Red Bull saw both drivers take points at the Bahrain Grand Prix but had a race where they failed to challenge for podiums or the win.
Max Verstappen took 6th place, thanks in part to a last lap overtake on one time teammate Pierre Gasly, while teammate Yuki Tsunoda finished 9th, taking his first points since being promoted into the Red Bull senior team.
This was the first race of 2025 where both Red Bull drivers finished in a points position, but it provided little other consolation to Red Bull in a race where they struggle to keep pace with the McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes cars ahead.
With four races of the F1 season done, Red Bull see Verstappen sitting third in the Driver’s Championship. The Dutchman has 69 points after four races, 5 points behind second place Oscar Piastri and 8 behind early championship leader Lando Norris.
Tsunoda’s first points as a Red Bull driver means the Japanese driver now has 5 overall, with his two added to three points scored at Racing Bulls before his promotion last month. He sits 14th in the championship.
In the Constructor’s Championship, the Milton Keynes-based Red Bull team sit third with 71 points. They are 14 points above fourth place Ferrari, 22 behind second place Mercedes and 80 off early leaders McLaren.
Although Verstappen had won the previous round in Japan, Red Bull arrived expecting the Bahrain Grand Prix to be difficult and they started with an off-the-pace run in qualifying, with Verstappen starting 7th and Tsunoda 10th.
Verstappen was passed at the start by the fast-starting Williams of Carlos Sainz, but the Dutchman was able to pass his one-time Toro Rosso teammate a few laps into the race.
An early problem would beset the Red Bull operation, however, with a fault with the automated pit lane traffic light delaying both Verstappen and Tsunoda when they made early pit-stops.
The slow stop saw Verstappen get undercut by Esteban Ocon, while Tsunoda would overtaken by Lewis Hamilton in the Ferrari after initially undercutting the 7-time champion.
Verstappen struggled on hard tyres after the stop, and after getting overtaken by Kimi Antonelli and then Hamilton, he was brought in for a second time, albeit not helped by a slow removal of the front right tyre that lead to another slow pit-stop.
Tsunoda, meanwhile, would soon be involved in pivotal action. A fight between him and Sainz in the opening sequence of corners at the start of lap 31 lead to debris being scattered across the track, largely from the side of Sainz’s Williams and culminated in the safety car being deployed.
Verstappen was 7th at the restart, and he was eventually able to clear Gasly’s Alpine with a move on the final lap to take sixth on the track. Meanwhile, Tsunoda would make a move on Jack Doohan, whose Alpine struggled with worn-out tyres, but the Japanese driver would have to settle for 9th after being unable to make a move on Ocon ahead.
The Red Bull team will be hoping for better next time around when they make a trip to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, with round five of the season being the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Northampton Town picked up a point towards their survival bid after a 0-0 draw with play-off chasing Reading despite ending the game a man down.
Nesta Guinness-Walker was sent off in a clash against his former club, but the hosts were able to keep out a Royals side that began and ended the day sixth in the League One table.
With four games of the season to go, Northampton sit 19th in the League One table. They are two places and five points above the relegation zone, on a weekend that saw Burton Albion climb out of the bottom four and jump above a Bristol Rovers team that have now lost six straight games.
Having picked up a comfortable four goal victory over Peterborough in their last assignment, Northampton looked to pick up a first home win since late February as they welcomed play-off chasing Reading, who have been in fine form despite off-field drama regarding their ownership situation.
The hosts made a bright start at Sixfields, with Ben Perry hitting the side-netting before Dara Costelloe fired over.
Reading then had the best opportunities in the remainder of a tight first half, with Lee Burge saving well to keep out Charlie Savage’s deflected shot before the keeper kept out Jayden Wareham.
Northampton began the second half by creating a few opportunities, as Costelloe saw a curling effort just fly wide before Joel Pereira in the Reading goal thwarted Cameron McGeehan.
Pereira would later make another good stop to deny Northampton substitute Tyler Roberts, before the game then seemed to turn in Reading’s favour when Northampton had a man sent off.
With 13 minutes to go, former Reading defender Guinness-Walker was shown a second yellow card for a foul on Harvey Knibbs.
Reading missed the best opportunity for a winner after that moment as Savage side-footed the ball wide in the final moments after being found by Knibbs.
Having picked up a point from the contest, Northampton will face a big test in their next match when they travel to play promotion chasers Charlton Athletic at The Valley on Good Friday.
MK Dons lost for the fourth game in a row after a 1-0 defeat at Gillingham courtesy of a late Bradley Dack goal.
Dack’s goal in the fifth minute of stoppage time, earning the home side a first win under the charge of recently appointed boss Gareth Ainsworth.
The result continued the Dons’ miserable run, with the team having failed to win any of their last five outings and suffered defeats in their last four as their season continues to drift away.
With four games to go, the Dons sit 19th in the League Two table, with the team having a nine point gap to the relegation zone after Carlisle won a battle of the bottom two away at Morecambe.
After a chastening week for MK Dons where they conceded ten goals in defeats to Fleetwood, Notts County and Barrow, the club remained in the interim charge of Ben Gladwin, who would later reveal the club expect to appoint a new manager before next week’s game against Newport.
A flat first half saw neither one of Gillingham’s first-time starter goalkeeper Taite Hotlman or recalled MK Dons keeper Craig MacGillivray tested, with the closest seeing MacGillivray make straight-forward stops to deny Robbie McKenzie and Sam Gale.
MK Dons did have the ball in the back of the net when Scott Hogan raced onto a through-pass and threaded a shot into the bottom corner, only for an offside flag to intervene.
Joe Tomlinson had a shot blocked and Alex Gilbey fired over in first half stoppage time as MK Dons ended the half with a few opportunities.
A low quality first half was followed by a similarly unimpressive second period, with neither side creating much in the way of opportunities.
Gillingham nearly broke the deadlock in the latter stages when substitute Dack met a free-kick and saw a glancing header strike the bar.
It had looked like the game was set to drift to a scoreless conclusion until, in the fifth minute of stoppage time, Gillingham snatched the points. A free-kick was headed back across goal by Conor Masterson for Dack, who controlled then bundled it between Luke Offord and the post to find the back of the net.
Luton Town’s bid to stay in the Championship suffered a blow as they lost 1-0 at home to a ten man Blackburn Rovers side.
Midtable Rovers had arrived with no win in their previous 8 outings, but a Yuki Ohashi goal won the game for the visitors. Blackburn had seen Kristi Montgomery sent off, but the visitors kept Luton out for the remaining half hour and took the points.
Defeat ended Luton’s five match unbeaten run, and they sit three points from safety with four games of the Championship season still to play.
Having rescued a late point against fellow strugglers Stoke in midweek, Luton had hoped to keep their unbeaten streak going against an out-of-sorts Blackburn side. The visitors’ run of games without a win had sunk their hopes of a finish in the play-offs, with Rovers having recently lost to several teams down the Hatters at the bottom end of the Championship table.
Luton had a few first half opportunities, with Millenic Alli missing the target from close range in the opening minute and Mark McGuinness heading over from a Jordan Clark free-kick.
Blackburn had created little but the visitors would take the lead in the opening stages of the second half. A passing move in the middle teed up Ryan Hedges, who played a fine pass through to Ohashi, and the Japanese striker was able to roll the ball past Thomas Kaminski to put the visitors in front.
Six minutes after taking the lead, Blackburn would be reduced to ten players. Full debutant Montgomery had already been booked when the Blackburn defender was shown another yellow for a foul on Alli and was duly shown a red card.
Blackburn duly provided a stubborn obstacle to try and get the points despite the issue of being a man down.
The Hatters’ best opportunities saw them twice hit the crossbar, with Thelo Aasgaard hitting the bar after a fine slaloming run before Alli saw a deflected shot strike the bar in the ninth minute of second half injury time.
Try as they might, however, Luton couldn’t break the door down as they slip to a reverse that does damage to their aspirations of survival.
The Hatters face a huge contest in their next game, when they travel to play Derby County in a relegation six pointer against the side that currently sit immediately outside the relegation zone.
Destination Milton Keynes’ #LoveMK day is set to return for 2025.
The event will continue an event first set up by MK’s official tourism group Destination Milton Keynes (DMK) 13 years ago which seeks to highlight positive qualities of the city on social media.
DMK’s Marketing Manager Carys Underwood said, “Over the years Milton Keynes has been much maligned by the press and mainly by people who have never been here, and who just don’t get it. This wacky little idea was a way of letting everyone who values the things that make MK special – like the green spaces, roundabouts and grid roads – shout about them and be rightly proud.”
Across the years, so many people have been involved, including Mayors, celebrities, schools, businesses, sports teams and community groups, and loads of ordinary people just wanting to help share the love.
The main hook has been the use of the hashtag. When it started, the aim was to get #LoveMK trending on Twitter (now X) but people soon began to use the hashtag as part of creative challenges for people. There have been pizzas with the hashtag on, cakes, flowerbeds, pies, Lego and it even made it into a Minecraft world. The more creative you could be the better, and back in 2013 it was even cut into a lawn.
It’s estimated that across the thirteen years the hashtag reach is in excess of 35 million, with it being used over 100,000 times.
DMK said the theme was for the hashtag to be a strong presence from local users.
They said, “This year, DMK wants everyone to get involved. Use #LoveMK on all your posts, and get creative with that hashtag – paint it, sew it, bake it, make it out of flowers, you name it – they want to see it!”
Carys Underwood continued “After more than a decade of #LoveMK Day, the support shown for the day still surprises us; everyone wants to get involved and you can at any level. It doesn’t have to be a grand gesture, just use the hashtag when you post on socials that day… but if you want to bring out your creative side and post a photo, that would be amazing or if your business wanted to create a special offer just for that day, then we’ll help get it out there – just get involved and help spread the #LoveMK.”
