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Tyres NorthamptonThough no one challenged Piastri out front, dog-eat-dog battling behind him kept fans entertained right until the chequered flag.
Norris, who had a disappointing qualifying, looked to resolve his poor Saturday with a super start at lights out. Passing three cars to jump from P6 to P3 showed the Briton has shrugged off his Lap 1 curse from last year. Any joy was short-lived, however. An investigation for an incorrect starting position cost the McLaren driver five seconds after footage showed him rolling forward on the grid.
Norris spent the opening laps battling against compatriot and friend George Russell. The Mercedes driver had outdragged the P2-starting Charles Leclerc to trail Piastri at the front. Despite the encouraging first few corners that saw Norris advance to the podium positions, robust defending from Russell halted his charge despite radio messages urging him to pass and minimise the penalty's damage.
While the leaders spread their legs, it was elbows-out racing in the midfield positions. Carlos Sainz was in the thick of it all. Having jumped to P6 on Lap 1, the Williams driver was falling back through the pack but providing plenty of wheel-to-wheel fights as he did. Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen battled by the Spaniard before another double-punch of Lewis Hamilton and Yuki Tsunoda provided more on-track action as they passed the smooth operator.
The relentless overtaking had a short respite with the race's first pit window. A mixture of Pirelli tyre strategies saw all three rubber compounds hit the circuit throughout the stops. A powerful undercut shuffled the order, but a later-stopping Piastri still kept the lead. Norris would rue his grid error after his fresh-tyre pace was better than Russell's, but his time penalty removed his advantage and the chance to undercut for P2.
Mediums were the choice for most drivers, but Red Bull elected to put Verstappen onto the Hards and onto the back foot. More pain for Verstappen came, too, with uncharacteristic operational errors in his team's pit stops. He and Tsunoda lost time with a lighting issue, as a Red Bull day to forget continued unravelling. Although both Red Bull drivers would score points for the first time in 2025, the team's Bahrain GP performance was far from their Japanese GP victory seven days earlier.
Back at the front, an unlikely fight for the podium spots had ignited. Leclerc used his Pirelli Mediums to cut into the gap behind Norris and lunged past the McLaren at Turn 1. His late-braking move couldn't stick, but another attempt one lap later could. The Ferrari swept around the outside of Turn 4 and grabbed P3 from the championship leader. It seemed that Ferrari had joined the hunt for big points, with the sister Ferrari of Hamilton making moves, too.
An unexpected twist in the race soon came as a surprise Safety Car slowed the drivers down. All 20 cars were circulating, but debris at Turn 3 had race control unexpectedly triggering a full-course caution. Sainz's sidepod left carbon fibre on the track after he and Tsunoda came together at the Turn 1 exit. Sainz would later retire from the gaping hole in his bodywork, undoing his work for was his best weekend for Williams.
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A flurry of activity changed the Pirelli tyre strategies for the teams. The Safety Car had allowed most drivers to enjoy a 'free' pit stop and switch to their final set of tyres. Mercedes rolled the dice to put Russell on the red-walled Soft tyre in a strategy Russell called 'audacious,' but he was close to Piastri at the restart. Piastri did retain the lead, though, and the remaining laps turned into a question of who would join the Australian on the podium.
Although Norris looked slower than Leclerc in the second stint, Ferrari switched their cars to the Hard Pirrelli rubber for the final laps. Norris' Mediums initially lost out to a Hamilton attack, but not for long. The McLaren driver then set about chasing Leclerc. The title hopeful ensured a nailbiting finish by returning Leclerc's Turn 4 move from earlier back on the Monegasque to retake P3 with Russell as his next target.
Electronic issues were causing chaos in Russell's cockpit and with the track's timing systems. A transponder issue had stopped the TV times from updating and left the Silver Arrows car with gearbox and braking issues. A final lap defensive move at Turn 1 was enough to keep Norris behind and secure another podium finish - his third in four races – despite the wounded Mercedes limping to the line.
It was Piastri's day, though, as the Australian took pole position, the fastest lap, and race win in an impressive weekend. Norris still leads the championship, but his teammate is just three points behind. A second Middle Eastern race comes next, with Saudi Arabia concluding this early-season tripleheader with a race that McLaren looks set to win. But will Norris or Piastri lead the championship when F1 leaves Jeddah on Sunday night?