Piastri leads Papayas' to first Bahrain win

OSCAR Piastri powered to victory at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday from George Russell's Mercedes with the Australian's McLaren teammate Lando Norris in third.

- 

Pole-sitter Piastri kept his calm in an incident-packed race to give McLaren their first ever win in Sakhir at their 21st attempt. Max Verstappen's trying weekend at the desert track ended with the four-time world champion only managing sixth place.

Norris leads the drivers’ standings on 77 points, with Piastri overtaking Verstappen and into second ahead of next weekend's race in Jeddah.

"That should be one hell of a party tonight. Mega weekend everyone. That was pretty damn fun,” Piastri said, after marking his 50th start in perfect style.

Taking the chequered flag under floodlights on a balmy Sunday evening in the Gulf kingdom was just reward after a weekend he had dominated, both in practice and in qualifying.

Despite an incident-packed race behind him, Piastri, who also won in China last month, crossed the line 15.499sec clear of Russell, who was under investigation for an issue with the DRS, meaning he could take a five-second penalty.