Bahrain GP: Martin Brundle reviews ‘imperious’ Oscar Piastri win, ‘timely’ George Russell drive amid Max Verstappen unrest

Bahrain gave us a great race once again, and positioned McLaren’s Oscar Piastri as potentially the favourite for this year’s world championship.

Piastri has largely recovered the points deficit from his unfortunate excursion, and lengthy challenge in getting his car off the wet grass, in his hometown race in Melbourne, and he continues to add a calm confidence to his considerable speed.

From the outside, it’s as if his pulse is a flat line at all times, and I can think of few drivers who could or can control their emotions and mind like that. Alain Prost, ‘the professor’, would be one.

Bahrain, the owners of the track, of course, and the majority of the McLaren team too, finally got to win at home after 21 years. This track used to be considered one of the less exciting venues racing wise, but moving it to an evening race – at the same time as the hybrid cars arrived in 2014 – has transformed it.

The track surface has remarkably been down since 2004, and hasn’t been ironed into a billiard table like so many, and so has some bumps and character which tests the cars and drivers, which is a good thing. The aggressive asphalt, which must tolerate extreme heat and sand storms, also tortures the tyres, throwing in great variable.

This meant that all three tyre compounds came into play, and numerous different ideas on how and when to use them. This was further complicated by a lap-32 safety car in order to collect up debris which had departed Carlos Sainz’s damaged Williams.

It was the right decision by the race director because the debris was very close to the racing line, but far from the side of the track from where marshals needed to be sent out to collect it, even under a virtual safety car scenario. Better to scoop the pack up and control them behind the real safety car.

Norris should have been second

Lando Norris had a difficult qualifying and lined up sixth but would make a sensational start and flying first four corners to immediately claim third. The problem was that in trying to maximise his grid position as far forward as possible, he overdid it, and was just ahead of his grid box, attracting a five-second penalty that he would serve at his first pit stop.

Sometimes I can see drivers from the commentary box window wasting a metre or so of opportunity in their grid box, which is impossible to see from the cockpit, hence the big lateral yellow line to help them see out of the side of the car.

Lando got boxed in on the safety car restart down into turn one between the two Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, and lost out. Overtaking Ferraris would feature strongly in his race, but despite all of that, such was the pace of the McLaren he still should have been second.

George Russell in an ailing Mercedes had other ideas though, and drove around fundamental braking and electrical issues brilliantly to hang on. Having made a great start too, this was surely one of his finest F1 drives. Very timely too as he looks for a new contract with the team for 2026 and beyond, especially given paddock talk about Max Verstappen being in the market place.

Piastri was imperious out front whatever the challenges and with Russell and Norris filling the other two podium steps, this left Ferrari fourth and fifth. Both drivers were happier with an updated underfloor and it stayed on the cars for the race. But despite the safety car closing the pack, Charles Leclerc was 20 seconds behind the winner at the end and Lewis Hamilton 28 seconds adrift.

Mind you, by delaying their first pit stop to lap 17 the Ferraris were flying along very nicely in the next phase before the safety car was deployed. But there’s a lot of work to do to get that Ferrari to the front and no doubt they have a plan, but with races coming thick and fast, cost caps firmly in place, and a huge focus needed on the dramatic 2026 changes, finding a chunk of lap time in a hurry is not easy these days.

Heavy conversations needed at Red Bull

Even Verstappen’s talents couldn’t save Red Bull from a torrid weekend. The car looked a handful to drive and he was often seen struggling to slow down and turn in from the key braking zones in all track sessions. After following Pierre Gasly’s Alpine for endless laps, in the closing stages he was able to sneak past on the last circuit and claim a distant sixth place, not helped by some lumpy pit stops with equipment issues.

Yuki Tsunoda would score his first couple of Red Bull points in ninth but considering the team won the Japanese GP just seven days before, it’s all rather confusing – probably for them too. There’ll be some heavy conversations going on.

Gasly started fourth and finished seventh for Alpine, but those hard facts totally fail to demonstrate just how well he drove in qualifying and the race to claim their first points of the season.

I expected Williams to have a very strong weekend and initially it looked good, especially for Sainz starting well from inside the top 10 on the grid. He would get mugged for several places, before heavy contact with Tsunoda and forcing Kimi Antonelli off the track on the safety car restart meant that not only was he penalised, but he had to retire the car anyway.

Alex Albon would finish 12th in his Williams because any points left on the table from the big guns were grabbed by Haas with Esteban Ocon in a fine eighth and Ollie Bearman driving from the back of the grid to a highly creditable 10th. To underline that it didn’t really matter which compound of tyres were on any car as long as they were newish, Ocon had a soft-medium-hard strategy, and Bearman was soft-hard-soft.

The relatively tiny Haas team are now fifth in the Constructors’ Championship ahead of teams such as Aston Martin, who continue to struggle horribly, with Fernando Alonso still yet to score a single point. Ouch.

There was plenty of contact and resultant penalties flying around, the stewards’ office was busy, and it must have felt like a referee constantly blowing a whistle. Their final task was to disqualify Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber for having a skid plate too heavily worn for the rules.

Little time to draw breath, we are off to the super fast Jeddah circuit in a few days.

Formula 1 completes its first triple-header of 2025 in Jeddah with the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime