Heroics Into Saint Devote

What a race! An absolute belter of a race here at the Bahrain International Circuit. Oscar Piastri has just recorded his second victory of the season, his fourth of his career and Mclaren’s first in the Bahrain desert. And in a rather chaotic race, the cool-headed Aussie prevailed, and really showed his metal. Stamping his name on this years World Drivers Championship campaign. He’s really something special, and I can’t wait to see how far he takes this.

Mclaren teammate Lando Norris had a bit of a blunder in qualifying, only managing to get his MCL39 to P6, ahead of title rival Max Verstappen and his misbehaving RB21 in P7. Though the race-start was not without it’s controversy. Lando Norris appeared to park his car, then when changing gear to first, the car crept forwards, leading Lando to be beyond the limits of his grid box, for which the Stewards hastily awarded him a 5 second time penalty. Now in the interest of remaining impartial and informative, I’ll say this was job done. No, that’s boring. I feel a 5 second penalty was far too lenient, especially considering the other penalties handed out during the race. And when you consider the rocketship start that Lando had, you have to ask the question. Did he gain a real advantage in being further forward than anybody else? I digress. Lando served his penalty at his first stop, and set his sights on Oscar Piastri and George Russell ahead. And what for Charles Leclerc who started on the front row alongside Piastri? Well Charles had angled his car toward Piastri in his grid box, showing his intent to get right behind him after the lights went out. Though once they did, Charles’ start did not compare to that of Mr Saturday in his W16 Mercedes AMG. On the run into T1 however, Charles moved all the way to the right, then eased to the left to take the first turn, where he found Lando Norris on his outside, after his rocket start, launching himself up to P3 on the road, behind fellow Brit, George Russell.

Behind them, Antonelli and Pierre Gasly come out of turn 4 side-by-side, wheel to wheel on the run into turn 5, where Gasly prevailed on the inside line. Though not without a fight, before Kimi dived off the track and used the runoff as to avoid a collision supposedly. Kimi was then relegated a place further to 7th after Sainz made an opportunist move into turn 8, and made it stick on the run to turn 9. I’m sure Verstappen behind could smell blood in the water, but nothing coming of it as he navigated the minefield that is Red Bull’s grand prix car for the year. Just behind him came Lewis Hamilton in his best race for the Scuderia yet. Towing Tsunoda in the other Red Bull, who had a run over Hamilton out of turn 10, and all the way into turn 11, where he backed out of the move and thought better of it.

A little bit of tire-talk now. Ferrari are the only team to send both it’s drivers into the race on the medium compound tyre. Among the others were Alonso, Lawson and Bortoleto. I wonder. Ferrari masterclass? Or Ferrari disasterclass? By the end of lap one, Piastri had nearly broken DRS to Russell behind, some 8 tenths further up the road. Alot of drivers are struggling with lock-ups early in this race, most notable of which is Oliver Bearman in the Haas, who has a monster lockup in turn 1. Others include Bortoleto and Verstappen who had minor ones and T4 and 8 respectively.

It was lap 3 when Lando discovered he was under investigation, but the FIA weren’t the first people to know about it. Verstappen was the first to know, letting his engineer on the radio know. And subsequently, was soon slapped with a 5 second time penalty, which ultimately proved pointless. Meanwhile, Hamilton began complaining about the grip from his Medium compound Pirellis. Back up at the front, and Oscar Piastri is already 1.4 seconds ahead of the chasing George Russell, and had completely checked out for the most part. The other Ferrari in the form of Charles Leclerc was also facing his own issues, where he claimed “the brakes are so inconsistent. So annoying” on his radio to race engineer, affectionately dubbed Xavi. Though Kimi Antonelli isn’t having issues with his as he goes for a monster send on the Williams of Carlos Sainz into turn 1. The Spaniard then lost another position as Verstappen quickly dispatched of him after going around the outside of turn 4, where he barely stayed within the confines of the racetrack. And despite this, he still called out Sainz for leaving him no racing room.

Isack Hadjar and the Toro Rosso was the first car to box at the end of lap 6, a very early stop off the soft tyre. But at the same time, Sainz’s day went from bad to worse as Hamilton forced the issue through turn 4, and eventually went by into turn 11, followed by Tsunoda who bravely hung it around the outside of turn 12, desperately clinging to the rear wing of the Maranello-based outfit. Gasly was also holding his own in the high-flying Alpine car, against Mercedes hot-shoe Kimi Antonelli into turn 1.

Lap 11 came the first pitstops for the leaders. Norris was followed in by Gasly and Verstappen. Though in a change of pace, it was the Red Bull Racing crew that had issues. The light that hangs above the box, telling the drivers went to go was malfuntioning and permanently showing red with a blinking yellow light. Causing both Verstappen and Tsunoda to have slower stops than they needed. 4.7 for Verstappen and 4.2 for Tsunoda. Not what the Red Bull Drivers needed. And at the end of lap 14, Piastri comes in for his stop, releasing the Ferrari’s as they now lead one and two here in the Bahraini night. Not a whole lot happened from here, unless you count Max complaining about overheating in the cockpit. Though we do see the first black and white flags of the race, in the direction of Hadjar and Antonelli, both of which were on their final warnings for abusing track limits around the circuit.

Lap 17, and Ferrari call Leclerc in, and against his will, he boxes. But not without protesting, claiming he wanted “delta, auxillary”, which Martin Brundle speculated to mean he wanted a one-stop race. Ferrari pull of a decent double stack, servicing Leclerc in 2.6 and Hamilton in 2.3. Lap 20 and Antonelli orchestrates a fantastic move through turn 4 on the reigning World Champion. He’s really showing his class tonight. Down the grid, Hadjar and Bearman are having a great battle through T1 and up to T4. We’ve seen plenty of overtaking here today, and it’s only lap 21. Bearman made a tidy move around the outside of Hadjar through turn 4, earning praise from Martin Brundle. Lap 22 and Hamilton sweeps past the struggling Verstappen, which earns more complaints from Max, claiming he “cant even brake anymore. It’s ridiculous.” This isn’t the first scathing review the RB21 has had this evening, though Tsunoda seems to be coping better than Lawson managed. I can imagine that might be to do with the altered front wing Red Bull introduced this weekend.

Leclerc goes hopeful on the brakes into turn 1 on Norris, and runs deep in the process, meaning he can’t make the move stick. But the very next lap, he forces Norris to go defensive into T1 and compromises his run up the hill. Where the then swoops around the outside of the Mclaren through turn 4. At the same time, Hamilton sends one down the inside of his Mercedes replacement, meaning ferrari are now third and sixth. Is their strategy call working out? A shoutout to Pierre Gasly too, who is still flying high in P5 on merit, in what’s shaping up to be a great race for Alpine, with rookie teammate Doohan also scoring points in 10th as things stand.

The next round of stops is here, and Red Bull have more issues during the stops. Verstappen’s front right tyre was just refusing to come off, warranting a 6.2 second stop and a shake of the head from Max in the cockpit. It almost seems comical. Down in tur 1, Sainz goes for an audacious send on Yuki Tsunoda and outbrakes himself. Tsunoda was wise to it and allowed Carlos to pass before turning in. Though on exit, his rear gets a little loose, sliding left and slamming into the side of Carlos’ Williams, which damaged the bodywork. The bodywork then failed 2 corners later, in a shower of carbon fibre shrapnel, leaving a large whole in the sidepod, exposing radiators and hoses.

By Lap 32, Piastri was leading by over 7 seconds, but his lead was reduced to nothing when the Race Director ordered a safety car and completely neutralised the field and allowed the marshals to gather the debris that littered the first sector. The whole field boxed, bar a few drivers including the wounded Max Verstappen, who prioritised track position over fresh rubber. And on the restart, Piastri gets away well, as does teammate Norris, who sizes up a move on Charles Leclerc into turn one, riding his gearbox all the way down. Charles moved to the inside in defence, squeezing Norris to the apex, allowing teammate Hamilton to cruise around the outside of his fellow brit, allowing the Scuderia to run nose-to-tail up the hill to turn 4, with a stunned Norris close behind. Though not for long, as Norris repays the favour and dances around the outside of the seven-time-world champion, though leaving the track in the process. He was informed by the team, a lap later, to return the position, which he did in the same corner.

It was around now, we noticed Russell having transponder issues, which affected more than the timing tower. This actually affected his DRS Activation, and did not allow him to make use of the drag reduction system when in the designated zones. It was soon after this that viewers at home lost the timing tower on their TV screens as the media teams fought the gremlins in their systems. Though Race Control wasn’t fighting any gremlins. They awarded Lawson a 5 second time penalty for an altercation with Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll. They also awarded Sainz a 10 second time penalty for forcing Kimi Antonelli off track at turn 10. The Spaniard locked up on entry and forced Antonelli for run all-four wheels off track to avoid a collision. Though Norris only got given 5 seconds for cheating. Williams decided it was best to box to retire sainz on Lap 47, serving the penalty on lap 46 to avoid a grid-drop in Saudi Arabia next time out. Piastri was also reminded by his engineer to use his drink bottle, to which a slightly disgruntled Oscar responded “if it worked.” Poor guy was doing the race with no drink. Awful.

Doohan was the next driver to see a driving standards flag for track limits, meanwhile Leclerc forces Norris off the track at turn 4. Though because Norris was not ahead at the apex, it means Leclerc was within his rights to do this. Naturally, Norris complained, but got on with the job. I hate that rule. Russell is also facing more issues in his Mercedes, with his engineer warning him that he may lose the dash on his wheel. To which he comically replied “as long as the wheel doesn’t fall off” which i suspect referenced Fernando Alonso’s steering wheel reset in practice. It was around now that Russell was noted for his DRS infringement. More on that now.

After the race, the stewards heard from both George and a team representative that amid their electrical issues, the team remapped George’s back-up radio button to be a manual DRS override switch. In trying to communicate with his team, George pressed this button and inadvertently opened his DRS flap between turn 10 and 11. Which he was not rightfully able to do so. On the 700 metre long straight, his DRS was open for around 37 metres, gaining him a laughable 0.02 seconds. But in compensation, George gave up 0.26 seconds, which meant there was certainly no sporting advantage gained. This satisfied the stewards enough to not award a penalty, meaning George’s final result and season-best result still stands.

Norris was then added to the list of drivers with a driving standards flag, alongside Tsunoda and Verstappen. Lawson was also awarded a second penalty for causing a collision, meaning he now had 15 seconds worth of penalties to be applied after the race.

Lap 57 and Max Verstappen finally forces way past Pierre Gasly to maximise his race result, earning himself a P6 in a tough race for the Dutchman. Russell was also able to hold off Lando Norris on 23 lap old soft tyres to finish second to Oscar Piastri in a comfortable win. Leclerc and Hamilton also came home nose-to-tail in 4th and 5th respectively for the Italian outfit, recording some good points. Sixth comes the aforementioned Verstappen, followed by Pierre Gasly in 7th. Ocon also did well to finish 8th place in the Haas, while Tsunoda records the first points for Red Bulls second car in ninth, and Ollie Bearman makes it a double-points-finish for the American-marque Haas. Antonelli finished on the fringes of the points in 11th, followed by Albon in the sole surviving Williams car. Doohan did well to finish 13th, followed by Hulkenberg 14th, who was later disqualified for excessive skid-block wear. Promoted to 14th was Hadjar, followed by Alonso in a nothing-race for Aston Martin. The British Manufacturer has plenty of work to do this year. Followed by Lawson 16th, Stroll 17th, Bortoleto 18th, followed by the non-finishers Sainz and Hulkenberg.

Strangely, to me at least, Hamilton was voted Driver Of The Day by the viewers. I feel this is an injustice to the likes of Ocon and Gasly, who drove brilliant races in their respective cars.

And that’s just about all I have time for tonight, as its already 23:45 and I’m really flagging now. Thanks for sticking through my ramblings for another post, and I hope I’ll see you here again soon.