Oscar Piastri’s Bahrain Grand Prix weekend started in “diabolical” fashion, but ended in glory with the Australian now within a whisker of the F1 world championship lead.
The Australian claimed his second victory of the year on Monday morning (AEST) with a pole-to-flag win under the lights in Sakhir.
Earlier on Friday, victory looked like a hill that might’ve been too steep to climb with Piastri enduring a gruelling slog in the hot conditions.
After one-hour of FP1, Piastri was only 10th fastest while McLaren teammate Lando Norris topped the session.
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‘IN A LEAGUE OF HIS OWN’: Piastri makes world title statement with ‘tremendous’ F1 win
But on the balance of the entire weekend, FP1 proved to be an aberration with Piastri clearly quicker than Norris for the remainder of the event in Bahrain.
“It’s been a great weekend,” Piastri said after victory. “Maybe not FP1 because that was pretty diabolical for everyone, but FP2 onwards has been very, very strong.”
Piastri said clinching pole position made “quite a big difference” for the race, in which he was untroubled outside of the first turn, and a safety car restart.
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“So very, very pleased with how the weekend’s gone, and happy to come away with another win,” he added.
In a separate interview, Piastri credited the team for an “incredible” weekend, with the Australian proving to be a force in the McLaren’s MCL39.
What made the win even sweeter was that it came at a track where McLaren struggled last year, with Norris sixth and Piastri eighth.
“I can’t thank the team enough for the car they’ve given us – it was pretty handy out there,” he said.
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“I’m very proud of what I’ve done this weekend and proud to do it here in Bahrain as well. It’s obviously a very important race for us, given our ownership.
“It’s never been a track that’s been kind to us, so it’s great to finally get the first win for the team in Bahrain.”
The win, however, was not entirely smooth sailing for Piastri.
He revealed afterwards that he had no water for the entirety of the race in the desert.
“I don’t know what happened,” he said.
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“It worked on the laps to the grid and then when we plugged it in for the race, it was still working a little bit, but I had to draw the water out pretty forcefully.
“Once the race got underway, I couldn’t get any water through the straw, so that wasn’t ideal.
“But Bahrain is not the most physical race of the year.
“If it happened next week [in Saudi Arabia] it would have been a much bigger drama.”
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