Piastri celebrates 50th race with win from pole in Bahrain

SAKHIR, Bahrain - Oscar Piastri powered to victory at the Bahrain Grand Prix on April 13, coasting clear from George Russell’s Mercedes to maintain McLaren’s strong start to the season.

Pole-sitter Piastri kept his composure in an incident-packed race to give the Bahraini-backed McLaren team a first ever win at the 21st attempt in a race at their “second home”.

Piastri, who also won in China last month, crossed the line 15.499sec clear of Mercedes’ George Russell, who was under investigation for an issue with the DRS (drag reduction system),meaning he could take a five-second penalty.

Lando Norris in the other McLaren took third while Max Verstappen’s trying weekend at the desert track ended with the four-time world champion only managing sixth place.

Norris, the winner of the season opener in Melbourne, leads the drivers’ standings on 77 points, with Piastri overtaking Verstappen into second ahead of next weekend’s race in Jeddah.

There was no-one happier in the crowd than the ruler of Bahrain, King Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa, whose sovereign fund owns McLaren.

“That should be one hell of a party tonight. Mega weekend everyone. That was pretty damn fun,” Piastri said after marking his 50th start in perfect style.

“I’m proud to have done it here in Bahrain as well. It’s obviously a very important race for us given our owners and it’s never been a track that has been kind to us so it’s nice to finally have that first win for the team here,” he added.

Taking the chequered flag under floodlights on a balmy April 13 evening in the Gulf kingdom was just reward after a weekend he had dominated, both in practice and in qualifying.

Norris, who started in sixth and picked up a five-second time penalty for being out of position