MOTORSPORT – OSCAR Piastri stormed to pole position last night for the Formula One Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2025 as world champions McLaren continued to flex their muscles at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir.
Chasing their first-ever victory at ‘The Home of Motorsport in the Middle East’ this weekend, Bahrain-owned McLaren stayed perfect after two days of action – topping the timesheets in all three F1 practice sessions and then securing the leading grid position for tonight’s 57-lap night race.
Piastri was the star man yesterday at BIC. After going fastest in the third practice, held in warm afternoon conditions, the Australian captured pole under lights in cooler night temperatures.
He set a fastest lap of one minute 29.841 seconds in his MCL39 challenger. That best mark came on his very last lap of Q3, making for a stunning finish to a hugely thrilling session in which the fastest nine were within a second of each other.
It was the maiden pole for McLaren in Bahrain and the second for Piastri in his F1 career. He will now be at the very front of the starting order for what will be his 50th grand prix.
“I felt confident out there pretty much all weekend, to be honest,” said Piastri, who had a modest start at BIC after finishing 10th in the opening practice on Friday.
“FP1 was an experience for us all. I think it felt more like a rally car than an F1 car, but from then on I’ve felt really comfortable with the car.
“In FP3, we had good pace and yeah, qualifying, you know, the others caught up a little bit closer than what I wanted. But yeah, still delivered the laps when it mattered, which was the most important thing at the end. So very, very happy.”
George Russell qualified second quickest with a lap of 1:30.009 but was later given a one-place grid following a rule breach. He has been demoted to third, with Charles Leclerc of Ferrari set to start on the front row alongside Piastri. Leclerc’s quickest mark in qualifying last night was 1:30.175.
“I think if anybody said we’d be within half-a-second of the McLarens, we would have taken it, because we would have thought that would have been sort of P3 on the grid – so to be second on the grid is a bonus,” said Russell before learning of his penalty, which was announced a few hours after qualifying ended last night. “Congrats to Oscar, great lap and excited for tomorrow.”
Leclerc was also pleased with his qualifying result. “Honestly, I didn’t expect P3,” he said. “I knew that in Q3 there was some lap time. I knew that in Q1 and Q2, I just had to be patient and wait for the track to come towards me in Q3, which was a bit tricky because at the beginning of Q3 everything felt really bad with the old tyres. But then as soon as we put the new tyres, it was quite a bit better. So I’m happy.
“I did not expect it. We explored quite a lot of extreme set-ups in the last few weekends and it feels like I found my way a little bit, and little by little I hope there will be more performance to extract from this car in the weekends to come.”
F1’s rookie sensation Kimi Antonelli qualified fourth with a best lap of 1:30.213 in Q3 but was also given a one-place grid penalty along with his Mercedes teammate.
The stewards penalised Russell and Antonelli after they were sent into the fast lane by the team in the pit lane before a session restart time, which followed an incident involving Haas’ Esteban Ocon early in Q2.
Pierre Galsy of Alpine was thus promoted to fourth. He had clocked a top lap of 1:30.216. Set to start alongside Antonelli in sixth is drivers’ championship leader Lando Norris, who had a Q3 lap of 1:30.267 for McLaren.
Four-time drivers’ world champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing will start seventh tonight after a lap of 1:30.423 in qualifying yesterday. Carlos Sainz of Williams will be eighth on the grid having set a lap of 1:30.680, while Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari and Yuki Tsunoda of Red Bull Racing rounded out the top 10 in Q3, with fastest laps of 1:30.772 and 1:31.303, respectively.
Earlier in last night’s qualifying, dropping out in Q2 were Jack Doohan of Alpine, Isack Hadjar of Racing Bulls, Nico Hulkenberg of Kick Sauber, Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin, and Ocon, who crashed at the beginning of the session to bring out the red flags. They will start from 11th to 15th, respectively.
Dropping out of Q1 and set to start from 16th to 20th were Alex Albon of Williams, Liam Lawson of Racing Bulls, Gabriel Bortoleto of Kick Sauber, Lance Stroll of Aston Martin, and Oliver Bearman of Haas.
Tonight’s 57-lap grand prix is scheduled to flag off at 6pm. It will be 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.
During yesterday’s third practice session, Piastri topped the times for the second straight test with a fastest lap of 1:31.646. Practice one pace-setter Norris was 0.668s behind, while Leclerc completed the top three after running 0.834s from Piastri’s best.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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