Oscar Piastri of McLaren stood in the shadow of teammate Lando Norris for much of last season.
But this year, the Australian wants to show the bosses that he too can be a candidate for the World Championship title.
The 24-year-old has won two of the season's four races after Sunday's victory. And in the Bahrain GP, there was no doubt about it.
Piastri was the fastest in qualifying – while Norris only started sixth – and dominated the race from start to finish.
The McLaren driver led the race comfortably with a seven-second lead over second-placed George Russell when the safety car came out on the 32nd lap, which meant the gap to the competitors disappeared.
But not even that could stop him. Piastri pulled away again and won comfortably.
I would have preferred if it hadn't come out, but I was still pretty confident. I had no plans to let this win slip away, he says after the race.
Teammate Norris climbed from his initial sixth place to a final third place. This despite a five-second time penalty for starting too far forward at the start, and missing his starting grid spot.
Second was George Russell, Mercedes. The four-time reigning World Champion Max Verstappen did no better than sixth, after among other things, trouble in the pit lane.
