Zoom Zoom 2025: GP Race 4 in Bahrain. Tech gremlins cause glitches, Papaya flexes, Haas surprises, and a familiar looking podium! Oh, and one expensive bathroom break!

Welcome back, Zoomies! We leave humid and wet Southeast Asia for the dry and arid sands of Bahrain for this weeks GP.

Paddock Buzz: Off-track news was pretty quiet, but rest assured, Isack Hadjar's junk has fully recovered from "Scrotum Squeeze 2025", and is feeling frisky and sprightly after what happened in Japan.

How quiet was it on the off-track news front? Here are some tidbits: William's Carlos Sainz not only got fined 10K in Euros for being 20 seconds late for the Japanese National Anthem as he was in the loo, but this week, Carlos decided to shave his arms and chest! Hey, if it picks up one-thousandth of a second on-track.... Also the Papaya fan base was distraught to discover this week that both McLaren drivers, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris GOT THEIR HAIR CUT! And Sir Lewis let his hair flow! I really need this Bahrain race to deliver some action!

Late post Race Buzz! After the race, several folks in the paddock saw a very heated argument between Max Verstappen's reps and Darth Helmut Marko! Has the Sith Lord Marko gone too far with his heavy claw-hand with Max that Max might LEAVE Red Bull? Time will tell!

The Team/Driver grid: Switch Lawson and Tsunoda:

My Eye Candy of the Race goes to someone who deserves some loving for the great race he had! For the first time, I made the driver pick AFTER a race! Once you read, you will see why!

Let's get to Zoomin: P1: 60 minutes. Very, very hot at the track (118 degrees!), which has an abrasive surface, so back to paying attention to tyre degradation this weekend! For this practice, six teams have to put out as required, six rookie/reserve drivers (of the future!); they are: Frederik Vesti/Mercedes, Dimo Beganovic/Ferrari, Ayumu Iwasa/RB, Felipe Drugovich/Aston-Martin, Ryo Hirakawa/Haas and Luke Browning/Williams. Both Browning and Beganovic are also racing in their normal F2 races this weekend, so both rookies have a a lot to take on!

(Should mention these rookies are pure rookies, unlike the six that have started this 2025 season, just to clear up any confusion. :) Mercedes Kimi Antonelli's car was cranky, first a water leak, and then trying to separate parts in the garage which was not budging, and it seems Kimi's P1 is over for this session!

No incidents, so all the kids behaved, with Browning ranking highest among his rookie class.

P2: 60 minutes. Temp has dropped to a balmy 96 degrees with a light breeze, and the lights are on at the track as the sun sets over the Arabian desert. All our regular drivers for this session to take to the track. Turn 10 seems to be a problem turn, fyi. About 10 minutes in, Aston-Martin's Alonso has to have his steering wheel display shut down as it literally came loose as he was driving; and into the pit he goes for a new one. No incidents, but lots of lockups, and drive complaints about lack of grip. On to P3 tomorrow!

P3: 60 minutes. Oven door is open this Saturday, as track temperature is 109 degrees, with winds up to 14KMH. Cars tyres were overheating yesterday, may be same problem this day. Science Note! Pirelli, the tyre makers, have REDUCED the psi in the rear tyres! An unusual move, but from my understanding (which is limited), this will allow the rear tyres to expand! Perhaps my pal David will drop a note in the comments about this (he loves the engineering science side!). Back on the track, about half-way thru, Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber car's power unit must've suffered a case of heat stroke as on Turn 15, it just shut down, Nico was able to glide it off-track and out of danger as the Virtual Safety Car was lit up. A few minutes later, practice resumed, lots of drivers are going over the white line at Turn 11 (which would be a track limit violation in quali and the GP!), as the winds are blowing strong in that part of the track.

Driver Eye Candy- Haas Ollie Bearman

So adorable off track, a total goof, and a sweetie!

A note on how Qualifying works: There are three quick races to determine grid position for the GP race. First quali the last five drivers are cut, second quali again, last five drivers dropped, and 3rd and final quali determines the top ten on the grid and the ever important pole (1st) position. This also applies to the Sprint Qualis, you will just see me use SQ1 to show the difference.

Q1: 18 minutes. Temperature has dropped to around 87 degrees on track, with winds at 20 KMH. Lights are up at the Sakhir motorway for this evening quali. As required, all cars on soft tyres. No incidents, so the bottom five starting at the back of the grid are: Bearman/Haas, Stroll/Aston-Martin, Bortatello/Sauber, Lawson/RB and just missing Q2, Albon/Williams.

Q2: 15 minutes. On Turn 3, Ocon's Haas car spins out and the back end smashes into the barrier (he's okay), clock stops at 11:01 for the Red Flag. Racing resumes, no further incidents, so the next bottom five are: Ocon/Haas, Hulkenberg/Sauber, Alonso/Aston-Martin, Hadjar/RB and Doohan/Alpine.

Q3: 12 minutes for Pole Position and the top ten grid order. No incidents, so your Pole Position driver is Oscar Piastri/McLaren! Russell/Mercedes in 2nd, LeClerc/Ferrari in 3rd, Antonelli/Mercedes in 4th, Pierre Gasly/Alpine in 5th (!!), Lando Norris/McLaren in 6th (!!), Verstappen/Red Bull in 7th, Carlos Sainz/Williams in 8th, Hamilton/Ferrari in 9th, and Yuki Tsunoda/ RB rounds out the top ten for tomorrows GP!

Biggest surprises in Quali is Gasly in 5th (started last the last two GPs!), and Lando dropping to 6th on the grid! Also this is the first time ever that McLaren has taken pole at the Bahrain GP! Driver Eye Candy alert!

That sly look on his face will be revealed in the GP recap below!

Bahrain GP: 57 laps.18 turns. We have a grid update due to penalties. Both Mercedes drivers dropped a spot due them lining up in the pit lane while the medical car carrying Ocon was arriving to the pit lane- a big no-no for obvious reasons! So it will be LeClerc next to Oscar on the first row, and Gasly moves up to 4th position. Unlike the Japan GP in Susuka, there are lots of opportunities for overtakes, and is probably a two-stop tyre change in the pit area.

And it's LIGHTS OUT, as Oscar and Russell go wheel to wheel on that tricky first turn, Lando jumps three spots into 3rd, and Ollie Bearman has the most overtakes on this first lap, going from last to 15th! Lando is slapped with a 5-second PENALTY, as his car was just over the box line at the start of the race. Lando pits on lap 11 to serve his 5 second penalty and change his tyres from soft (half the grid started on soft tyres, and they are now boxing to switch to either hard or medium tyres), and Lando comes out on track in 13th place. Oscar still leading Russell and Leclerc by 4 seconds (both are still on soft tyres, which as a reminder are the fastest, but get chewed up quicker). On Lap 14, Oscar pits to change to the medium tyres, and comes back out on track in 3rd- nice strategy there by the McLaren team!

On Lap 17, Albon is the last to ditch the soft tyres on his first pit stop, so all drivers are on either medium or hard tyres at this point. Hadjar and Antonelli have gotten the dreaded black and white flag, as both of their cars have exceeded track limits (all four wheels went over the white lines- your get three of those, and then the next ones result in time penalties!). Max's very bad day continues, as he pits on lap 27 to change from hard to medium tyres, and one of the tyres is being difficult to remove, resulting in a horrid 6.2 pit stop, and Verstappen joins the track in last place! Lap 33 has a SAFETY CAR called out due to debris on the track from when Sainz and Tsunoda tapped each other, and all cars take advantage of this and pit to change tyres, except for Verstappen, as Max had just pitted a couple of laps ago. An assortment of tyres types for drivers, with Russell taking the gamble on softs; he is in 2nd place behind Oscar, who has led this entire race so far, on medium tyres. Leclerc is in 3rd, Lando in 4th, Hamilton, 5th, Gasley, 6th, Ocon in 7th, Max in 8th, Doohan in 9th and Sainz in 10th, as we have passed the halfway point of the race. I write all that as an update, and on the restart, Oscar keeps the lead over Russell, and Lando gets caught in a Ferrari sandwich tween LeClerc and Hamilton, before settling into 5th. Sainz gets a 10 second PENALTY for bumping Kimi Antonelli's car too hard. Lawson also hit with a 5 second PENALTY for bumping Hulkenberg's car too hard. Lap 46, Williams has Sainz retire the car (DNF), as we see aa big hole on the side of his car from that earlier collision.

Jack Doohan gets hit with the black and white flag, and Antonelli has been slapped with a five-second exceeding track limits PENALTY. In these last few laps, Oscar is driving with excellent pace, Russell in his soft tyres behind him, but can George hold off LeClerc and Norris, who are on the mediums? Tsunoda and Bearman in a fight for 9th and 10th. Lap 52, Lando finally pulls off a tricky overtake on LeClerc and is now in 3rd. Meanwhile Russell, who has been informed by his Mercedes team that they have "lost the dashboard", and George will have to be told when to enable DRS, accidentally DID enable DRS (driver habits!), and could be facing a penalty! At one point, the leader scoreboard graphic disappeared for about ten minutes! The tech gremlins are busy today in Bahrain! Lando has been hit with the black and white flag! For these last four laps, he HAS to stay within the lines to avoid another five-second penalty! (I be biting my nails now!). Oscar Piastri gives McLaren its first ever win at the Bahrain GP, winning by 15 seconds! Russell holds off Norris as they round out the podium! Ollie Bearman holds off Antonelli to get the last point in 10th place!

Notes: Safe to say all drivers were NOT happy with the Hard tyres! Tech gremlins played a bigger part in this race than they have in a while, as several drivers lost their DRS signal. Russell was not penalized for the DRS boo-boo, so the podium stays as they finished. RB's Liam Lawson seemed to playing bumper cars out on track, I actually lost track of how many penalty points he racked up! Ollie ran a great race, from last to 10th place! Both Ollie and his teammate Esteban Ocon both finished in the top 10, giving Haas points, while Williams Racing would just like to forget this day, as would Max! Sir Lewis Hamilton gets the Driver of the Day fan vote! These votes have been odd; either Oscar or Ollie would've gotten my vote!

Eye Candy Alert!

Ollie loves his Instagram, and going shirtless seems to be a thing for him! Ahh, these kids! He deserved Driver of the Day, dang it!

Off to Jeddah next week for the Saudi Arabian GP! I'll leave you with some nice creative artwork from the Bahrain race weekend!