Piastri Claims Pole For 2025 Bahrain GP – Sport Grill

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri claimed a dominant pole position for the 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix.

Piastri topped FP3 and went on to dominate two of the three Qualifying segments to claim his second Grand Prix pole position in F1, ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell in a thrilling finish to Q3.

Championship leader, Lando Norris stuttered to sixth after struggling to match Piastri’s pace after a bright start in Q1.

FP3

Haas’ Oliver Bearman was first out onto the circuit and set an initial benchmark time of 1m 37.825 on hard tyres, but his teammate – Esteban Ocon then Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton soon bettered his effort, as Hamilton set 1m 34.846 in the 13th minute on the soft tyres.

McLaren soon came along on the soft tyres and displaced their former driver as Norris posted 1m 33.796 to go top just 20 minutes into the session, but Piastri went 0.472 seconds quicker to go fastest with 1m 33.324 which was unbeaten until the soft-tyre qualifying simulations commenced.

At the checkered flag, nobody could beat Piastri who lowered the eventual fastest lap to 1m 31.646 after Max Verstappen then Pierre Gasly briefly displaced him, as Norris settled for second ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Qualifying

Q1

Aston Martin’s Alonso and Stroll were first on track but it was the latter who set the initial benchmark time of 1m 33.575 which was deleted due to track limits, whilst Norris found himself top with 1m 31.107 from Piastri once everyone except Verstappen and Tsunoda set a lap time.

Verstappen had aborted his first flier after he ran wide at the final corner whilst Tsunoda’s lap time was deleted due to having exceeded track limits, which left the Red Bull duo sat last behind Hulkenberg, Bortoleto and Hadjar who were sat 18, 17 and 16th respectively in the elimination zone.

Hulkenberg however improved on his second lap time to drop Stroll into the bottom five with six minutes left on the clock.

At the checkered flag, Albon became a surprise elimination as he only qualified 16th after having enjoyed a pre-season test around the circuit, whilst Lawson qualified 17th ahead of; Bortoleto, Stroll and Bearman who had a scruffy final flier.

Q2

A quiet start to Q2 saw nobody hurry out until the second minute but the session was red flagged towards the end of the fourth minute with 11 minutes and one second left on the clock, after Ocon spun out on the exit of Turn 2 into Turn 3 with a heavy impact into the barriers but he escaped the incident unharmed.

The session resumed 12 minutes later with Antonelli and Russell first to venture back out at the head of a queue cars who exited the pits once the pit-exit light turned green.

Antonelli proceeded to set 1m 31.178 as the initial benchmark time but Norris soon displaced him as he went 0.618s quicker to set 1m 30.560, but Piastri went a further 0.106s faster to set the fastest lap time of the opening runs as he posted 1m 30.454 to make it a McLaren one-two.

Verstappen once again aborted his first flying lap and found himself 11th ahead of Hadjar, Ocon, Alonso and Tsunoda with five minutes left on the clock.

As the checkered flag fell, Ocon was initially confirmed as 15th on the grid after Alonso and Tsunoda managed to set a lap time although Alonso’s lap time only put him ahead of Ocon in 14th position.

Hulkenberg managed to qualify 13th behind Hadjar and Doohan who will line up 12th and 11th respectively, although Doohan only missed out on Q3 to Tsunoda by just 0.017s.

Stewards however decided to disallow Hulkenberg’s fastest Q1 lap and Q2 lap times shortly after the end of Q2 due to track limits in Q1, which promoted Alonso and Ocon up to 13th and 14th on the grid whilst Albon was moved up to 15th on the grid ahead of the Sauber driver.

Q3

Tsunoda was first out of the pits once Q3 commenced and set 1m 31.637 as the initial benchmark which several drivers soon usurped as Piastri topped the opening runs of Q3 with 1m 30.233, with a 0.131s gap to Russell in second as Norris only managed third.

Leclerc and Hamilton sat fourth and fifth ahead of Antonelli, Tsunoda, Gasly, Sainz and Verstappen ahead of the final runs, although Antonelli and Hamilton’s laps were deleted with just two minutes left on the clock which dropped them to ninth and tenth respectively.

Once the checkered flag fell, Antonelli then Russell displaced Piastri but the Aussie roared back with 1m 29.841 to take his second GP pole position of the season, ahead of Russell whilst Leclerc snatched third from Antonelli who outqualified Gasly in fourth and fifth respectively by just 0.003s.

Norris stuttered to sixth but ahead of his title rival, Verstappen as Sainz, Hamilton and Tsunoda rounded out the top ten.

Post-session, Leclerc and Gasly were promoted to second and fourth respectively after Russell and Antonelli had received one-place grid penalties, after the pair had gone to the pit exit just too early ahead of the Q2 resumption after Ocon’s red flagged incident.

*Post-session, Hulkenberg’s fastest Q1 time plus every Q2 lap time were deleted which meant that he would start 16th behind Albon who moves up a position.

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