Piastri romps to victory after first-lap penalty to Verstappen, assumes championship lead; Leclerc holds of Norris for P3
Sunday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix all came down to the opening lap, when pole-sitter Max Verstappen ran his Red Bull off track at Turn 1 in an effort to avoid the surging McLaren of Oscar Piastri and then rejoined ahead of the young Aussie still retaining P1. After a Safety Car neutralized the race for two-laps as a result of a crash between Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and the second Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda, the stewards adjudged that Verstappen had gained an unfair advantage and the Dutchman was handed a 5-second time penalty for not previously handing over the position to Piastri. While the top two continued to hold station at the front when the race resumed on Lap 3, Piastri and the McLaren braintrust were confident the 5-seconds that Verstappen would serve on his first pit stop would redound to their benefit. They also played the undercut, boxing Piastri on Lap 20 of this 50-lap contest at the Jeddah Corniche street circuit, while Verstappen ran to Lap 22 before following the preferred strategy by doffing his opening stint Medium Pirellis in favor of the Hards, while also serving his penalty. When Verstappen reemerged, he found himself in fifth place, while Piastri had assumed P3, behind Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari and teammate Lando Norris, both of whom had yet to pit.
What. A. Move! 😱
Oscar Piastri overtakes Lewis Hamilton in a cloud of dust 💨#F1 #SaudiArabianGP pic.twitter.com/EXn6by2n0I
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 20, 2025
While Leclerc eventually came in on Lap 30 after getting the most out of his Mediums, Norris continued on with his Hard tires, looking to maximize a long run strategy gambit after crashing out of qualifying and starting from P10 on the grid. When Norris finally did pit, Piastri assumed the lead of the race for the first time and, with the entirety of the field running a one-stopper, he would not relinquish the point en route to his second win on the trot and third out of five rounds run so far in 2025. The excellent result also gave Piastri the lead of Drivers’ Championship for the first time, 10 points clear of his teammate Norris. Verstappen held on to P2 easily and ended up only two points adrift of Norris in the Drivers’, although he and the team will likely rue not immediately handing Piastri the lead after that Lap 1 contretemps. And, while Norris made a valiant comeback drive from that unfortunate P10 starting spot, he could never really get onto Leclerc’s gearbox to execute a pass for the final podium position, the Monegasque heading him P3 to P4. This was also Ferrari’s first Grand Prix podium of the season, although Lewis Hamilton did win the Sprint in China in Round 2. The Mercedes duo of George Russell and rookie Kimi Antonelli took the checkers in P5 and P6 respectively, while the second Ferrari of Hamilton settled for P7 after some spirited battles with the McLarens earlier in the race. Of the midfield runners, Williams had the best day, with an increasingly confident Carlos Sainz slotting in at P8 and teammate Alex Albon holding off the hard charging Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar, P9 to P10.
Top 10 finishers of the Saudi GP:
POS |
NO |
DRIVER |
CAR |
LAPS |
TIME/RETIRED |
PTS |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
81 |
Oscar Piastri |
McLaren Mercedes |
50 |
1:21:06.758 |
25 |
2 |
1 |
Max Verstappen |
Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT |
50 |
+2.843s |
18 |
3 |
16 |
Charles Leclerc |
Ferrari |
50 |
+8.104s |
15 |
4 |
4 |
Lando Norris |
McLaren Mercedes |
50 |
+9.196s |
12 |
5 |
63 |
George Russell |
Mercedes |
50 |
+27.236s |
10 |
6 |
12 |
Kimi Antonelli |
Mercedes |
50 |
+34.688s |
8 |
7 |
44 |
Lewis Hamilton |
Ferrari |
50 |
+39.073s |
6 |
8 |
55 |
Carlos Sainz |
Williams Mercedes |
50 |
+64.630s |
4 |
9 |
23 |
Alexander Albon |
Williams Mercedes |
50 |
+66.515s |
2 |
10 |
6 |
Isack Hadjar |
Racing Bulls Honda RBPT |
50 |
+67.091s |
1 |
Complete race results available via Formula1.com.
The next race is in a fortnight, as the teams get a breather after a grueling three weekends in a row, F1’s first of three visits to the United States for the Miami Grand Prix. Can Piastri keep up his remarkable run of form at yet another challenging street circuit or will Norris eliminate the errors that have cost him and find a way to regain his championship momentum after a breakthrough win in Miami last year? Or will Verstappen spoil the McLaren party at a track he dominated in 2022 & 2023? Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!