There is no rest for the tired on Formula 1 grid.
Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix was the second race in the first Triple header of the season, and the grid immediately goes to Jeddah for the Saudi-Arab Grand Prix next weekend.
But before we can look ahead, it’s time for a final retrospective on the Bahrain Grand Prix. Here are the lesons that we have learned more than 57 laps in the desert.
Oscar Piastri makes his championship case
To hear the two McLaren drivers speak after the race, this is exactly where they spoke when the season started: a two-two are in the rankings of the drivers.
But the gap of only three points between leader Lando Norris and the second place Driver Oscar Piastri is perhaps smaller than even the expecteda.
That is the state of the game after the impressive performance of Piastri in Bahrain, so he saw the pole position on Saturday and hardly did a foot wrong on Sunday in route to his victory for George Russell. While Norris sub credit for his recovery drive Deherves and the stage reached third place after the start of the sixth place, Piestri became the first repeated winner of the 2025 season and is in Excellent as the first triple header of the season to an Aaaaaaa Close Arabian Grand Prix.
The almost perfect version of Piastri, in combination with what we saw from Norris, could make him the favorite for the driver’s championship at the moment.
But there is a long way to go, a title is decided.
Lando Norris returns, but as only he can
Shortly after the lights in Bahrain had gone out, there was Norris, who was fourth after the start and the jerk P3 away from Charles Leclerc, all before the first round even ended:
Many had that start, including this author, who wondered if Norris would deliver a dream performance under the light in Bahrain.
Then Word came forward that Norris was being investigated for a false start and soon Efter, replacement that the McLaren driver was not in his box on the grid when the lights went out and he got a five-second criminal.
That forced the team’s hand, and McLaren Called him in the pits early in round 10, so he served his penalty. That later made him vulnerable in the race for the next challenge from Leclerc, who got him in round 25 on Freshre tires.
Eventually relief came in the form of a security car, which then came a collision between Yuki Tsunoda and Carlos Sainz Jr. Ridden rubble on the track. The permitted Norris and other leaders to dive back into the pits and the McLaren driver came on a new set of media. He quickly fights with Lewis Hamilton for P4, so that at one point he made a catch -up stick to give the place back while he had left the job during the maneuver. Norris finally came around Hamilton and his teammate Leclerc to settle in P3.
But he might put his race together as follows: “Every time I was at the buk and did two badly.”
On the one hand, Norris did well to recover for a Podish Fer after the start of the sixth. This season you have secured Podist -Finish in every Grand Prix. Those are the types of results that you can win a championship.
However, he was satisfied with third place in a week in which he was one of the leaders for the victory, given what he showed in practice and Glenn the power of the MCL39. Even his enormous start, which seemed to bring him into battle for the victory, was unity through his fals start punishment that changed the plan that the team had when the race started. Those are the kind of results that you cost a championship.
Worries at Red Bull
With Yuki Tsunoda ending in the top ten only achieved his first points result with Red Bull, he gave the team their first double points since the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Read that sentence again.
Even the results on Sunday were more a disappointment than something else. Max Verstappen continued to fight for the fifth in the last laps and ended how “Eventhing went wrong” when he spoke with the media after the race. Verstappen was undone by subfolds in the pits and a stint on the hard -proofs difficult for the defensive driver’s champion.
Red Bull Senior Figure Helmut Marko again sounded the alarm after the race, but Shat came to follow Motorsport Described as a “spontaneous” set of conversations under senior management to find out the next steps for the team.
“It is a different difficult day for Red Bull, that is clear to all of us,” said Marko in Bahrain.
“We must, so possible, get back in the car in the car and also have to work standards such as a pit stop. The car is not the fastest and the pit stops not working. That is not acceptable.”
Marko remarks that upgrades come for the RB21 and that he hopes they will improve. However, the team that you currently have “many problems”.
“Vray alarming. We know we are not competitive and there will be parts in the coming races and hopefully they will improve,” said Marko.
“We have a lot of problems. The biggest problem is balance and grip. And from this, so I think the problems with the brakes have emerged. And the normal procedure such as a pit stop does not work, so one [issue] You eat the other. “
Whether Red Bull figures are surrounded on time to save the championship that can still be viewed, but the implementation that is turned off on the day of day is not the kind of weekend that you keep in conflict in the fall.
Haas takes the lead in midfield fight
As noted above, both Verstappen and Tsunoda achieve in the points that Red Bull secured their first double point result of the season.
At the same time, Haas was secured their second result.
After the Disastourous Saturday Esteban Ocon eliminated in Q2 in Q2 in Q1, Haas had both drivers on or near the back of the schedule when the lights went out. Ocon started dead in P14, while the Bearman stood in the back of the grid.
When the dust settled, both divers were in the top ten, with Ocon ending in the eighth and Bartender Tenth. They were Uble to take advantage of the security car, so Ocon stayed outside to get a valuable job position, while Bearman puts Putte for a new set of softs, which he used to keep Kimi Antonelli and Alex Albon for the last place in the points.
“What a day. I’m Vray Happy, especially after yesterday’s disappointment – nobody gave up,” said Haas team Main Ayao Komatsu after the race. “We knew what to do today, we knew we had pale in the car and two drivers who can deliver results. We print to dream of a double points finish, but to be honest they were afraid of something.
“I am really happy to see how it responds to disappointment – it is racing, so there will be highlights and lows. It is easy to ride the highlights, but not easy to make the lows and to set a performance like this. It was like.
The results moved to the fifth in the pursuit of the builders and placed one point in front of Williams and at the front of the battle for midfield.
Pierre Gasly breaks through for Alpine
Last season Alpine broke through with their first points in the Miami Grand Prix, when Esteban Ocon finished the tenth in the Miami Grand Prix.
They didn’t have to wait that long this season.
While they entered the Bahrain Grand Prix as the only team that still scored points this season, the qualifying results of Saturday Alpine gave a good chance of security a result, when Pierre Gasly stormed the Q3 and the race started after a one-place roster to Kimi Antonelli. As far as Jack Doohan is concerned, he handed in the best qualifying session of his F1 career, so he missed the Q3 with 0.017 seconds and started 11th.
While Doohan could not charge in points, Gasly finished seventh, just missing sixth when he came to the losing end of a fight with Verstappen in the final round. Yet it was a much needed result for the Estone -based team.
“I am pleased for the entire team that we have scored our first points of the season in seventh place,” said Gasly in the team’s post-race report. “We lost a position in the final round of Max [Verstappen] So that is a bit disappointing, but he won last week, so that we can really only take the positives of that effort. It was a good start to the fourth on the schedule and we stayed in the front package on the first Stint. We were a bit of a shame with the timing of the Safety Car after our second stop for hard tires. From there it was downright until the end, just try to keep Max behind, and we just had no more tires to lose the position. “
Gasly believes that the layout in Saudi Arabia can still mean a positive result for the team next weekend.
“Now we focus directly on Jeddah where hopefully we can be competitive,” Gasly added. “The car feels good in high-speed corners, I was printed as he performed here, so hopefully the same in Saudi Arabia next weekend and we can repeat our level of competitiveness.”
A Pad Forward Emergares for Ferrari
Two drivers were left depressed on Saturday after the qualification: Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton.
Both found a reason to celebrate Sunday.
While Norris stormed into a stage result, Hamilton worked his way up for fifth place, his best Grand Prix result since he came to Ferrari. With Charles Leclerc ending in the fourth, this was the best Grand Prix result for the team this season.
Speaking after the race, Hamilton has described how much he learned about the car from Saturday to Sunday, which is a good omen for Ferrari’s Path Vooruit.
“I learned today to go to destiny today, and as I saw, that middle stint I was really in line with the car and I had the pace and I was forward,” Hamilton said after the race. “I need that at the beginning and the end and I need that at the qualification, so I know what to look for now.
“The car is quite difficult to drive and I am really working hard to adjust my driving style, so that’s really what I have to do,” Hamilton added. “Get the setup where I need it, we will drop a much better setup where I need it, we drop a lot
There are still sub -questions at Ferrari, starting with ESI decision to start Leclerc and Hamilton on the medium -sized tires, while everyone around them was on the softs, who was the beginning of the respective races Touger. And while Leclerc Poled was exhausted, they still have to find more pace of the SF-25.
But they slowly dress the gap.
“We are where we are: McLaren is still a step forward, but we fought with the second stint and we were able to fight with both Mercedes and Red Bulls,” said team head Frederic Vasseur after the race. “We will continue to work to be more competitive in the next Raes, starting in Saudi Arabia next week.”