Oscar Piastri Takes the F1 Championship Lead

Oscar Piastri continued his recent swing of success on the podium with back to back formula one wins after besting Max Verstappen this weekend in Saudi Arabia. Verstappen claimed pole but ultimately would fall short due to a 5 second penalty he received on the opening lap for gaining an advnatage by leaving the track. Piastri despite pitting earlier than Max Verstappen was able to use the undercut and advnaytage gained by Max’s penalty to stay ahead after Verstappen pitted.

Oscar Piastri said, “Very, very happy to have won, that was a tough race! We’ve put a lot of work into our starts recently, and in the end, that’s played a big part in the victory. It was really tricky out there at times, chewing up the tyres, but once we got into clean air it was nice. The team did a great job executing the strategy and we did all the parts right that we needed to. We’ve still got work to do, it’s very close at the front, but it’s been a great weekend. We can now turn our attention to working hard at the factory next week before heading to Miami.”

Both drivers were on the hard tires but Verstappen couldn’t mount any level attack at the end of the race and thus settled for second. In third, Charles Leclerc kept himself in the championship hunt.

Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Results

Max Verstappen seems to be finding the pace again in qualifying after he secured another pole position at Jeddah ahead of the Saudi Grand Prix. Despite Red Bull’s struggles come race day thus far this season Verstappen appears to be making progress with his Red Bull. The pole position finish also came at a time where McLaren driver Lando Norris failed to set a time in Q3 after crashing on his out lap. Norris was eliminated from the session due to the incident.

Piastri led the session as the checkered flag flew but Verstappen was still on a flying lap. Despite less than stellar sector 2 and sector 3 times, Verstappen set the fastest sector 1 time of the session which was enough to carry him to the top of the table ahead of Piastri by 0.01s. In third George Russell trailed behind. “It’s really satisfying to be first here in Qualifying, said Verstappen it is of course the best position for tomorrow, even though I think tomorrow in the race it will be tough to keep them behind but we’re going to give it a good go.”

Mercedes was the only constructor to put both cars in the top 5 with Kimi Antonelli finishing P5. Carlos Sainz finished in P6; his best qualifying finish since joining Williams Racing. Sainz will look to convert his favorable starting position into points. Sainz has only scored one point in 2025 as opposed to his teammate Alex Albon scoring 18 thus far this season.

Qualifying Results from Jeddah

Oscar Piastri started the Bahrain Grand Prix from pole and he would hold on to that advantage for the entirety of the race. Piastri won the race by almost 16 seconds well ahead of the competition in comfortable clean air. Piastri appears to have bounced back after the last outing in Japan tha saw Max Verstappen beat Piastri for the win. McLaren was seemingly struggling last weekend in Japan but have recovered to reclaim the top spot putting both cars on the podium. Unfortunately for Red Bull the talk of challenging McLaren for the constructors championship is on hold until further notice. Mercedes now sits in second place of the championship.

George Russell Finds Success in Bahrain

George Russell returned to the podium positions securing P3 in the race. That was a really challenging race,” said Russell. “We had some problems in the last 12 laps including a brake-by-wire failure. When I was hitting the brakes, the pedal was inconsistent, and I had to do some resets for it to work properly again. For 10 laps in a row, going into every corner, I didn’t know whether it would be giving me the same feeling or not. It definitely compromised the race, but at the end of the day, bringing the car home in P2 is mega.

The brake-by-wire failure wasn’t the only technical challenge we were dealing with either! There were all sorts of issues going on with the transponder and the signals going to the car. That meant that we had to manually override the DRS. At one point, I hit the radio button and saw that the DRS was open. I closed it immediately and lifted off the throttle, so we actually gave up time. Happily, the stewards agreed that no sporting advantage was gained. All of those issues compromised that last stint but the main thing is we leave here with another podium and more solid points scored.”

Piastri comments on Win in Bahrain

Oscar Piastri has put on a masterclass thus far this year. Despite Lando Norris being the more experience driver. Piastri has made it clear that he is not here as a second driver for McLaren. Piastri has his eyes on the championship. 3 points separates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri for the championship lead. Max Verstappen was dethroned after a poor finish in P6 due to poor tire grip after moving to the hards after his first pit stop. Piastri was thrilled after the race. “It’s been an incredible weekend, starting off with Qualifying yesterday and it was nice to finish the job in style today. I can’t thank the team enough for the car they’ve given us – it was pretty handy out there!  

“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.” 

Results from the Bahrain Grand Prix

Oscar Piastri is slowly solidifying himself as the front man at McLaren. Piastri out qualified his teammate Lando Norris who finished in P6. Russell finished in P2 ahead of Charles Leclerc which introduces a shake up at the front of the pack. Kimi Antonelli earned a honorable P4 in the session putting both Mercedes in the top 5. Pierre Gasly rounded out the top 5.

Piastri was the only driver to dip into the 1:29’s. Carlos Sainz has finally found himself a top 10 qualifying finish after struggling to find chemistry with this Williams FW47. Sainz will look to score points this weekend as that effort has been the sole result of Alex Albon’s finishes this year. Sainz was supposed to come in as the lead driver given his experience but that has not yet been seen which raises questions about his race pace and form as a driver at the moment.

Max Verstappen led the Red Bull camp effort but could only find the pace to finish P7. He will face an uphill battle to make it to the podium this weekend. There should be any weather related issues in Bahrain so Verstappen will have his work cut out for him. Liam Lawson continues to struggle finishing P17 well behind his rookie teammate Isack Hadjar who will start the race P12.

Bahrain Qualifying Results

Max Verstappen returned to his winning ways in Japan after a sensational performance at Suzuka. Red Bull put together a brilliant strategy to best both Mclaren’s and return Verstappen to the top of the box. Red Bull have been operating in a performance deficit in comparison to the McLarens over the first few races of the season. To make matters worse, Red Bull’s shot at winning the constructors championship took another blow after Yuki Tsunoda failed to finish in the points despite Verstappen winning the race. It was a small victory for Red Bull but the team still hasn’t seemed to find a rhytym.

Verstappen said, “We couldn’t have wished for a better result today in our final race with Honda here together. It’s been amazing and I’m really proud of what we have done this weekend. We made all of the right calls during the race, were constantly pushing and our tyres weren’t overheating so much due to the colder tyre temperature which helped us. Yesterday was a beautiful day for us and the key to the win was to start from pole. We maximised everything we could and to follow this up with the win is fantastic. We know our limitations and still have work to do.

We are just finding where we can push the car to the limit and need to maximise everything that we can to get the best out of the car and make it more balanced. Finally, this is a perfect send off for Honda and our relationship is something I will never forget. I’ve enjoyed my time with them and how they work: they are so professional and dedicated and they have given me so much. Together to win four Driver’s Championships and two Constructors’ Championships is unbelievable. It did cross my mind whilst driving that it would be insane to win here today and at a home track for Honda, so that gave me a bit of motivation as well. It’s a proper send off and we couldn’t have wished for a better weekend.”

Verstappen winning the Japanese Grand Prix in an inferior car raises questions as to whether Red Bull is making true gains with closing the performance gap to McLaren. Next up is Bahrain

Japanese Grand Prix Results

Q3 in Japan was a battle of the titans at the top of the table. Ultimately Max Verstappen went out late in the session which granted him a clear track ahead and enabled hime to secure pole position marginally by a hundredth of a second. However the problems still loom in the Red Bull camp. Yuki Tsunoda’s promotion to the parent team at Red Bull did not go to plan as both Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar out qualified Yuki Tsunoda. To make matters worse, both McLarens, Mercedes and Ferrari’s qualified in the top 10 leaving Red Bull as the odd ones out.

Isack Hadjar Impresses with Q3 entry

Hadjar continues to impress and improve as he acclimates to his Racing Bull. Jadjar appears to be in a world of his own and hasn’t shown any sign of nerves in his debut F1 season. He said, “Yesterday we had a great start to the weekend as I felt comfortable straight away in the car with quite a lot of pace. I wasn’t too happy this morning during FP3, but the team did a fantastic job making the right adjustments to the car, even throughout the session. In the afternoon during Q1, unfortunately, I felt some discomfort in the cockpit due to an issue with the seat belt, but at the end of that session, I jumped out of the car and the team were able to fix it, allowing me to have a smooth Q2 and Q3.

This definitely helped me a lot as I was able to be fully focused on my driving. Overall, I’m really happy about my performance and lap time until the last chicane, as sadly, I lost one tenth there. Tomorrow might be raining, so in this case, obviously, it would be a very different situation compared to today, especially starting in P7 with the big boys ahead of me. It will be a challenge, but it’s a good place to kick off the race from, and if we have a clean start, I think points may be on the table.”

Leclerc Shows Signs of Hope for Ferrari, Hamilton Still Struggles

Charles Leclerc beat out of the Mercedes by a hundredth of a second leading the Ferrari effort. I put everything into my best lap in Q3 and there was nothing more we could have got out of the car today,” said Leclerc. “P4 is not a satisfying result and we have to keep working to close the gap to McLaren and Red Bull, with the target of getting back to winning races. As a whole however, it has been a positive weekend so far. I feel a lot more comfortable in the car after the changes we made to the set-up yesterday, which also gave me confidence behind the wheel going into Qualifying.  I’m looking forward to seeing how it will feel in the race tomorrow, and depending on the weather conditions, to test this approach over a race distance.

Oscar Piastri was the fastest man on track on day one of the Japanese Grand Prix. However, the bigger story is the dilemma that Red Bull faces with finding a second driver on the parent team. Both Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda finished FP2 well off of the pace of the Racing Bulls driven by Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar. While most teams won’t put down qualifying pace laps until FP3 there is a subtle suggestion that Red Bull made the right choice to swap the drivers as Tsunoda was only 0.1 seconds off of Verstappen’s pace in FP1. Tsunoda finish FP2 in P18 over 2 seconds behind Verstappen but he also didn’t have a major on pace lap in FP2 which is not a good indicator of his current position in the field in terms of performance.

Tsunoda said, “It’s a bit different to the simulator, what I felt, to be honest. Maybe a little bit more than I expected in terms of car feeling. I knew that it is always a bit different in the real car and it was just a little bit more exaggerated in the real car and felt a bit more tricky.”

Liam Lawson Comments on Day 1 of the Japanese Grand Prix

“It was a good day, it’s nice to be back, everyone’s been very very positive,” Said Lawson. “I’ve spent a lot of time with this team, they’re a great bunch of people and it’s nice to feel welcomed back again. Also nice to be driving in Suzuka again, it’s a very cool track, with the resurfacing in sector one it’s even faster now; it just feels like it’s tearing your head off, which is quite exciting. All in all, a good day, but obviously tomorrow is the more important one. The car felt good, it does feel different, the window that the guys have at the moment is very very good, the car is pretty fast so far this season so hopefully we can replicate that tomorrow as well.

Isack Hadjar Comments on Practice

“It was more than an encouraging Friday. I loved driving here today, and this car and track combo is definitely the best out there. It’s an impressive circuit to drive in a Formula One car, and it was something I was really looking forward since the start of the season, especially Sector 1 is really fast and satisfying. We had a good FP1 and FP2 and overall, it was an enjoyable day; it was the same in Australia and China, so we know what to work on. I felt good in the car and I think we’re on the right trajectory to get a nice result tomorrow, so we’ll give our best to qualify well.”

FP2 Results from Japan

Rumor have swirled around the F1 paddock regarding a potential sale involving the Aston Martin F1 team and Lawrence Stroll. Aston Martin has agreed to sell their minority stake in the team to Lawrence Stroll and the controlling investment group Yew Tree. Stroll and Yew Tree have invested hundreds of million in the team. 2025 is clearly going to be a rebuilding year for the team as they have not found the stroke of brilliance we’ve seen in recent years to fight for one of the top 5 positions in the championship. Of note Fernando Alonso may be nearing the end of his career and Lance Stroll has scored all of the points for the team thus far this season. Fans speculate if Alonso will continue to race the entire 2025 season or if an earlier second retirement is in the works.

With the acquisition of Adrian Newey from Red Bull, Aston Martin F1 team is pushing to be a top competitor in 2026 when the new regulations are introduced. Lawrence Stroll commented saying, “These moves demonstrate that Aston Martin’s place on the Formula One grid is as secure as ever. AML recently recommitted to its long-term sponsorship and licensing agreement with AMF1, confirming that the legendary Aston Martin brand and its British racing green colors will compete in Formula One for decades to come.”

Yew Tree will increase its ownership stake in the team for what is rumored to be a UK£52.5 million (US$67.7 million) fee. Aston Martin will also vacate its ownership of £74 million (US$95.4 million) in shares. No new buyer has been identified.

After the controversial decision from Red Bull to demote Liam Lawson to the sister Racing Bulls team and elevate Yuki Tsunoda to Red Bull. The drivers have been out of the spot light as they arrive at Suzuka for the Japanese Grand Prix. Its no secret Tsunoda felt that the seat should have been his at the beginning of the season. However, unlike the unpredictable emotional outbursts common in his early career. Tsunoda seems to have evolved past those short comings. He posted a simple message on social media saying “Hello everyone, this is Yuki. ‘I’m looking forward to running my home Grand Prix in Red Bull Racing.”

Yuki’s debut at Red Bull in Japan is a dream for the veteran driver and his promotion isn’t without merit. Thus far Tsunoda has scored more points than Lawson in what is considered by most to be a lower performing car. Tsunoda has also commented saying the Red Bull is the “Right fit” for him. He doesn’t seem to be struggling with the RB21 in the simulator which is a positive sign. There is no question the learning curve will be steep. However, Tsunoda has a different attitude this year and maybe Red Bull sees something new in him that can reignite the teams championship point winning ways.

Yuki Tsunoda Discusses Expectations for the Japanese Grand Prix

“To be honest, I never expected to be racing for Red Bull at the Japanese Grand Prix,” said Tsunoda. “This is the final year of Red Bull and Honda’s partnership, so getting to race in Suzuka as a Red Bull Racing driver feels like fate. Everything has fallen into place in just the right way for me to be standing here today. Of course, I was happy about joining Red Bull, but when I thought about it carefully, the idea of suddenly racing for Red Bull at the Japanese Grand Prix felt so unreal…I want to finish on the podium. That said, I know it won’t be easy right from the start.

Liam Lawson finds himself in somewhat familiar territory with his demotion to Racing Bulls ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix. Lawson’s road to Formula 1 hasn’t been the most fluid. After spending years as a reserve driver at Red Bull he finally got the call only to be cut short after two races. With that said, his performance now is more important than ever before. Lawson has the opportunity to show Red Bull they made a mistake and if Lawson can consistently outperform Tsunoda the board will have a very awkward and difficult decision to make.

There is no doubt that Lawson deserves a seat in Formula 1. In his short tenure he has shown multiple strokes of brilliance until the start of the 2025 Formula 1 season. Lawson still has a Formula 1 seat and needs to use this opportunity to leave his best on the track because if things don’t pan out with the Racing Bulls Lawson may find himself out of a job with a very small chance of ever getting another.

In a social media post Lawson said, “Being a Red Bull Racing driver has been my dream since I was a kid, it’s what I’ve worked towards my whole life. It’s tough, but I’m grateful for everything that’s brought me to this point. To every one of you who’s stood by me, thank you for all the support, it means the world.”

His performance in Japan could set the tone for the rest of the year and the pressure to perform will be on as long as Red Bull continues its search for a driver that can match the performance of Max Verstappen.