McLaren star Oscar Piastri secured pole position this evening for Sunday’s Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2025 at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC).

Piastri shone brightest under lights at ‘The Home of Motorsport in the Middle East’ in this evening’s qualifying sessions, setting a fastest lap time of 1:29.841 under BIC’s bright floodlights.

Piastri secured the leading grid position on his very last lap of qualifying. He came away with the first-ever pole for McLaren in Bahrain, putting them in prime position to claim their maiden F1 victory in Sakhir.

George Russell of Mercedes will start alongside him on the front row after qualifying 0.168 seconds behind, while Charles Leclerc of Ferrari will be in third on the starting positions after going 0.334s from Piastri.

Kimi Antonelli in the other Mercedes joins him on row two. He was 0.372s from the top.
Pierre Gasly (+0.375s) of Alpine and Lando Norris (+0.426s) start on row three, Max Verstappen (+0.582s) and Carlos Sainz (+0.839s) are on row four, and Lewis Hamiulton (+0.931s) and Yuki Tsunoda (+1.462s) will be on row five.

Earlier in tonight’s qualifying, dropping out in Q2 were Jack Doohan of Alpine, Isack Hadjar of Racing Bulls, Nico Hulkenberg of Kick Sauber, Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin, and Esteban Ocon of Haas. Ocon crashed out at the beginning of the session to bring out the red flags. They will start from 11th to 15th, respectively.

Dropping out of Q3 and set to start 16th to 20th were Alex Albon of Williams, Liam Lawson of Racing Bulls, Gabriel Bortoleto of Kick Sauber, Lance Stroll of Aston Martin, and Oliver Bearman of Haas.