The second weekend of that triple header in Formula 1 shows a dominant win by Oscar Piastri, with a 15 second margin. Between strategy and drama, the Bahrain Grand Prix delighted the fans.
Once again, Ferrari decided to make their own strategy. As everyone was on soft tyres in the top 10, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were on medium tyres. This penalized them at the start, as the Monegasque lost his P2 and even P3 to George Russell and Lando Norris. On the other hand, a beautiful start from Oscar Piastri kept him in the lead. At the back of the field, a battle between two teammates, Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson occurred, but the Frenchman kept the lead and the P16. Oliver Bearman locked his tyres in Turn 1, however, he kept his position and was the driver with the most overtakes, gaining five places.
The race ongoing
Lando Norris took a 5-second penalty, as he was over his grid box. He purged it quickly during his first pitstop a couple of laps later. Kimi Antonelli dived Carlos Sainz and a little while later, Max Verstappen also overtook the Spaniard for P7. Isack Hadjar was the first driver to pit on lap 7, for medium tyres. Carlos Sainz went out of trajectory because his tyres were dead, giving the opportunity to Yuki Tsunoda to pass him. In the meantime, Kimi Antonelli continued to go up by overtaking Pierre Gasly at the end of Turn 4. Drivers on soft tyres started to struggle towards lap 10, so Lando Norris, Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly pitted a lap after. However, the fourth time world champion was put on hard tyres, which would be a bad decision since he had no rhythm with them. Moreover, a problem with the lights in the RedBull pit, that stayed red, penalized both drivers for their pitstop. Oscar Piastri pitted on lap 15 but kept the lead of the race.
A battle of the rookies, between Bearman and Hadjar occurred. With the Visa Cash App driver struggling with his rear, the MoneyGram Haas driver took P13. The first black and white flags, for track limit, started to appear for some drivers, Kimi Antonelli and Isack Hadjar being the first ones. On lap 24, Charles Leclerc came back behind the British McLaren driver and tried to overtake him but went too deep into the turn. However, he managed to do it the lap after. Max Verstappen pitted again on lap 27 for medium tyres this time. He had another problem during his pitstop, with his front right tyre staying stuck in his car. This cost him a great amount of time. Alpine made a beautiful double stack on lap 29, putting both of their drivers on hard tyres.
Penalties and problems
The first and only safety car of the race appeared on lap 32, caused by some debris because of a contact between Carlos Sainz and Yuki Tsunoda. This gave everyone a free pitstop, except for the Alpine drivers that stayed on track. The safety car restart was not the best for Charles Leclerc, who saw Lando Norris in his mirrors, but he managed to stay up front, which also helped Lewis Hamilton to overtake the Papaya car. The McLaren driver passed him again, but off track, so he gave back the position to his fellow British driver.
Carlos Sainz locked his tyres and went wide, taking Kimi Antonelli with him. He got a 10-second penalty for forcing a driver off of the track. Then it’s the beginning of the end for Liam Lawson. He took two 5-second penalties for an incident under the safety car, and for causing a collision with Hulkenberg. He also got a 10-second penalty for causing another collision, this time with Gabriel Bortoleto. Due to his contact with Yuki Tsunoda, Carlos Sainz is forced to retire his car. Some drivers seemed to have DRS issues, with the GPS not indicating where they should open it. George Russell is still being investigated about that, for supposedly opening it too early.
The final countdown
In the battle for third place, it was heated between Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris. The Ferrari driver didn’t hesitate to push the McLaren one slightly off of the track on lap 50. Ultimately, Lando Norris overtook him two laps later. Lando tried to overtake George Russell on the last lap, but the Mercedes driver defended his position. Oscar Piastri won by a 15 second margin and had the perfect race. It’s also the first points for Alpine with Pierre Gasly finishing P7, the first points for Yuki Tsunoda in that second RedBull seat, and the first double points for MoneyGram Haas, with Oliver Bearman P10 and Esteban Ocon in P8.