Out of context, the chatter in the prelude to the Bahrain Grand Prix was little different to what it was a week ago. When Max Verstappen snared pole for the Japanese Grand Prix, the expectation was that the polesitter had already done 95% of the job – he just needed to see the chequered flag to sign for his victory.
Seven days later, Oscar Piastri‘s plunder to pole was held to the same metric. But this was very different; where Verstappen’s win carried inevitability because of the Suzuka circuit’s nature and the overwhelmingly low levels of degradation seen at the circuit, Piastri’s was anticipated simply because of McLaren’s strengths in high-degradation races. Plus, the fact that Lando Norris…