Bahrain Grand Prix

The Pearl of the Persian GulfThe Pearl of the Persian Gulf

2025 SEASON

Finishing our second race of the triple-header, Bahrain delivered the first race under the lights this season.

For the first time this year, Test and Reserve Driver Felipe jumped into Fernando's AMR25 for FP1, supporting the team's weekend preparations and contributing to his total mileage in an F1 car.

A tough weekend all round for the team though, as Fernando and Lance started the Grand Prix in P13 and P19 respectively. They struggled to make progress through the field and crossed the line in P16 and P18. However, a post-race disqualification for a car ahead meant both gained another position in the final classification.

Elsewhere, Young Driver Jak Crawford was back racing in Formula 2 where he finished P12 and P16 in his respective races across the weekend.

Read on for all the key figures and stats from our Bahrain Grand Prix weekend.

LanceStroll

17th

RACE POSITION

10th

DRIVER STANDING

Lance's profile

FernandoAlonso

15th

RACE POSITION

17th

DRIVER STANDING

Fernando's profile

Bahrain Grand Prix race stats

Number of pitstops

12.5

Longest stint (laps)

56.99999999999999

Total laps

308

Total kilometres

LanceStroll

P17

Final position

P19

Starting position

Points

FernandoAlonso

P15

Final position

P13

Starting position

Points

Fastest lapM:S.MS

1:38.064

Lance

1:37.906

Fernando

Max speedKM/H

329.2

Lance

331.5

Fernando

Practice laps

Lance

Fernando

Qualifying laps

Lance

Fernando

Race laps

Lance

Fernando

Total laps

132

Lance

109

Fernando

Bahrain Grand Prix

The Debrief by Aramco

Racing under the lights for the first time in 2025. Get the debrief on the Bahrain Grand Prix.

TRACK INSIGHTS

Bahrain International CircuitBahrain International Circuit

Hard on the heels of the Japanese Grand Prix, F1 makes an 8,000km relocation to Bahrain for the second race of the triple-header – a circuit both comfortable and familiar for the teams.

Familiar because F1 held its pre-season test here at the end of February and comfortable because the reason F1 held its pre-season test here is that the circuit has excellent facilities, roomy garages… and provides a thorough examination of an F1 car.

Bahrain has been on the F1 calendar for long enough to be referred to as an old favourite. It made its F1 debut in 2004 and has usually been present somewhere in the opening sequence of races – however there is a clear demarcation between old and new, with the character of the race changing in 2014, when it shifted start times and became a night race.

Bahrain's tarmac is very rough and very difficult on tyres, so tyre management is always one of the key elements for the race.

Stoffel Vandoorne – Test & Reserve Driver

2023 Bahrain Grand Prix season track map

Toggle below to highlight parts of the track.

Sectors
Turns
DRS

Circuit length
5.417km
Number of corners
15
Race distance
308.238km

NEED TO KNOW: BAHRAIN GP

The essential Bahrain travel guide with Regent Seven Seas Cruises

The magic of racing in Bahrain

Mastering Bahrain International Circuit

Strategy insights from Sakhir

Ultimate Bahrain Grand Prix facts

Last time out

The essential Bahrain travel guide with Regent Seven Seas Cruises

It's taken a while, but the Bahrain Grand Prix really has caught on as a tourist destination. Switching to a sunset race in 2014 helped, and the addition of big-name post-race and post-qualifying concerts has skewed the audience younger. The warmth of the floodlit evenings really makes for a special atmosphere – which the circuit works hard to enhance with everything from circus acts to hard rock bagpipe bands wandering the concourses behind the grandstands.

The region of Sakhir itself is mostly open desert – though since the Bahrain International Circuit arrived, resorts and water parks have followed – but when the cars aren't on track, it's the capital city of Manama, off to the north that's the destination for most people. There are malls, fine dining and a long corniche for an evening stroll – but there's also an older Bahrain to enjoy: the Qal'at al-Bahrain Fort is a UNESCO World Heritage site; while the Manama Souk is the sort of narrow-laned middle eastern market you imagine – though along with the spices, textile and coffee shops, you'll also find plenty of electronics. Wander too far and you'll stray into the Gold Souk, which is definitely the place to go if you think exquisite, hand-crafted jewellery is going to get you off the hook for sneaking off to a Grand Prix.

Set sail: Explore Bahrain's many charms with Regent Seven Seas Cruises.

The magic of racing in Bahrain

When the Bahrain International Circuit was constructed, it was clearly intended as a race with a TV audience very firmly in mind. There were very few grandstands, with large swathes of the circuit offering panoramic views of desert hardpan and nothing more. It's taken a while, but that's changed, and the Bahrain Grand Prix really has caught on as a tourist destination. More and more grandstands have gone up to accommodate a swelling crowd, and the circuit is now one of the most convivial on the calendar.

Switching to a sunset race in 2014 helped, and the addition of big-name post-race and post-qualifying concerts has skewed the audience younger, but the warmth of the floodlit evenings really makes for a special atmosphere – which the circuit works hard to enhance with everything from circus acts to hard rock bagpipe bands wandering the concourses behind the grandstands.

As a legacy of those early years, the grandstands themselves are all clustered at the bottom of the circuit, running from the Victory Grandstands at the final corner, through to the University Grandstands at the T1-2-3 corner complex. While BIC has three DRS zones, the most likely place to see overtaking is at Turn One, so those grandstands usually sell-out first.

Bahrain has a pretty full racing schedule with F2 & F3 on the bill, it is worth finding the time to hang around on the concourses. Find a nice spot, pull up a cushion, have a cool drink or a hubble bubble, and watch the world go by at a more gentle pace than most F1 circuits.

Mastering Bahrain International Circuit

The reason F1 likes testing at the Bahrain International Circuit is that it has a bit of everything: a nice, long straight; low-, medium- and high-speed corners; some kerbs to run over and rapid changes of direction. It makes the brakes work hard and absolutely minces tyres, which from a testing point of view is the sort of harsh environment that really subjects your car to the work-up it requires pre-season.

It's a stop-start lap which makes it hard to get into a rhythm, and the wind tends to play a role, with the bottom of the circuit (the start-finish straight) and the support paddock straight between Turns 10 and 11 exposed, but elements of the upper end often in the wind shadow of the hill. It places a premium on traction, and there's a compromise to be made between high roll stiffness to deal with the high-speed sections up and down the hill, and low roll stiffness to deal with the significant amount of track-warp in some of the slower turns. Tyres, though, are the issue that dominates all other criteria: managing overheating on the rough surface tends to be crucial to having a good race.

The circuit has tweaked its DRS zones to good effect in recent years, adding a third (though, sequentially, a first) zone on the run between Turns Three and Four. It isn't very long, but it allows the battles that haven't been settled at the first corner complex to continue on up the hill. While Turn One is still the primary overtaking spot, we now see more action at Turn Four. It is, however, a corner where fighting cars run the risk of running wide and being penalised.

Strategy insights from Sakhir

In terms of strategy, the Bahrain Grand Prix can be something of an outlier. The 2024 race certainly confirmed its oddball status with everyone doing at least a two-stop race but no one using a Medium compound tyre for any of their stints. In performance terms, there was not much to separate the C1 Hard and the C2 Medium, but the C2 would suffer higher degradation, and so it was resolutely left in the blankets.

Everyone began the race with a C3 Soft, and then made a choice between a Soft-Hard-Hard race and a Soft-Hard-Soft. The majority of the field used two Hards; the Red Bulls used two Softs – but that was a foregone conclusion as they were the only team to not take two Hards into the race. They also finished first and second, which suggests it wasn't a bad strategy.

Fernando and Lance both scored, finishing ninth and 10th, both running a regulation Soft-Hard-Hard Race. Fernando made his stops on laps 15 and 41 of the 57-lap race; Lance was the first genuine stopper, going on laps nine and 27. Having dropped to the back of the field at the start, Lance's early stops demonstrated how powerful the undercut was at this rear-limited circuit.

We have the same tyre allocation for Bahrain this year, but the tweaked '25 Pirellis have already demonstrated they're a little more robust than their predecessors. It's not inconceivable that might change the game a little.

Ultimate Bahrain Grand Prix facts

1 | The Bahrain Grand Prix is one of two Formula One World Championship events ran at the Bahrain International Circuit. In 2020's covid-influenced ad hoc calendar, the Bahrain Grand Prix was followed a week later by the Sakhir Grand Prix, run on the track's 'Outer Circuit', which follows the perimeter of the venue, turning left at T4, and rejoining the Grand Prix Circuit at T13.

2 | These are two of the three layouts used by F1 in its 20-year history at Sakhir. The 2010 race was held on the 'Endurance Circuit'. Usually seen in longer-form racing, this layout increases the corner count to 24, adding an extra section of track between Turns Four and Five. It's a mammoth 6.299km in length, reduced the lap-count to 49, and has a lap record of 1:58.287, held by Fernando, which, alongside Pedro's lap record for the Grand Prix Circuit, means we have two Bahrain lap record holders in our garage.

3 | Pedro's lap-record from 2005 is among the oldest on the current F1 calendar (Shanghai and Monza both stretch back to 2004) but it is slightly anomalous, as Michael Schumacher went quicker the previous year. The reason Pedro holds the record and Schumacher does not is because the track was realigned between the 2004 and 2005 races. The length of the circuit didn't change, but moving kerbs reset the centre-line, and hence the track is considered 'new' by the timekeepers.

4 | Fernando started his 200th Grand Prix at this circuit… all the way back in 2013. Sebastian Vettel did the same in 2018.

5 | Stoffel Vandoorne, on our roster as a test and reserve driver, also made his debut at this track, at the 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix, standing-in for an injured Fernando Alonso, scoring a point for finishing 10th.

Last time out

We made our modern debut at the Bahrain International Circuit, back in 2021, with Lance and Sebastian Vettel. Lance bought home a point for P10, while Seb finished P15. The following year, we didn't score any points, but did get to welcome Nico Hülkenberg into the team as a last-minute replacement for Seb, whose run of 280 consecutive entries (second on the all-time list, behind Rubens Barrichello) was ended by a covid diagnosis.

Things improved markedly in 2023, when we started the season brightly, Fernando securing a podium finish on debut, taking third, while Lance was sixth, remarkable given two weeks earlier he'd fractured his wrist and toe while cycling. It was an eventful race, with Fernando spending most of his afternoon engaged in a series of battles with Mercedes. Finally, last year we got off to a decent start with both cars finishing in the points, with Fernando ninth and Lance 10th.

Free Practice 1

Fri 11 APRIL12:30–13:30 BST

12:30–13:30 BST

Free Practice 2

Fri 11 APRIL16:00–17:00 BST

16:00–17:00 BST

Free Practice 3

Sat 12 APRIL13:30-14:30 BST

13:30-14:30 BST

Qualifying

Sat 12 APRIL17:00-18:00 BST

17:00-18:00 BST

Race

Sun 13 APRIL16:00 BST

16:00 BST

Talking Points

Andy Stevenson on the challenges of Bahrain

Aston Martin Aramco Sporting Director Andy Stevenson looks ahead to the second leg of the triple-header and the unique demands of the Bahrain International Circuit.