The 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix had an imprint of McLaren excellence all over it with an insignia of a strong Silver Arrows fight back all thanks to George Russell’s remarkable drive to collect a valiant second.
But in a race where Ferrari managed fourth and fifth with there being no sign of a Red Bull on any of the podium places, just which key or dramatic moment stood out, thereby marking the 2025 Bahrain GP as a very interesting contest?
SportsTiger are back with the key moments of the Bahrain Grand Prix:
Massive disappointment for Carlos Sainz
When Carlos Sainz Jr. put his Williams on eighth upon the completion of the qualifying on Saturday, the Spaniard had for the first time ever out-qualified his teammate, Alex Albon, who had done a remarkable job up until that point.
So on race-day, Sainz began with great belief and perhaps even a sigh of relief having finally found some performance in his machine.
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But just a few laps after the lights went green at the Bahrain Grand Prix that the Madrid-born newcomer at Williams, found himself battling Yuki Tsunoda; the Japanese driver perhaps desperate to prove his mettle at Red Bull since his newfound promotion.
After a tricky battle that had lasted a few seconds, the Red Bull driver from Japan upon exiting turn 1 during his battle with Sainz lost his rear and collided with the Williams machine. This led to damage for Carlos Sainz, who until that point, had been battling really hard.
Resultantly, he lost the bodywork on his car for good measure and in the end had to race retire.
Not an ideal finish at Bahrain for a man who had contested in some closely contested scraps at different stages of the Grand Prix, including a tussle with none other than Sir Lewis Hamilton.
But it’s what it is.
Nevertheless, Sainz’s fans will back the ‘Smooth Operator’ to bounce back in the next race.
Exceptional drive by Oscar Piastri
Prior to the 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix, McLaren had never previously won here at Sakhir. But Oscar Piastri’s brave and committed flag to finish win at Bahrain changed it all for Andrea Stella’s team amid much cheer.
Never looking out of sorts or out of control for even a tiny second in the Grand Prix, Piastri’s fourth F1 victory provided a grand slam result in that not only did the young Aussie take pole at Bahrain but also set the fastest lap in conjunction to an epic victory at the end of 57 laps.
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The McLaren car was super quick giving the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari a lot of thinking to do.
What was rather brilliant from the British stable’s point of view was that they’ve hit right back at Red Bull, who previously at Japan, had suddenly thwarted McLaren’s advances on the table standings.
For now, Piastri and his team must revel in the glory of what was an Oscar-worthy drive in the heat of the desert.
Super recovery for Lando Norris
Even before the English driver could begin his Bahrain Grand Prix that it was largely felt this was a race to forget for Lando Norris.
Of course, it wasn’t hard to understand why since the McLaren driver began the race from sixth on the grid, just ahead of defending champion, Max Verstappen.
But what happened after the completion of the 57-lap contest was something quite refreshing from a McLaren point of view.
Demonstrating a brave drive and showing great race pace, Norris easily worked his way up into the top five. Later on, with just a few laps to go, he would execute a clean and daring pass on Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to break into the top three of the Grand Prix.
In the end, a strong 1-3 for McLaren amid the heat of the desert provided not just great respite for the fans of the papaya-liveried machines, but Norris’s drive demonstrated his ability to counter pressure despite facing odds.
Nothing quite working for Nico Hulkenberg
Truth be told, it’s not been the start to the season that he would have wanted. It’s not been the start of the season that his VCARB team would have wanted. After beginning the 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix from sixteenth on the grid, Nico Hulkenberg did as well as managing a thirteenth in the end. But he found to his utter dismay, not long after the race at Sakhir got over, his result and therefore, himself being disqualified from the grand Prix result. The reason?
Hulkenberg’s skid plank was found to have exceeded the maximum allowance by the end of the race. What didn’t help the team further was that the driver in the other VCARB machine, Gabriel Bortoleto was down in eighteenth.
Thus far, Hulkenberg, despite the disappointment of Bahrain, has been doing the bulwark of point scoring for his team having collected 6 points so far with four races rendered complete (including Australia, China, Japan and now, Bahrain).Dev Tyagi