‘Pretty damn fun!’: Piastri earns serene Bahrain GP win
Ian Chadband |
Australian Oscar Piastri has earned another majestic pole-to-flag Formula One triumph at the Bahrain Grand Prix, suddenly looking every inch the new man to beat in the F1 world championship race.
The McLaren ace hailed it as an “incredible weekend” as he made his 50th grand prix start on Sunday feel like a coming-of-age procession while moving into second place in the drivers’ standings, now breathing down the neck of his low-on-confidence teammate Lando Norris.
After he held off a challenge on the first corner from Mercedes’ George Russell at the floodlit Sakhir circuit, Piastri then utterly dominated, even after a mid-race restart under the safety car.
The man from Melbourne, the first driver to win two grand prix this season after his Chinese GP victory, ended up outpacing Russell by 15-and-a-half seconds – the biggest margin of victory by any winner this year – with championship leader Norris third.
“It’s gonna be one hell of a party tonight! Mega weekend everyone, mega! That was pretty damn fun!” Piastri declared over the team radio, although this quiet achiever noted later that, actually, he wouldn’t be joining any celebrations because he had next week’s race in Saudi Arabia to think of.
Indeed, he’ll surely be thinking of shooting to the top of the championship standings after he jumped above champion, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen (69 points), into second place on 74 points to now sit just three points behind Norris.
More than that, the 24-year-old Piastri was so superior to his teammate all weekend that his fourth career grand prix victory looks set to alter the balance of power within the McLaren team, who have clearly seen Norris as their main man since the Australian arrived in 2023.
But there was even a point near the end of the race when Norris was still outside the podium places that Piastri was still the virtual championship leader, the first Australian to be in that position since his manager Mark Webber back in 2010.
Norris had a mixed race from his sixth-place start on the grid which began with him getting a brilliant start, then a five-second penalty when it was ruled a false start and ended with him just missing out on second place following a last-lap duel with Russell.
But there’s no doubt that for the last three races, following his track spin at his season-opening home grand prix in Melbourne, Piastri has looked the driver in the ascendancy.
Only when the safety car was brought out on the 33rd lap after Carlos Sainz’s Williams and Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull had clipped each other did Piastri have any concerns, as his seven-second lead was wiped out and he had Russell back on his tail again at the restart.
“I would have preferred to not have had the safety car but the pace was good and I was pretty confident I could get a good restart,” shrugged Piastri, who was also fortunate to be able to pit at the prefect time when the safety car came.
“I also knew that Lando and I were the only ones with another medium tyre and that was the tyre to be on. It was relatively straightforward.”
Piastri made it look that way as the rest of the field battled for the minor places. “Oscar was in a league of his own,” conceded Russell.
Charles Leclerc was fourth in his Ferrari, followed by teammate Lewis Hamilton, while Verstappen came sixth, just pipping Alpine’s Pierre Gasly on the last lap.
Gasly’s under-pressure Australian teammate Jack Doohan performed creditably but missed out on the points again in 15th place.
AAP
