Verstappen dominates in Bahrain and grabs the fastest lap too

Verstappen left no room for doubt

Max Verstappen won the Bahrain Grand Prix from lights to flag, never giving up the lead across 55 laps, and topped it off by setting the fastest lap of the race with a 1:38.220 on his final timed lap. This wasn’t a photo finish by any stretch: Kimi Antonelli crossed the line second, 2.307s back, with Lewis Hamilton completing the podium in third, as Mercedes and Ferrari split the remaining steps. A race controlled from pole to the chequered flag says more about the car’s edge that weekend than about any last-lap heroics.

Charles Leclerc finished fourth without moving a single position from where he started, much like Oscar Piastri, who also held sixth throughout. Isack Hadjar slotted in between them, climbing three places to fifth, once again showing he isn’t intimidated sharing a garage with the reigning world champion.

The story of the day: Lindblad’s recovery drive

If there’s one storyline that’s going to stick from this Bahrain weekend, it’s Arvid Lindblad’s. The Racing Bulls driver had started dead last, from 22nd on the grid, and crossed the line tenth, scoring points in what was, without overstating it, the result of the weekend for his team. Twelve positions gained on track isn’t something you see every Sunday, let alone from that far back.

He wasn’t the only one who clawed his way forward. Franco Colapinto also had an afternoon worth remembering: he started 21st and finished 13th, eight places better than where he began, running a different strategy from most of the field by finishing on medium tyres instead of the softs nearly everyone else used. Liam Lawson and Fernando Alonso each gained four positions too, finishing seventh and eighth respectively.

The other side of the coin: Bortoleto, Gasly and Norris

Not everyone had an afternoon to remember. Gabriel Bortoleto lost more ground than anyone else on the grid: he started tenth and finished 18th, a tough blow for Audi in a weekend that had carried higher expectations. Pierre Gasly couldn’t hold his early pace either and dropped seven places, from ninth to 16th.

Lando Norris rounds out the trio of disappointments: he started fifth and finished ninth, losing four positions in a race where McLaren didn’t match what Piastri showed with the other car. Carlos Sainz also slipped four places, from 13th to 17th, closing out a grey afternoon for Williams.

Sergio Perez closed out his race in 19th, the last classified finisher, after seven pit stops, a number that on its own tells the story of a messy afternoon for Cadillac.

George Russell’s retirement, the blow Mercedes didn’t need

Not everyone made it to the chequered flag, and the name that stings most on that list is George Russell’s. He failed to finish the race, a painful setback for Mercedes right when the team’s other car, Antonelli’s, was running near the front and heading for the podium. There’s no getting around it: whatever points Russell was in position to score, he leaves Bahrain with nothing, and that gap won’t close itself.

Alexander Albon and Valtteri Bottas also didn’t see the finish line. Bottas’s sector times on his last recorded lap were noticeably slower than the rest of the field at that point in the race, which suggests something went wrong for the Finn late on before his car came to a stop on track.

With a track temperature of 33°C and an east wind at 2.0 m/s, conditions weren’t extreme, but they were demanding enough that tyre strategy mattered: while nearly the entire field finished on softs, Piastri and Oliver Bearman gambled on hard compounds all the way to the end, a call that at least let Piastri hold sixth without any late drama.

A complete weekend for Red Bull

Between Verstappen’s win, the fastest lap, and Hadjar’s fifth place, Red Bull leaves Bahrain with one of those results that adds up on every front. For Mercedes, the picture is far more mixed: Antonelli’s podium is a genuine high point, but it doesn’t erase the frustration of watching Russell’s race end early.

BAHRAIN RESULTS – RACE

Verstappen dominated from pole to flag and even took the fastest lap as a bonus, but the race’s real drama played out elsewhere — Lindblad’s charge from last to the points, and Russell’s retirement right as his teammate was fighting for the podium. Which one changes more going forward, Red Bull’s complete weekend or the dent in Mercedes’ afternoon?

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Sources Data: Formula 1