Qualifying began with both AMRs heading out into Q1 early to avoid potential traffic. Alonso’s first timed lap was tidy, putting him temporarily in P5, while Stroll's lap was deleted for exceeding track limits. His second effort was cleaner, which put him 14th. Despite a late push, he finished Q1 only 19th and would take no further part. Alonso made it through into Q2, in P13. Very shortly into Q2 the session was red-flagged when Ocon crashed his Alpine heavily at Turn 10, requiring the deployment of the Aston Martin DBX707 Medical Car to aid Ocon, but he wasn’t hurt. After the barrier was repaired the session resumed, but Alonso delayed his run to the very end, saving his tyres for one final shot. But the gamble didn’t pay off. On the dusty track, he under-rotated at turn 8 and went wide at turn 13, compromising his line. He ended the session last of the remaining drivers, in P14. Mildly fortunately, Hulkenberg had a lap time of his in Q1 deleted, which bumped Alonso up to a P13 starting place for the race. Piastri secured pole position in his McLaren.
The race itself started in the evening, with the floodlights adding to the spectacle and atmosphere. When the lights went out, Alonso, on medium tyres, had a decent launch, managed to avoid any contact, gained a place and was running in P13 by the end of Lap 1. Stroll opted for an aggressive opening stint, started on soft tyres and passed Bortoleto on the opening lap. Alonso’s position didn’t last long though and Ocon passed Alonso on lap 2 and he was back where he started. A couple of laps later it was Albon’s turn to pass Alonso and by lap 7 he had dropped another place. Towards the back Hadjar came into the pits for his first tyre change so Stroll moved up a place to 17th. There then followed a procession of cars that had been on soft tyres starting to come in so that by lap 12 Alonso was 9th and Stroll was 12th. On lap 13 it was Stroll’s turn to come into the pits for fresh tyres and he came out last. Meanwhile, Alonso moved up to 8th on lap 14 when Russell pitted and came out behind Alonso. But on fresher tyres and in a faster car, he soon overtook Alonso. Then it was Norris who got himself up to Alonso’s tail and passed him at the start of lap 15. With all the cars that started on soft tyres having been in for fresh tyres, except Albon, Alonso found himself in 8th place, just before he peeled off into the pits at the end of lap 16 for his first tyre change, switching to hards. Although his stop was only 2.7 seconds, he still came out 19th, 2 places behind Stroll. On lap 19, with the benefit of fresher tyres, Alonso passed Lawson and then passed Stroll on the next lap, so that on lap 20 they were running Alonso P17, Stroll P18. By lap 25, Alonso was hunting down Hulkenberg and closed to within a second and on lap 27, he made the pass and moved up to P15. Now, the drivers on medium compound tyres were coming in for their first pit stops, so that by the halfway stage (lap 29) Alonso was 11th and Stroll 14th. However, having the benefit of fresher tyres allowed Antonelli to pass Stroll and then Alonso, Ocon to pass Alonso and Doohan to pass Stroll also.
Then, on lap 31, after a collision between Tsunoda and Sainz left some debris on the track, the Aston Martin Vantage Safety Car was deployed. As the field bunched up, several drivers opted to come in for a 'free' pitstop and get fresh tyres. Aston Martin followed suit, placing both drivers onto hard tyres. The move raised eyebrows, as the hards had not proven to be that effective in the race, most notably on Verstappen’s Red Bull. The gamble appeared to be based on reaching the end without needing another stop, but it soon proved costly. They came out Alonso in 15th, Stroll 19th. As the Aston Martin Safety Car pulled in, Alonso had a poor restart and immediately dropped to P18. Stroll was still behind him in P19. During the Safety Car period, Lawson had tapped Stroll’s car and was given a 10-second penalty. With 10 laps to go Alonso passed Sainz, whose Williams had sustained visible damage to the sidepod, and Stroll followed Alonso past Sainz as well. The damage to Sainz’s car proved terminal though and it was retired. The Aston Martins were now 17th and 18th. Despite pushing, Alonso couldn’t catch those ahead and Stroll, now on medium tyres, was running isolated once again. Piastri reached the chequered flag first and claimed a dominant victory, followed by Russell and Norris. Alonso was classified 16th, due to the 10-second penalty applied to Lawson’s time and Stroll finished 18th. Later on though, there was an official announcement from the Stewards that Hulkenberg would be disqualified from the Bahrain Grand Prix as the rear skid block on his Sauber was found to be under the minimum thickness required in the technical regulations (same as Hamilton in China). The final race classification moved Alonso up to 15th and Stroll up to 17th. Not great, but we’ll take it.
After the race, the mood in the garage was subdued. Alonso was frustrated, but realistic: “We just didn’t have the pace to fight higher up today. The car felt okay in the middle stint, but we need to keep working. It’s not where we want to be.” Stroll was more to the point: “We tried a few things today, but it didn’t come together. We’ll move on and reset for Saudi.” The debrief from Team Principal Andy Cowell echoed the sentiment: “We made the most of the strategy options available, but ultimately, we didn’t have the tools to fight for points today.”
As the team packs up and heads straight to Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia, attention turns to upgrades, qualifying performance, and whether the AMR25 can unlock more potential on a very different kind of circuit. Bahrain was a reality check — with lack of pace, poor tyre performance and mid-race misfortune seeing them leave empty-handed once again. I’m sure it wasn’t a pleasant experience explaining this to Stroll Snr.