Flawless Oscar Piastri Converts Pole To Win In Bahrain Grand Prix, Lando Norris Third

Oscar Piastri powered to victory at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday from George Russell's Mercedes with the Australian's McLaren teammate Lando Norris in third. Pole-sitter Piastri kept his calm in an incident-packed race to give McLaren their first ever win in Sakhir at their 21st attempt. Max Verstappen's trying weekend at the desert track ended with the four-time world champion only managing sixth place. Norris leads the drivers' standings on 77 points, with Piastri overtaking Verstappen and into second ahead of next weekend's race in Jeddah.

"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.

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

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

Charles Leclerc came in fourth with his Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton fifth ahead of Verstappen and Pierre Gasly earned Alpine's first points of the year at the fourth attempt.

Rounding out the top 10 were Esteban Ocon (Haas), recovering from a big smash in qualifying, Yuki Tsunoda in the second Red Bull, and Ocon's teammate Oliver Bearman.

As the sun dipped down over the Gulf the lights went out on the fourth race of the season with pole-sitter Piastri getting his gloves off early to fend off Russell's Mercedes to turn one.

Norris got a dream getaway, jumping from sixth to third to muscle back into