Max Verstappen salvaged sixth place at the 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix after a turbulent evening under the lights at the Sakhir International Circuit, where a series of setbacks left the reigning World Champion describing the race as one in which “basically everything went wrong”.
The issues continued for Verstappen
Starting from seventh on the grid following a difficult Qualifying session, Verstappen’s woes continued almost immediately. A poor launch off the line dropped him further back, and any hopes of an early recovery were hampered during his first pit stop when Red Bull’s pit light system malfunctioned—remaining red instead of switching to green—forcing him to wait unnecessarily and lose crucial time in the pit lane.
“We had a poor start, too much wheelspin when I dropped the clutch,” Verstappen recounted. “And then the first stint again [I had] basically the same problems that I had in Qualifying, plus we were just overheating our tyres too much compared to the competition ahead of us.”
The team’s decision to fit hard tyres failed to turn the tide. Verstappen struggled for grip and pace, and his second stop brought further frustration as an issue removing the front-right tyre caused a costly delay that dropped him to the back of the pack.
“Then [at] the first stop I think the lights got stuck on, but of course I don’t want to drive through the lights – you want to stay and stick to the protocol of the team – so that put me into traffic as well, then the hard tyres unfortunately didn’t work so I was sliding around even more than I was on the soft.
“Then we boxed again, [which was an] even worse pit stop, so then I was last.”
P6 was the maximum at the Bahrain GP
Despite the setbacks, Verstappen staged a late-race recovery, including a decisive move on Pierre Gasly to claim P6—an outcome he admitted was better than expected given the circumstances.
“And, yeah, considering everything, to be honest to finish P6 is then alright. I mean, more than that was anyway not possible even with good pit stops or other tyres selected, realistically.”
Verstappen highlighted that Red Bull’s current car characteristics and tyre sensitivity were brutally exposed at a track like Bahrain, where degradation played a pivotal role throughout the 57-lap race.
“It’s of course not what we want, but it’s just where we are at with our car and the tyre behaviour that we have with the car. Everything is just highlighted even more on a track like this.”
Asked about how much the current situation is affecting the team, Verstappen didn’t shy away from the reality.
“Yeah, it’s just tough. You have to hang on, try to improve the situation, but it was just a bit stuck at the moment and hopefully we can improve soon.”
With Oscar Piastri claiming a controlled victory for McLaren and George Russell and Lando Norris rounding out the podium, Verstappen’s championship challenge took a knock. The result sees Piastri leapfrog him in the standings, while Norris retains the lead in what is shaping up to be a fierce multi-team title fight.
