SAKHIR, Bahrain – Oscar Pistri comfortably won an action-packed Bahrain Grand Prix to narrow teammate Lando Norris’ championship lead to two points.
Piastri controlled the race from pole position and disappeared into the distance after a mid-race safety car, claiming his second win of the season and the fourth of his F1 career.
Piastri won by 15.4 seconds, a gap which slightly downplayed the entertaining spectacle which took place behind him.
Mercedes driver George Russell helped Piastri close the championship gap, holding off Norris in the final stages for second with what himself had dubbed an “audacious” 24-lap stint on soft tyres to close out the contest.
Russell spent the final stages of the races complaining about gearbox issues and troubleshooting DRS issues.
Norris, who had admitted to being “clueless” about how to drive his McLaren on Saturday, had started from sixth and went through a chaotic recovery drive to claim a podium.
The British driver had earned himself a penalty for starting out of his grid spot, before a messy race punctuated by mistakes in wheel-to-wheel duels throughout the race.
However, given the tone of his weekend so far, he might well be relieved to have left with a podium finish.
Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton finished fourth and fifth respectively in the red cars, although the team’s brilliant strategy call — which saw it start its two drivers on tyres offset to the rest in the top 10 — was undone slightly when a safety car came out at a vital moment, nullifying the strategies out in front. Until then, Ferrari had looked well placed to challenge for a spot on the podium.
Max Verstappen snatched sixth position from Alpine’s Pierre Gasly late on, but the Frenchman will still be buoyed to have scored Alpine its first points of the season.
Esteban Ocon made amends for his qualifying crash with a stellar drive to eighth, while Yuki Tsunoda scored his first points for Red Bull in ninth.
Oliver Bearman made it a double delight for Haas in 10th, continuing the American team’s strong start to the season.
Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli had a thrilling race, which included late-braking moves and a wheel-to-wheel fight with Max Verstappen, but had to settle for 11th, perhaps highlighting some of the rougher edges still apparent in the 18-year old rookie.
Liam Lawson was given two five-second penalties – the first for causing a collision between himself and Lance Stroll, and the second for colliding with Nico Hulkenberg.
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