F1 – After the thrill and excitement of Bahrain, F1 teams had little time to reflect as they headed straight to Jeddah for the last race of this triple-header. Whilst McLaren will have travelled to Saudi Arabia with much confidence after their double podium finish, Lando Norris was very public in his admission that he was struggling with elements of the 2025 car.
He said that he often felt like he was driving an F1 car for the first time. Oscar Piastri, on the other hand, seemed as cool as a cucumber under the desert stars in Bahrain for his faultless drive and McLaren’s first ever win here. Equally confident was Mercedes, and Russell in particular, who seemed to grow throughout the Bahrain weekend, achieving an impressive second place last week.
Jeddah offers a very different challenge to Bahrain, with the street circuit style offering no mercy against any error with the walls and tyre barriers lurking either side of the racing line. When it comes to qualifying, this adds an extra risk vs reward dimension for the drivers, who need to balance the need to eek out the most from their cars, whilst aware that any slip up can have major consequences to their race weekend.
Unfortunately for McLaren fans, it was Lando Norris who pushed that little bit too hard in qualifying in the final session, with a shunt into the wall meaning he would start tenth, after a fairly big repair job to the car. Up at the front, the times were very tight indeed. Max Verstappen shone through with another superb qualifying lap to take pole, with Piastri – who had been over half a second quicker than the Red Bull in practice – having to settle for second. Russell continued his great form to qualify third, followed by Leclerc in the Ferrari, Antonelli in the other Mercedes, with Sainz and impressive seventh in the Williams, followed by Hamilton who completed the top eight.
The race was an obvious 1 stop strategy, with most starting on a medium tyres with Norris the exception on the hard tyre, in an attempt to try something different. As the race got underway, Tsunoda and Gasly touched which caused the first safety car on lap 1, which put an end to both drivers’ race. Up ahead, Piastri was leading into turn 1, although Verstappen went wide and took the lead. The Stewards looked into the incident and deemed that Verstappen gained an unfair advantage, giving Verstappen a five second penalty.
Behind this, Norris, who was eighth after the first lap incident, made further early progress and managed to get through both Hamilton and Antonelli. When it came to the pit stops, Piastri came in on lap 20, as did Antonelli. Verstappen pitted two laps later and found himself two seconds behind Piastri, after serving his penalty.
Norris pitted much later as his hard tyres lasted longer in the first stint and came out fifth, five seconds behind Leclerc but on the medium fresher tyres. Up front, by two thirds distance, Piastri led by 4.5 seconds, with Russell third, two seconds further back, with Leclerc just behind that. Leclerc, on fresher tyres than Russell made an overtake on lap 38 and by lap 41, Norris on newer tyres also took George Russell for fourth and was now chasing Leclerc.
Norris got close, but couldn’t get ahead of Leclerc. At the same time, Piastri upfront was untroubled by Verstappen to take a comfortable victory, whilst Leclerc’s third place was the first podium for Ferrari this year. Further back, Russell held out for fifth, with his teammate Antonelli just behind, followed by Hamilton, Sainz and Albon, with Hadjar completing the top ten.
F1 takes a pause for a week before heading to Miami for the first race in the USA of the season on 4 May. Finally, don’t forget that you can still take advantage of our 20% discount offer for the 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix. It’s your chance to secure the best seats at the best rates, whilst also avoiding the inevitable late rush to secure tickets for our race weekend. Head to Bahraingp.com or call 17450000 for more details.
Laurence Jones is senior manager, Marketing and Communications, Bahrain International Circuit
l.jones@bic.com.bh
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