Oscar Piastri was in a bullish mood ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix after securing pole.

Piastri finished in 1:29.841 to claim just a second pole position in Formula One and was 0.168 seconds ahead of George Russell. However, the Mercedes driver was given a one-place grid penalty for leaving the garage too early during qualifying.

He will start third behind Charles Leclerc, while Pierre Gasly moved up a place to fourth, with Kimi Antonelli also dropping a place on the grid due to Mercedes' operational error.

A disappointing session means Piastri's McLaren team-mate Lando Norris will start outside the top five, with Max Verstappen, who is just one point off the Brit in the drivers' championship, one place behind him.

Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, finished in ninth, ahead of reigning world champion Max Verstappen.

McLaren were expected to lock in a one-two after dominating the practice sessions, but while Piastri kept up his pace, a poor last lap from Norris opened the gap for the other drivers.

Piastri is just 13 points behind Norris in the standings, and only 12 behind Verstappen, with a chance to close that gap in Sakhir.

"I've felt confident out there pretty much all weekend. FP1 was an experience for us all. I think it felt more like a rally car than an F1 car," said Piastri.

"But from then on, I've felt really comfortable with the car. FP3, we had good pace.

Pole position

Our first in Bahrain 🇧🇭#McLaren | #BahrainGP pic.twitter.com/KU4PqDHF68

— McLaren (@McLarenF1) April 12, 2025

"In qualifying, the others caught up a little bit closer than what I wanted, but I still delivered the laps when it mattered, which was the most important thing at the end. So very happy."

Norris was third following the opening laps of the third qualifying session but made an error on Turn One on his last run before losing more time at the end, eventually finishing 0.426s adrift of pole.

The 25-year-old, who is looking for a 30th podium finish of his career on Sunday, did not have any answers to his lack of pace.

"I was just slow," he said. "I have been slow this whole weekend, to be honest. Nothing too surprising. I have just been off it.

"The car is amazing. I have nothing to complain about; the team are doing an amazing job, but I am just letting them down."