TLDR: Piastri Dominates Start to Finish. Norris Struggling to keep up with team mate.

Start of the Race

Piastri had a mega start off the line but so did Russell. Russell had a slight lock up in to turn 1 but managed to take second place off Leclerc. Russell also nearly made big contact with Piastri trying to go around the outside to turn 1. The Mercedes was trying to get track position early on. If they want the win then track position early is crucial, especially with the McLaren’s current pace. By the end of lap one Piastri was nearly a second ahead.

Behind, Norris absolutely flew from sixth straight into third place by turn 2. Norris was very quickly under investigation for being out of position on the starting line. This ultimately led to him getting a five second penalty. This is a shame as it definitely hindered his chance to the top step. Verstappen managed to notice Norris’ positioning from behind on the grid.

The first few laps we saw a lot of drivers going off track and locking up some of this was evasive but looks like a dirty air was really impacting their balance and downforce. It was definitely exciting to see a lot racing early on though.

There was some great battles going on in the midfield. We first saw a great dive into turn one from Antonelli on Sainz. It was definitely a risky and a late one however he managed to pull off the move. The next was Verstappen and Sainz going wheel to wheel out of turn 4. Finally some exciting racing after last week.

Hadjar, was first to pit on lap 7. The first set of softs didn’t seem to last too long at all. The majority of people on the softs were are using used at this point. The tyre deg around this track is quite severe. It was nice to see the 2 stopper come back.

There was a good battle between Sainz and Hamilton on lap 9. Obviously given Hamilton’s move to Ferrari this battle was probably a little bit personal but fair racing. I have mentioned Sainz a lot but he was very exciting to watch early on in this race getting his elbows out. It is also a massive joy seeing my team (Williams) actually racing against the top teams.

Lando Norris decided to serve his penalty during his pitstop. Max Verstappen went to the hard tyre during his pitstop which was drastically different to the rest of the pack. There was also an issue which didn’t help, with a slow pitstop of 4.7 seconds. There seemed to be an issue with the light not changing to green as they had another slow pitstop later in the race. This was just another issue to added to the stack for Redbull this weekend.

On lap 17, we saw some great racing between Verstappen the current champion and Antonelli the Young talent. There were some great attacks and some great defence, but ultimately Antonelli took the position. I don’t think Verstappen would’ve like the at all. Maybe there was a reason we didn’t hear much of his radio.

Leclerc was gaining significantly on Norris on lap 25 being within 4/10 of a second, meanwhile Hamilton was gaining on Antonelli and was just under the 6/10 behind. At this point it was looking very very good for the Ferrari duo for the first time in awhile.

On lap 27 Verstappen pitted again getting rid of the hard compound for a set of mediums. He again had the same issue with the stoplight and his stop was 6.2 seconds. This is far longer in the pits than most on the day and an anomaly for the Red Bull pit crew. They are usually some of the best pit stops.

Lap 32 a safety car was suddenly deployed due to debris from Sainz’ sidepod where he and Tsunoda made contact. This ultimately was just hard racing. Both drivers could’ve done something differently but unfortunately my team Williams came off worse in this situation. This allows for some very cheap pitstops for many teams.

The safety car ended on lap 35. Piastri was seen again for the first time in a long while during this race. He decided to go early at the start of the home straight. Although he was fine, his teammate Norris was under pressure by both Ferrari’s into turn one. This led to some wheel to wheel however Norris exceeded track limits in turn 4 and overtook Hamilton meaning that he had to give the place back. The mistakes were building up for Norris ultimately ruining his chances for a win in Bahrain.

Lawson received a five second time penalty for causing a collision. He tried some late breaking into turn one however made contact with Hulkenberg. Sainz also received a penalty for forcing Antonelli off the track. What started as a great opportunity for Sainz was actually just turning into a disaster of a race as the damage was costing him a second per lap and making difficult to control the car.

Norris due to his mistakes and putting himself in a difficult situation was finding it hard to overtake Leclerc. Norris was very close on lap 46 however he made a lock up to turn one ruining his chance of an overtake and delaying his push to get Russell for second place. It wasn’t until lap 52 where Norris managed to actually get Leclerc in the Ferrari.

George Russell was having some technical difficulties by pressing his radio button, he was actually opening his DRS with no one in front within a second. He was lucky not to get a penalty after the race however I think this may be due to it being a technical issue. One could argue though given how close the end of the race was this was enough to keep him ahead of Norris. Ultimately Norris should’ve been able to overtake him on track and didn’t.

Norris was within the DRS range of Russell on the last lap pushing every last bit of the tyres. Ultimately he could not get the job done and Russell prevailed but there’s one person that won this race and that is Piastri. He absolutely dominated from start to finish. It does raise the question is Piastri now the favourite to win the WDC? He’s quicker on a Saturday and he’s quicker on a Sunday.

Summary

Overall I think this was a great race. Yes, Piastri lead the whole race and won finishing over 14 seconds ahead of Russell however from second down to last place there was constant racing and that is what we want to see.

I was happy to see the Ferrari finally managed to get something working this weekend Pierre Gasly, what a weekend for him racing and qualifying.

It seems strange seeing the Redbull so far down the order however I’m happy Tsunoda managed to get points in that second car my.

My driver of the day though has to be Bearman going from 20th Place to 10th what a Drive.

Ferrari definitely had the better tyre strategy. The soft was not a good tyre at all. The Medium showed great pace but also a good amount of longevity with Verstappen going 31 laps and several other drivers going for around 25. Two stop strategies always bring more excitement and I cannot wait for Saudi Arabia already.

Funny One

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