Start-target triumph in Bahrain: Oscar Piatri celebrates the second win of the season

Oscar Piatri won the Bahrain Grand Prix and achieved his second success this year. The Australian triumphed in the Sakhir floodlight race after an error-free performance and made it clear in the fight for Formula 1 World Cup. Mercedes pilot George Russell, Lando Norris in the second McLaren took second place. It is the third victory in the fourth race this year for the world champion.

« I am very happy with this result, it was an incredible weekend, » said Piatri: « We have completed the job with style. I am very proud. »

World champion Max Verstappen meanwhile experienced a difficult race. For the Dutch, it was only sixth. After his victory in Japan, he found himself in reality again, his RB21 is too slow compared to the competition. Piatri and Co. Its garage neighbor Norris overtaken Charles Leclerc in the final phase, who finished fourth in Ferrari. Record world champion Lewis Hamilton took fifth place.

« It was a hard and chaotic race, I made too many mistakes, » said Norris: « It is a little disappointing not to win the double victory here. » Team boss Andrea Stella also criticized some criticism. Norris drove « a little unclean », « otherwise we could have won the first two places. » Nevertheless, he is « very happy » overall.

Five-second penalty for Norris

At the start Piatri he started, Leclerc immediately lost his position to Russell. Behind it, Norris put on a rocket start and immediately put pressure on the silver arrow in front of him. But the 25-year-old had made a beginner mistake shortly before driving. « Lando is not really in his start box, » Verstappen missed his World Cup competitor at the radio. He then got a five-second penalty, she sat down at the first stop. His teammate meanwhile pulled away from the rest of the field, Verstappen was in traffic after his start of seventh place.

The tire -eating asphalt soon became noticeable. Norris and Verstappen started in the eleventh round with the pit stops, shortly afterwards Piatri followed. When the field sorted again, it was still ahead of Russell. Verstappen, on the other hand, fell back and complained about his car: « Everything overheated ». And Norris also had difficulty, had to hand in third place to Leclerc on fresher tires.

After a little more than half of the race there was something like equal opportunities. The safety car got on the track and broke up the field – Sainz had lost parts of his underbody. The top four came to the box apart from Russell. At the restart, Norris in particular came under pressure through Hamilton, not much went forward. Piatri built up a cushion again. In the final phase, the right tire management was particularly important.