Welcome to glitch city. The 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix delivered a technical meltdown, a driver meltdown, and a championship frontrunner who couldn’t stop winning. It was chaos — pure, unfiltered, beautifully broken chaos.
Starting Grid Shenanigans
George Russell and Kimi Antonelli both picked up 1-place grid drops for minor infractions, shuffling the front end just enough to hand Charles Leclerc a spot on the front row next to Oscar Piastri. Gasly slotted into P4. Hopes were high. Optimism was fragile.
Lando Norris started outside his grid box — under investigation immediately. It earned him a 5-second penalty shortly after the race began. While the launch was electric, his positioning made the math easy: great reaction, poor legality. He essentially net-neutralized the penalty with his strong start, but it was a self-inflicted wound.
Pierre Gasly got some insider knowledge from Charles Leclerc and promptly radioed before the lights went out: “I spoke with Leclerc in the parade and they think the one stop is 1.5 seconds slower than the two stop only, so they might try that.”
Timing Tower Meltdown & Russell Goes Incognito
Roughly two-thirds through the race, Russell’s transponder failed — and took half the broadcast with it. The timing tower vanished. DRS zones broke. George didn’t know if he was close enough to use DRS, and neither did the driver behind. Everything reverted to visual racing. Optical timing backups helped reconstruct final order, but they update only once per lap, so real-time information was mostly guesswork.
Broadcasters improvised with a temporary top-10 overlay and relied on trackside cameras for rough gaps. Behind the scenes, technicians scrambled. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked. Russell even opened DRS accidentally at one point. This didn’t result in a penalty as he gave back the time he may have gained, but this just symbolized how poor this whole situation was.
McLaren Double Podium: A Tale of Two Temperaments
Oscar Piastri was flawless. He’s now the clear championship favorite. The McLaren was dominant again and Piastri delivered a clean, controlled drive from pole to victory. No drama. No mistakes. Just clinical execution while others flailed. It marked McLaren’s first-ever win in Bahrain and their best season start since the days of Prost and Senna.
Lando Norris, meanwhile, continues his internal battle. Despite finishing P3 and retaining his championship lead, he described his weekend as dreadful. Post-race, he said, “I’ve been struggling all year to be honest just with this car, with putting laps together, getting lap time out of the car so I don’t have an answer.”
He added, “I left late last night. I spent a lot of time trying to look into what happened, why I struggled so much […] I know what I’m capable of doing, I know I can go out and get poles and I can win races by good margins but something’s not just doing what it should and I don’t know what that is.”
Andrea Stella praised Norris’s self-critical style, comparing it to other champions he’s worked with. Lando has the tools. He has the car. But the confidence isn’t following.
George & Kimi: Mercedes Highs and Lows
No timing, no telemetry, dash frozen — yet Russell brought the car home and still made it to the cooldown room shirtless and smiling. It was his ninth consecutive top-five finish. But Mercedes continues to create headaches — from pit strategy to pre-race infractions to releasing him from the garage before timing began. Russell’s composure has kept their season afloat.
Antonelli, meanwhile, was sacrificed under the safety car. Mercedes called him in despite having identical tire life to Verstappen. The pit stop dropped him into traffic and erased any shot he had at a top-five. He looked sharp all weekend, and the team’s strategy call left many scratching their heads.
Bearman Breakout, Tsunoda Resilience
Oliver Bearman delivered one of the drives of the day — P20 to P10 in a smart, composed effort. Quick start, timely pit stops, and calm tire management. He’s proving to be a future star.
Yuki Tsunoda, meanwhile, scored his first points for Red Bull. After a rough FP3 and a compromised qualifying, he delivered under pressure. His race engineer and Christian Horner both praised his drive. Red Bull’s second seat curse might be broken — even if it’s now a slower car.
Haas Double Points. Yes, Really.
Smart strategy, tire management, and clean execution got both Haas cars into the top 10. They outpaced Aston Martin and outmaneuvered VCARB. Komatsu’s team has turned early season reliability woes into regular points. It’s their best start in six years.
Doohan & Lawson Penalties
Doohan picked up a 5-second penalty for repeated track exits. Lawson earned two penalties — one for a collision with Stroll and another for repeated infringements. His bid to be reconsidered for Red Bull? Well that’s not going as planned.
Final Classification
P1: Oscar Piastri
P2: George Russell
P3: Lando Norris
P4: Charles Leclerc
P5: Lewis Hamilton
P6: Max Verstappen
P7: Pierre Gasly
P8: Esteban Ocon
P9: Yuki Tsunoda
P10: Oliver Bearman
Final Take
McLaren is the new benchmark. Piastri is rising to the occasion. Norris is spiraling. Ferrari is still Ferrari. Red Bull is, for some reason, in the midfield fight. Alpine is alive. Haas is resurgent. Mercedes is finding form — but breaking hardware. And the FIA needs a timeout.
Next stop: Jeddah. Let’s hope the timing screens survive.