Direct clash
The Bahrain GP, with Oscar Piastri’s second win of the 2025 Formula 1 season, Lando Norris’s comeback from sixth to third, and the flop by Red Bull and Max Verstappen, has handed control of the championship to the papaya duo. The two McLaren drivers are now first and second in the standings, with Norris still holding a slim three-point advantage over his garage mate. The season ahead is still very long, but the performance shown by the MCL39 leads many to believe this head-to-head will continue throughout the year, without much external interference — even though Max Verstappen and George Russell are still close behind the Woking pair.
No consistent rival
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri themselves, speaking at the press conference after the Sakhir race, showed an awareness that the fight for the Drivers’ title could soon become a matter between the two of them. “Has the battle between us started? To be honest, I thought it started in Melbourne,” Oscar Piastri said jokingly. “I think right now we’ve got a great car. Most of the time we’ve managed to do a good job. Now we’re in the positions we should be in. I think it’ll be a tight fight, and there might be other contenders. What we’ve seen so far is that there hasn’t been one consistent challenger from week to week. It’s always been someone different, which — from a championship point of view — makes life harder for everyone else. I think it’ll be a very competitive year and I believe that as long as we have the best car, the fight between me and Lando will be close.”
A derby is better
Words that found support from Lando Norris. The Briton, even more explicitly, explained that the goal is to eliminate all other rivals from the fight as soon as possible: “Oscar put it well. I think this season we knew — and as a team we already knew before the season — that there would be tense moments between us and some good battles. I’m sure we’ll have more throughout the year,”Lando Norris continued, “and I think we’re both excited about it. We need to keep working hard as a team to stay ahead of the others. Because I’m sure we both prefer that it’s just me and him, that the fight is between us and no one else. As a team, we’d prefer that. It would probably make life easier for us. Of course, we’re not forgetting that the competition is tight. We’ve got the best car on the grid, but one mistake — like mine on Saturday — and I paid the price.” – the British driver concluded at the end of the Bahrain Grand Prix.
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