Piastri clinches victory in Saudi Arabia from Verstappen and Leclerc as McLaren driver becomes new championship leader

Oscar Piastri has picked up his third win of the season with an assured drive to victory in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the Australian becoming the new Drivers’ Championship leader in the process.

There was early drama as the race got underway at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, with polesitter Max Verstappen and second-placed Piastri going wheel-to-wheel before Verstappen cut the apex into the first corner.

While the Dutchman initially held the lead, a five-second time penalty for the manoeuvre saw him drop behind the McLaren man after serving the punishment at his pit stop.

Lando Norris – embarking on a recovery drive from P10 after his Qualifying crash on Saturday – inherited the lead for some time as the frontrunners pitted, with the Briton having opted for a longer first stint by starting on the hard tyres. But Piastri took over P1 when his team mate stopped for medium rubber, the 24-year-old going on to eke out an advantage at the front.

From there Piastri was untroubled at the front, taking the chequered flag by 2.8s from the Red Bull of Verstappen, while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc sealed third to claim his maiden podium of the season.

Norris had to settle for fourth, despite trying to chase down Leclerc until the end, with the Mercedes pair of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli following in fifth and sixth respectively. Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, added to Ferrari’s points tally in seventh.

Another squad taking home a double points result was Williams, Carlos Sainz claiming P8 to mark his best result so far for the Grove-based squad while team mate Alex Albon was just behind in P9, the Thai driver holding off Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar despite a close challenge to the end.

Fernando Alonso again missed out on points in P11 – the Aston Martin man yet to get off the mark in 2025 – with Liam Lawson taking P12 for Racing Bulls after being hit with a 10-second penalty for the leaving the track and gaining an advantage in and incident with Jack Doohan. The Haas pair of Ollie Bearman and Esteban Ocon slotted into P13 and P14 respectively.

Nico Hulkenberg drove his Kick Sauber to 15th place, ahead of the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll, Alpine’s Jack Doohan and the other Kick Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto completing the order of classified finishers.

Two drivers failed to make the chequered flag, with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda suffering an early exit after colliding in a first-lap incident that triggered a Safety Car phase.

But up at the front, Piastri has taken the lead in the championship by 10 points from team mate Norris, making him the first Australian driver to head the championship standings in 15 years – the last being his manager, Mark Webber.

AS IT HAPPENED

After a busy build-up of three practice sessions and a dramatic Qualifying – in which Verstappen beat Piastri to pole position, while the latter’s team mate suffered a session-ending crash early in Q3 – the attentions of the paddock had turned to the 50-lap Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Lots of questions lingered ahead of the race getting underway; would Verstappen be able to fend off the challenge posed by Piastri and Russell, and could Norris fight through to put himself in the battle at the front?

As had been the case during the first two days of action, the drivers were again greeted by very warm conditions on race day at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, with air temperatures in the range of 29 degrees Celsius as the local start time of 2000 approached.

Once the cars had assembled on the grid under the floodlights and the tyre blankets came off for the anticipated one-stop event, it was confirmed that the majority of the pack would be starting on the medium compound – with the exception of Norris, Hadjar, Stroll and Hulkenberg on the hards, suggesting that these drivers would be opting for a longer first stint.

After the formation lap had been completed and the lights went out, Verstappen launched off the line well – but so did Piastri, the pair going wheel-to-wheel into the first corner before Verstappen cut across the apex. Antonelli did the same behind as he fought with Leclerc, prompting the Mercedes driver to yield.

There was first-lap drama further back as former team mates Gasly and Tsunoda collided, prompting the Safety Car to come out as both hit the wall. While Gasly was out of the running in the Alpine, Tsunoda managed to limp back to the pits but found himself at the back of the field.

A number of drivers took the opportunity to pit as the Safety Car remained out, with Doohan, Ocon and Bortoleto all stopping for the hard tyres. Meanwhile the Turn 1 incident between Verstappen and Piastri had been noted by the stewards.

“He was never going to make that corner regardless of whether I was there or not,” Piastri commented over the radio, while Verstappen also radioed to say: “He just forced me off.”

As the Safety Car peeled in on Lap 4 and Verstappen held the lead from Piastri, the Dutchman was handed a five-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage for that aforementioned incident.

Elsewhere Hadjar was battling with Alonso for P10, the Racing Bulls driver winning out in the scrap. Five laps in, the top 10 stood at Verstappen – leading by over one second – Piastri, Russell, Leclerc, Antonelli, Hamilton, Sainz, Norris, Albon and Hadjar.

It looked like that order could soon be set to change, though, with Antonelli closing to within one second of Leclerc while Norris was chasing down Sainz, the Briton eventually using the DRS to overtake his former team mate into Turn 1.

Off the track, the stewards confirmed that they would investigate the incident between Gasly and Tsunoda after the race, the latter having ultimately retired from the running. And back on the circuit, the leading pair of Verstappen and Piastri had broken away, driving over two seconds up the road from Russell in third.

Albon, meanwhile, was warned about his brakes potentially overheating on Lap 11 – prompting the Williams driver to respond “Do you not see there is a car right behind me?”, with Hadjar close on his tail.

Ahead of him, Norris looked to have taken P6 from Hamilton as his mission to make gains through the field continued – but the Ferrari driver wasn’t giving up and utilised DRS to retake the place, dropping Norris back in the process.

It was not over there, though; Norris got in front again by slipping through the inside, only for Hamilton to surge forwards into Turn 1. On the next tour, Norris tried a move himself at the same place – and this time looked to have succeeded, with the next target Antonelli three seconds ahead in P5.

As Lap 17 ticked down, Verstappen had extended his lead over Piastri to over two seconds, with Russell five seconds back from the McLaren in third. With the pit window approaching, would any of the frontrunners opt to make a stop?

Norris’ ascent was continuing, the Briton having taken fifth from Antonelli – just as Piastri was called to pit, the Australian bolting on a set of hard tyres on Lap 20. After a slightly slow stop of 3.4s, he reemerged into sixth while Verstappen stayed out, the Dutchman told to “keep going” by engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.

Other pit stops were coming thick and fast, with Russell picking up some hard tyres before Verstappen also made his stop, the World Champion serving his penalty in the process and returning to the track in fifth.

Up ahead, Piastri made a nail-bitingly close overtake on Hamilton through Turn 22, the Australian taking third as Leclerc led from Norris up ahead, both cars having yet to stop. With Hamilton stopping soon afterwards, the top five stood at Leclerc, Norris, Piastri, Verstappen and Russell as the race reached its halfway point on Lap 25.

Further back, Alonso tried to make a move on Bortoleto only to get squeezed close to the wall, prompting the Spaniard – who is part of the Kick Sauber driver’s management team – to ask his Aston Martin team to check the car.

Various battles were continuing to play out across the field, with Sainz snatching P10 from Hulkenberg while Lawson had taken P14 from Doohan, both of whom are still looking for their first points of the season.

Leclerc eventually made his stop on Lap 30, the Monegasque swapping his medium tyres for a set of hards before returning to the track in fifth. This put Norris – still yet to stop – in the lead, the Briton running three seconds ahead of Piastri.

Elsewhere, Antonelli had a pulse-raising brush with the wall, while Piastri was told that Norris might be extending his stint ahead, leading the Australian to respond that he was “starting to feel dirty air a bit”. Could this have an impact on Piastri’s chances of victory?

Norris was subsequently called into the pits on Lap 35, the McLaren driver having a bit of a lock-up as he entered the pit lane before bolting on the medium compound and returning to the track in P5. This handed the lead to Piastri, 4.5s ahead of Verstappen in second, while Russell was being chased down by Leclerc in the battle for third.

That particular scrap came to a head on Lap 38, with Leclerc using the DRS to make a clean pass into Turn 1 and put himself into contention for a maiden podium of the season. There was worse luck for Lawson, meanwhile, who was handed a 10-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage during his battle with Doohan.

With 10 laps to go, Norris gained another position by taking P4 from Russell – but the McLaren driver had also been noted for crossing the line at the pit exit when making his stop, potentially putting him at risk of a penalty.

However, the incident was later dismissed by the stewards, perhaps helping the papaya squad to breathe a sigh of relief as the British driver continued to run in fourth.

But Piastri – leading by 2.9s from Verstappen up ahead – was seemingly less calm, having voiced his frustrations about cars ahead of him as he came to lap a battling Stroll and Bortoleto.

The leader eventually found a way past, but had lost one second in the process. As the final three laps approached, Norris was the fastest man on track in fourth as he tried to hunt down Leclerc, while Hadjar was closing in on Albon in the fight for P9.

There were no further troubles for Piastri up ahead, though, the Australian finding his way through the remaining traffic to seal his third victory of the season – as well as becoming the new championship leader as a result.

Verstappen had to settle for second, crossing the line 2.8s behind Piastri, while Leclerc completed the podium in P3 for Ferrari, marking his debut rostrum of the campaign. Norris, meanwhile, could not quite reach the Monegasque, taking fourth to complete his recovery drive from P10 on the grid.

Russell and team mate Antonelli were fifth and sixth respectively, with Hamilton ending the day in a quiet seventh, while Williams scored a double points finish as Sainz took eighth ahead of Albon in ninth.

Hadjar claimed the final point on offer in P10 – having been unable to overtake Albon in the end – while Alonso’s search for his debut points of the season continues as he took P11. Lawson also missed out in P12, having dropped a place thanks to his penalty, with the Racing Bulls man finishing in front of the Haas cars of Bearman and Ocon.

Hulkenberg was the lead Kick Sauber in 15th, while Stroll, Doohan and Bortoleto were the final classified runners, with Tsunoda and Gasly the two retirees following their first-lap collision.

Key quote

"It was a pretty tough race," said Piastri. "Very happy to have obviously won, 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, 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 stops.

"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."

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