Lando Norris, who started sixth after a poor qualifying, managed to fight back to third place despite a penalty.
Lando Norris partially made up for his underwhelming qualifying by finishing third in the Bahrain Grand Prix. The championship leader, who received a five-second penalty for a false start, managed to climb onto the podium for the fourth time in as many races, overtaking Leclerc in the final laps thanks to a more performant medium tire compared to the Monegasque’s hard compound.
In the championship, Norris remains in the lead with only a 3-point advantage over Piastri, but the Brit is far from satisfied with his weekend. Due to his qualifying, which left him starting from sixth, Norris was always playing catch-up, battling with Mercedes and Ferrari. These were his words: “It was a tough race, I made a lot of mistakes, even during overtakes. I was out of position, and it was a very chaotic race: it’s disappointing not to have secured a one-two finish, especially since it would’ve been great to do that at home. Despite the difficulties, there are positives to take away.”
The British McLaren driver then added: “Yeah, it was fun with those overtakes. Russell did a great job, I think I could’ve passed him, but in the end he held something back — he did well. Congratulations to Oscar and to the team, I’ll try to step it up next weekend.”
Photo: X McLaren F1 Team
