McLaren’s Oscar Piastri secured a measured victory at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, which elevated him to the top of the Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship standings. Following an initial first-corner challenge with Max Verstappen, the Red Bull driver received a time penalty that ultimately relegated him to second place behind the Australian driver.
At the beginning of the race, Verstappen had a strong start from pole position. However, Piastri, on the opposite side of the front row, exhibited slightly quicker reactions. Approaching Turn 1, the McLaren driver overtook the Red Bull driver on the inside, momentarily gaining the lead, and at the next turn, Verstappen was compelled to cut the corner. Despite this, the Dutch driver maintained his position at the front.
“It was a pretty tough race. Very, very happy to have obviously won and, yeah, made the difference at the start. I made my case into Turn 1 and that was enough. It was really tricky to follow out there,” Piastri said. “I couldn’t really stay with Max at the end of the first stint, just chewed up my tyres and then the clean air was nice after the pit stop. So, great race. We did the parts we needed to right. Still need a bit more, I think. Max was a little bit too close for our liking, but a great race and a great weekend.”
Further behind in the field, Yuki Tsunoda, driving for Red Bull, was alongside Pierre Gasly. As they entered a corner, contact occurred, resulting in both drivers losing control and crashing into the wall. Gasly sustained significant damage and was unable to continue, while Tsunoda was able to return to the pits but ultimately retired due to the extent of his damage.
The Safety Car was deployed, and during the caution period, the Race Stewards determined that Verstappen had left the track and gained an unfair advantage at the start. As a result, a five-second time penalty was issued to him.
The Dutch driver executed the lap 8 restart effectively, swiftly establishing a one-second lead over Piastri. Russell maintained third place, ahead of Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes. Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton was in sixth position. McLaren’s Lando Norris, who began in tenth place on hard tires, advanced to eighth following the initial lap incident. After the restart, Norris overtook Williams’ Carlos Sainz to secure seventh place.
“I’m going keep it quite short,” Verstappen said. “I just want to say a big thank you to the fans here in Jeddah. It’s been a great weekend. I love the track and, yeah, the rest is what it is. I’m looking forward to Miami. So I’ll see you there.”
He then engaged in a competitive battle with Hamilton, successfully overtaking the Ferrari driver twice only to be overtaken again on the pit straight. Ultimately, the British driver decided to adopt a more strategic approach and, on lap 15, maintained his position ahead of the final corner, activated DRS, and overtook the seven-time champion. The McLaren driver then began closing the gap to Antonelli, and on lap 18, he surpassed the Italian driver to secure fifth place.
At the front, Verstappen started to extend his lead over Piastri, and by lap 19, he had established a three-second margin as the pit window opened. On lap 20, Piastri pitted for hard tires and rejoined behind Hamilton. Verstappen remained on the track, with his race engineer advising him to maintain his strong pace.
At the conclusion of lap 21, the Dutch driver made his pit stop. Following the completion of his time penalty and the installation of a new set of hard tires, he exited the pit lane three seconds behind Piastri. The Australian driver subsequently began setting the fastest laps, gradually extending his lead to over four seconds. In the lead positions, Leclerc, on older medium tires, was now leading the race, with Norris, on the starting set of hard tires and maintaining competitive lap times, in second place.
“I was extremely happy with the lap yesterday. I was very, very happy with the race today,” Leclerc said. “I think we maximised absolutely everything. So, I’m very proud of what we’ve done. Now we just need to improve the car in order to be fighting a bit further.”
At the end of lap 29, Leclerc decided to change his tyres and switched to hard tyres, rejoining the race in fifth position behind Russell. Norris made his pit stop at the end of lap 34, fitting a set of medium tyres, which resulted in him dropping to fifth position behind Leclerc.
Their pit stops allowed Piastri to regained the lead, extending his advantage to 4.5 seconds over Verstappen, who was 6.5 seconds ahead of Russell. Meanwhile, Leclerc was gaining ground; equipped with fresh hard tires, he quickly closed the gap to Russell. On lap 38, he caught up to the Mercedes and overtook on the pit straight, securing the final podium position. Russell, experiencing difficulty maintaining pace, was subsequently overtaken by Norris under DRS, who advanced to finish in fourth place.
Although the McLaren driver attempted to close the gap to Leclerc, the race-leading order remained stable. After 50 laps, Piastri secured victory, finishing just 2.8 seconds ahead of Verstappen. Leclerc maintained third position ahead of Norris, with Russell in fifth. Antonelli finished sixth in the second Mercedes, followed by Hamilton in seventh, Sainz in eighth, and Alex Albon in ninth, securing Williams’ double points finish. Isack Hadjar from Racing Bulls completed the points standings in tenth place.
2025 FIA Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix – Race
1 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 50 1:21’06.758
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT 50 1:21’09.601 2.843
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 50 1:21’14.862 8.104
4 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 50 1:21’15.954 9.196
5 George Russell Mercedes 50 1:21’33.994 27.236
6 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 50 1:21’41.446 34.688
7 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 50 1:21’45.831 39.073
8 Carlos Sainz Williams/Mercedes 50 1:22’11.388 1’04.630
9 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 50 1:22’13.273 1’06.515
10 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 50 1:22’13.849 1’07.091
11 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 50 1:22’22.675 1’15.917
12 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 50 1:22’25.209 1’18.451
13 Oliver Bearman Haas/Ferrari 50 1:22’25.952 1’19.194
14 Esteban Ocon Haas/Ferrari 50 1:22’46.481 1’39.723
15 Nico Hülkenberg Sauber/Ferrari 49 1:21’11.367 1 lap /4.609
16 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 49 1:21’12.285 1 lap /5.527
17 Jack Doohan Alpine/Renault 49 1:21’26.022 1 lap /19.264
18 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber/Ferrari 49 1:21’26.064 1 lap /19.306
Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1 2’45.662 Accident damage
Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 0 – Accident.
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