MOTORSPORT - Formula One world champions McLaren shone brightest at ‘home’ yesterday, topping both practice timesheets in the Formula One Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2025 at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir.
The Bahrain-owned team continued their impressive start to the 2025 FIA F1 World Championship, with Lando Norris setting the pace in the first practice session – held under the hot desert sun yesterday afternoon – and then teammate Oscar Piastri leading all runners in the second practice, which took place in cooler evening conditions under BIC’s bright, state-of-the-art floodlights.
Piastri’s time in the evening runs of one minute 30.505 seconds in his MCL39 contender was the overall best of the day.
“Friday done – pretty tricky conditions out there today, especially in FP1, but I think it’s been a good day overall,” said Piastri, who triumphed in the second round of the F1 season in China.
“The pace looked strong in FP2, and we’ve learned a lot. We’ll have a look at what went well and what we can do better before turning our attention to qualifying tomorrow afternoon.”
Qualifying is scheduled for 7pm tonight at BIC, but the F1 field will have a third practice earlier in the day at 3.30pm.
“A reasonable day for the team,” commented Norris, who was the victor in the 2025 curtain-raiser in Australia. “Some tricky conditions, very different to the [pre-season] test, so it’s about understanding the car in the heat.
“The team have worked hard all day, and we now have plenty of things to focus on tomorrow to make sure we’re in a strong position for qualifying.”
Norris finished right behind Piastri on last night’s second practice timesheet, with the current drivers’ championship leader going just 0.154 seconds slower. They combined for 57 laps between them in the session.
George Russell driving his Mercedes W16 took third on the times 0.527s off the pace, while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in the SF-25 was fourth-best 0.540s adrift.
F1 rookie sensation Kimi Antonelli put two Mercedes cars in the top five after going 0.722s from Piastri. Isack Hadjar in his Racing Bulls VCARB 02 was sixth 0.733s from the top, four-time reigning drivers’ world champion Max Verstappen in Red Bull Racing’s RB21 was seventh 0.825s back, and seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton in the other Ferrari completed the top eight 1.071s from first place.
In the opening practice yesterday, Norris led with a best lap of 1:33.204 – 0.238s quicker than Pierre Gasly in the Alpine A525, while Hamilton completed the top three 0.596s behind.
Alexander Albon in Williams’ FW47 was fourth 0.724s from the top, while Esteban Ocon in the Haas VF-25 came fifth 0.980s adrift. Nico Hulkenberg driving his Kick Sauber C45 took sixth place 1.058s from Norris, while Jack Doohan in the other Alpine came seventh 1.192s back, and Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson completed the fastest eight 1.193s from Norris.
“We enjoyed a reasonable first day here in Bahrain, where we were able to complete our run plans as intended,” said McLaren team principal Andrea Stella.
“While our FP2 times looked encouraging, we know we still have some work to do to convert this into a strong qualifying position tomorrow, which in turn will be critical when it comes to giving us opportunities on Sunday.
“As always, we will analyse the data overnight, see where we can make improvements and put ourselves in the best possible position to fight during qualifying.”
With pre-season testing being held at BIC in the last week of February, six F1 teams took the opportunity to field rookie drivers in yesterday’s first practice.
The conditions in this session were unrepresentative of that in tonight’s qualifying and tomorrow’s race, thus providing an opportunity to put their up-and-coming talents in their cars and give them valuable F1 experience.
They included Luke Browning (+1.681s), who drove for Williams in place of Sainz; Dino Beganovic (+1.851s), in Leclerc’s car for Ferrari; Felipe Drugovich (+1.994s) in the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso; Ryo Hirakawa (+2.057s) in the Haas of Bearman; Vesti (+2.121s) in the Mercedes of Russell; and Ayumu Iwasa (+2.271s) in the second Red Bull Racing contender, driving instead of Verstappen.
This year’s F1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix marks the fourth round of the 2025 FIA F1 World Championship. It is celebrating the 75th anniversary of both F1 and Bahrain’s national carrier and grand prix title sponsor Gulf Air.
The 57-lap main event on Sunday will be the first night race of the season.
Taking place under BIC’s bright, state-of-the-art floodlights, it will be showcasing to the world that ‘The Desert Never Sleeps’.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
&uuid=(email))