Bahrain Glass Prix Glass Prix Report
BAHRAIN GLASS PRIX 2025: PASTORE POURS PERFECTION IN THE DESERT
Aussie Apex Zero dominates Sakhir as Silver Streak G&T battles electrical gremlins and Dutch Dynamo Charge runs dangerously flat
COCKTAIL CONSTRUCTORS CHAMPIONSHIP | ROUND 4 | BAHRAIN INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT
The desert air was warm, the floodlights were blazing, and 105,000 thirsty spectators packed the Bahrain International Circuit for Round 4 of the Cocktail Constructors Championship. What they witnessed was nothing short of a masterclass in mixological precision, as Papaya Racing's Ollie Pastore piloted his Aussie Apex Zero to a commanding victory as clean and refreshing as the pineapple juice and passionfruit syrup at its heart. From lights out to chequered flag — or rather, from first pour to final garnish — Pastore never looked flustered, never looked threatened, and crossed the line a full 15 seconds clear of the field. The lime wheel garnish was placed with surgical precision. Magnificent.
Behind him, Graham Radcliffe's Silver Streak G&T somehow limped to second for Silver Spear Racing despite spending the final stint suffering the cocktail equivalent of a bar's entire electrical system tripping simultaneously — the soda gun misfiring, the dashboard going dark, and the elderflower notes trying to communicate via carrier pigeon. Logan Northrop, meanwhile, wrestled his Brit Blitz Rum Punch from sixth on the grid to third, absorbing a five-second penalty and still finding time to nearly steal second on the final lap. A podium, yes. A tidy afternoon, absolutely not.
PAPAYA RACING BRINGS THE TROPICAL HEAT
From the moment those lights went out, Pastore launched the Aussie Apex Zero like a bartender firing a signature serve down a polished mahogany straight. The pineapple juice gave clean top-end speed, the passionfruit syrup provided sticky traction off the line, and the ginger beer carbonation delivered exactly the kind of lively rear-end stability you want through Bahrain's stop-start layout. When Radcliffe's Silver Streak G&T lunged into Turn 1, the gin-and-tonic package briefly looked threatening, but the elderflower liqueur couldn't quite muscle past the tropical precision of Papaya's lead machine.
And that was really the story of the evening. Even the Safety Car — triggered after contact between Yoshi Takeda and Cesar Serrat scattered debris like broken garnish across the circuit — merely compressed the field for a few laps before the Aussie Apex Zero disappeared into the desert night once more. It was also a major statement in the season narrative. Pastore's second win of the season and Papaya Racing's first-ever victory at this particular circuit. With 151 points in the Constructors' Championship — a 58-point cushion over Silver Spear Racing — the orange bar cart is very much rolling.
RADCLIFFE'S TONIC-POWERED RESCUE ACT
Second place for Radcliffe was one of those results that looks neat in the classification and utterly chaotic in the debrief. The Silver Streak G&T had genuine pace early on: the gin base gave crisp turn-in, the tonic water kept it light on its feet, and the lemon twist offered just enough sharpness on corner entry. But late in the race the whole thing developed the sort of gremlins usually associated with a cursed minibar. The DRS refused to activate. The brake-by-wire failed, causing unpredictable pressure shifts through the tonic water carbonation. The GPS dropped out. At one point Radcliffe was essentially navigating by feel alone, furiously resetting buttons on his steering wheel while a faster Brit Blitz Rum Punch loomed in his mirrors.
Yet he held on. Northrop threw everything at him in the closing laps, probing around the outside at Turn 1 on the final tour, but Radcliffe defended robustly. It was a seasoned drive from a drink that, on paper, should have gone completely flat.
NORTHROP: MESSY, QUICK, STILL ON THE PODIUM
Northrop's Bahrain was the liquid equivalent of spilling half the prep station, setting a napkin on fire, and still serving one of the best drinks of the night. He made a superb start, vaulting from sixth to third as the dark rum torque of the Brit Blitz Rum Punch bit beautifully off the line, the orange juice and pineapple juice combo providing immediate acceleration while the lime juice kept the front end sharp in traffic. Then came the five-second penalty for lining up out of position on the grid. Not ideal. But Papaya Racing played it smart, pitting early and folding the penalty into the stop — the cocktail equivalent of chilling the glass early while the rest of the field are still fiddling with ice.
He lost third to Christophe Lefevre's Monaco Maestro Blood Orange Spritz, fought back after the Safety Car, and finally reclaimed the position on lap 52 with a beautifully judged move around the outside. His fourth podium from four rounds means he retains the Championship lead with 77 points, though Pastore is now breathing down his neck at 74. If Pastore is the driver extracting every last bubble from the Papaya package, Northrop is currently relying on the sheer potency of that dark rum base to drag him through difficult weekends. The margin is three points. The shaker is rattling.
FIERANO RACING: PROGRESS, BUT STILL LACKING PROOF
Fourth and fifth for Fierano Racing told a familiar story: encouraging, stylish, and not quite enough. Lefevre's Monaco Maestro Blood Orange Spritz qualified on the front row and showed genuine pace throughout — the honey syrup delivering excellent traction, the blood orange juice providing a burst of mid-race speed that briefly threatened Northrop for third. But on the hard-compound phase after the Safety Car, the rosemary sprig began to struggle in the Bahraini heat, and the spritz lost its sparkle when it was needed most.
Harrington's Britannia Bolt Fizz was arguably the more interesting drive. Starting ninth, he was initially subdued — the muddled strawberries failing to deliver their usual burst — but fresh rubber transformed the recipe entirely. The vodka base and fresh lemon juice gave him real bite under braking, and the honey syrup helped moves stick when others were sliding around on ageing rubber. Fifth is his best result yet for Fierano Racing, and there are clear signs he is beginning to understand how to get the fizz out of this package. He described it as the weekend from which he'd learned "probably more than all the others combined." The sparkling water fizz was finally working in harmony with the honey syrup, and the lemon wheel garnish looked positively triumphant at the finish.
RAPID BULL: RUNNING ON EMPTY
If Papaya Racing's weekend was a perfectly balanced cocktail, Rapid Bull Motorsport's was the sort of drink that arrives looking spectacular and tastes of regret. Marten Vandenberg in the Dutch Dynamo Charge suffered two catastrophically slow pit stops — the team's light system malfunctioning and turning routine service into a nervous desert vigil — and spent large portions of the race reporting that the bourbon base was overheating and the braking had become entirely unpredictable. The Red Bull energy component, usually the recipe's trump card, was simply not delivering its characteristic explosive charge. Vandenberg salvaged sixth with a last-lap overtake on Pascal Girard, but this was damage limitation dressed up in a garnish.
Teammate Yoshi Takeda fared marginally better on his second outing for the team, reaching the points in ninth with the Samurai Speed Highball. The Japanese whisky base showed flashes of brilliance, and the ginger ale balance looked more compliant than the senior car for much of the evening. But his contact with Serrat triggered the Safety Car and effectively ended Willow Racing Team's afternoon. Takeda admitted he doesn't yet understand "even half" of how his recipe works — which, given the Highball's notoriously temperamental temperature requirements, is entirely understandable.
MIDFIELD MAYHEM: ALPEN, HAWK, WILLOW AND THE REST
The weekend's most heartwarming subplot belonged to Alpen GP. Pascal Girard drove the Alpen Arrow Spritz to seventh — the elderflower cordial providing genuine pace through the faster corners, the white grape juice delivering surprising traction off the slower ones — for the team's first points of the season. The rosemary sprig garnish had never looked so proud. He only lost sixth on the final lap, which tells you precisely how stout the package was all evening.
Hawk Motorsport had genuine cause to celebrate with a double points finish. Etienne Ordaz converted an early pit stop into a solid eighth in the Normandy Knight Apple Fizz, the cloudy apple juice proving remarkably durable across a long stint, while Owen Barrington produced the drive of the day, charging from dead last on the grid all the way to tenth in the Rookie Rush Fizz. The grenadine-fuelled acceleration was spectacular, and the gin base showed the kind of raw pace that suggests Barrington is a recipe architect who will only improve with mileage.
Willow Racing Team left Bahrain muttering into the empty ice bucket. Arthur Arun finished 12th in the Thai Thunder Cooler, denied a better shot all weekend, while Serrat's Matador Motion Sunset — its blood orange and honey syrup combination fighting admirably for position — was forced into retirement after the clash with Takeda punched a hole in the sidepod and sent the sparkling water fizzing irretrievably into the desert air.
The post-race paddock served up one final twist: Niklas Heinrich's Rhine Racer Spritz was disqualified after scrutineers discovered the cucumber base had worn through the regulation skid block. The cucumber ribbon garnish, it seems, had been doing rather too much work as structural support all evening. Meanwhile, Lachlan Lockhart's Kiwi Comet Crush collected a combined fifteen seconds in penalties for collisions with both Heinrich and Laurent Stern, dropping him to sixteenth. The muddled kiwifruit chassis clearly needs better structural integrity before anyone attempts aggressive defensive moves again.
THE PODIUM POURS
1. Ollie Pastore, Papaya Racing — Aussie Apex Zero 2. Graham Radcliffe, Silver Spear Racing — Silver Streak G&T 3. Logan Northrop, Papaya Racing — Brit Blitz Rum Punch
Pastore leaves Sakhir looking like the man with the steadiest hand on the shaker. Northrop still leads the standings, but his margin is down to three points, Vandenberg has slipped further back, and Papaya Racing are increasingly turning the 2025 season into their private happy hour. Next stop: the Jeddah Glass Prix, where the high-speed street circuit will demand maximum carbonation efficiency and razor-sharp lime acidity.
The desert has been conquered. The coastal city awaits.
Drink responsibly. Race irresponsibly. Never trust a cucumber as a structural component.
Cocktail Constructors Championship — Round 4 of 24 | Report by our Sakhir correspondent