Oscar Piastri caps off ‘incredible weekend’ with a win in the Bahrain Grand Prix

The Japanese Grand Prix saw Max Verstappen spoil what looked to be a McLaren victory party as the Red Bull driver nipped pole position from Lando Norris and kept Norris and Oscar Piastri at bay throughout the race for his first win of the 2025 season.

Piastri made sure there would not be a repeat performance at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The Australian driver put in a dominant performance for McLaren, taking pole position on Saturday and then slamming the door on all challengers, holding off George Russell to take the Bahrain Grand Prix, becoming the first repeat winner of the 2025 season.

With Norris recovering from a poor qualifying performance to climb to third, McLaren extended their lead over Mercedes in the Constructors’ Championship to 58 points.

As for the drivers, the McLaren duo are separated by just three points, with Norris sitting on 77 points and Piastri on 74.

“It’s been an incredible weekend, starting off with qualifying yesterday and, yeah, to finish the job today in style was nice,” said Piastri trackside to Karun Chandhok. “So, yeah, can’t thank the team enough for the car they’ve given us. It’s pretty handy out there. So no, it’s been a great weekend and, yeah, very proud of what I’ve done this weekend as well. Very proud to do it here in Bahrain as well. It’s obviously a very important race for us, given our owners, and it’s never been a track that’s been kind to us. So it’s nice to finally have that first win for the team.”

Mumtalaket, the sovereign wealth fund of Bahrain, purchased the McLaren Group in 2024.

“It’s fantastic to have the first win here for the team,” added Piastri in the FIA Press Conference. “It obviously means a lot for everybody involved. There’s been a lot of tough years for the team at McLaren, and obviously the owners have been at the head of trying to turn those problems around. So to now have... Obviously, we had success last season, but to now have success for the first time on home soil for the team is an incredible result and very deserved. So yeah, it’s great to have this success.”

While McLaren was subject to a bit of criticism over how they handled the strategy behind Verstappen at the Japanese Grand Prix, the team was on point throughout the race according to Piastri, starting with their decision to begin the race on the soft tires.

“I mean, we kind of thought most people would start on the Soft. You know, George only had one Medium and one Hard, and there were quite a lot of people around us that were in the same boat,” said Piastri. “So yeah, we felt starting on the Soft was going to be the best option, and I think it was the right choice in the end. So pleased with how we managed everything. I think we had the pace today to be able to manage things pretty well. But yeah, I think we made all the right calls.”

McLaren will hope to make the right calls again next week, as the first triple-header of the season comes to a close with the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.