 |
| 7 | Hamilton | GBR | Ferrari | 25 |
| 8 | Albon | THA | Williams Mercedes | 18 |
| 9 | Ocon | FRA | Haas Ferrari | 14 |
| 10 | Stroll | CAN | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | 10 |
| 11 | Gasly | FRA | Alpine Renault | 6 |
| 12 | Hulkenberg | GER | Kick Sauber Ferrari | 6 |
| 13 | Bearman | GBR | Haas Ferrari | 6 |
| 14 | Tsunoda | JPN | Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT | 5 |
| 15 | Hadjar | FRA | Racing Bulls Honda RBPT | 4 |
| 16 | Sainz | ESP | Williams Mercedes | 1 |
| 17 | Alonso | ESP | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | 0 |
| 18 | Lawson | NZL | Racing Bulls Honda RBPT | 0 |
| 19 | Doohan | AUS | Alpine Renault | 0 |
| 20 | Bortoleto | BRA | Kick Sauber Ferrari | 0 |
What did you make of the race?
Amy x
littlemissminor.com 