The best cars, three victories in four races, and two highly equal level pilots: McLaren has everything to be serene at the start of the season, after the victory of Oscar Piastri on Sunday at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The British stable leaves from Sakhir – a circuit traced in the middle of the desert dunes – at the top of the world championship of F1 manufacturers. Lando Norris also occupies first place in the pilot ranking, three points ahead of his teammate Piastri.
The two men, as it is customary, have gave themselves in recent weeks to the little game of intoxication consisting in repeating that their cars are still far from perfect. History of giving cold sweats to competition.
But Sunday, after the fourth victory of his young career, Piastri was forced to admit: “Yes, I have a great car. She is fast, she is very good even if she is sometimes a little difficult to drive, and this weekend, she was really in the right window of performance”.
Dominating, orange cars, however, do not crush competition. Sunday, George Russell managed to intercade his Mercedes in second place, between the two McLaren. And Norris had to wait for the 52nd of the 57 rounds of racing to resume in Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) the third position.
– Norris canon departure –
After the Soporific GP parade from Japan in Suzuka last Sunday, the test played in night in Sakhir offered a more exciting show.
The departure was decisive: Piastri, author the day before the pole position, managed to turn in mind at the first turn. He then checked the end -to -end race, giving up for a few moments at first place at the time of tire changes.
-George Russell, who left the second line, has grilled the politeness to Charles Leclerc and immediately placed himself in the wake of the leader. He too held his position to the end. “I had a hard time keeping Lando behind me, if there had been one more turn I think he would have exceeded me,” said the British of Mercedes, fourth in the championship ranking behind the two pilots of McLaren and Max Verstappen (Red Bull).
Because behind him, Lando Norris, only sixth in qualification, had taken a canon start and won three places even before the second turn.
– Ferrari again at the foot of the podium –
The departure loser was Charles Leclerc, who went to the front line and fell back into fourth position after a few hundred meters.
If the two leaders have never been exceeded on the track, the battle for the podium raged. Thanks to a fresher tire train, Leclerc passed Norris in the 25th round and finally believed to hold the podium after which the Scuderia runs since the start of the season. Las! Norris has returned to five laps from the end.
The Monegasque could only note that his Ferrari, even with the improvements brought this weekend, was not yet at the level of the McLaren: “We could not have done better today, we do not yet have the expected performance”, he said: “I tried everything to the end to keep my place, and it is even more disappointing when we give absolutely everything and that we finish fourth”.
Finally, the Frenchman Pierre Gasly, taking seventh place, offered Alpine his very first points of the season. The French team was the only one, after three Grands Prix, to have not yet scored any point.
cpb/alh/goes
