Oscar Piastri dominated the Bahrain Grand Prix to claim the McLaren driver’s second pole position and win of the 2025 F1 season while teammate Lando Norris struggled.
The Australian had the measure of the Briton when it mattered most in Sakhir last week and now arrives for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix only three points behind in the 2025 F1 drivers’ championship. It marks a huge swing as Piastri trailed Norris by 23 points after the first race.
Piastri was comfortable taking his McLaren MCL39 to levels Norris struggled to match. The 24-year-old would score his second career pole as the only driver to lap in the 1:29s with his 1:29.841 – which would put Piastri in the perfect position to dictate and win the Bahrain GP.
Team principal Andrea Stella claims Norris finds McLaren’s 2025 car more difficult than their 2024 challenger and it cost the 25-year-old in qualifying as he was just sixth with a 1:30.267. A great start saw Norris gain three places at Turn 1 but he would only go on to finish in third.
Jolyon Palmer thinks Lando Norris is ‘second-guessing himself’ if the McLaren driver fails to qualify at the front
Spending five extra seconds in the pits after Norris received a penalty for a false start at the Bahrain GP meant he could not undercut Mercedes driver George Russell for P2. The Briton crept beyond his grid box – and Verstappen immediately spotted Norris outside his grid box.
Jolyon Palmer also thinks Norris made a ‘strange’ mistake going beyond his grid box and the McLaren driver had a ‘messy’ Bahrain GP. He further feels it was one sign of the Bristol-born pilot now ‘second-guessing himself’ when Norris cannot qualify at the very front of the grid.
READ MORE: Every error that cost Lando Norris points in his failed 2024 F1 title challenge
| Category | Lando Norris | Oscar Piastri |
| 2025 points | 77 | 74 |
| Grand Prix results | 2 | 2 |
| Grand Prix qualifying | 2 | 2 |
| Grand Prix wins | 1 | 2 |
| Grand Prix poles | 1 | 2 |
| Grand Prix podiums | 4 | 3 |
| Best finish | 1st | 1st |
| Retirements | 0 | 0 |
| Fastest laps | 2 | 1 |
| Grand Prix points finishes | 4 | 4 |
| Sprint results | 0 | 1 |
| Sprint Qualifying | 0 | 1 |
| Sprint wins | 0 | 0 |
| Sprint poles | 0 | 0 |
| Sprint podiums | 0 | 1 |
“When it’s hooked up, he’s still got the pace,” Palmer told F1’s official website. “But he has to find a way to balance his natural attacking style with a car that is more on a knife-edge.
“If he qualifies at the front, then we know he can soak up the pressure as he’s done for his past two wins – in Abu Dhabi last year with the teams’ championship on the line and in Melbourne this year.
“From further back in Bahrain, though, it seemed like he was second-guessing himself a lot and it culminated in a messy evening for him and a potential three points lost as he failed to recover to make it a McLaren 1-2. Even the way Lando lined up on the grid was strange…
“Lando initially lined up acceptably but twice released the clutch to trickle forward. The first movement forward probably put him in the perfect place to start the race. But as he sought to shuffle up even more, he must have lost his reference and simply overshot his marks.”
Lando Norris made multiple mistakes in the Bahrain Grand Prix that cost him second place
There were plenty of examples of Norris second-guessing himself during the Bahrain GP, like Palmer spotted, as the McLaren racer recovered from a disastrous qualifying to maintain his 100% Grand Prix podium run in 2025. He should still boast a 100% top-two record, however.
Norris’ false start penalty was only the start of his mistakes that ultimately meant Piastri was able to eat 10 points into his championship deficit instead of seven. Another prime example came on Lap 36/57 when Norris fell behind Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton at the safety car restart.
READ MORE: McLaren driver Lando Norris’ life outside F1 from parents to celebration
Hamilton took advantage of Norris getting himself boxed in behind Charles Leclerc to snatch P4 from his compatriot. Yet Hamilton would not have gotten the chance to go around Norris’ outside at Turn 1 if the McLaren star committed to diving up Leclerc’s inside as was possible.
Losing P4 to Hamilton and also later locking up trying to overtake Leclerc around the outside at T1 on L46 – a pass he only completed on L52 – cost Norris extra time in his eventual hunt of Russell for P2. He ultimately only had one realistic chance to jump the Mercedes star, too.
Norris really ought to have overtaken Russell in his battle against the Mercedes star for P2 in the Bahrain GP on Sunday, as well. Yet when he saw the 27-year-old drift to cover the inside, Norris’ eyes opened and he foolishly tried to overtake Russell around the outside and failed.
