An early error by pole-sitter Max Verstappen resulted in Oscar Piastri winning the 2025 Formula One Saudi Arabian Grand Prix with a near-flawless drive.
With his win in Jeddah, the young McLaren driver has taken the lead in the World Drivers’ Championship, overtaking his teammate, Lando Norris.
Verstappen finished second, with Charles Leclerc fending off Norris to lock in the final podium place. It was also the first race of the season where only one McLaren driver finished on the podium.
Norris finished a brilliant fourth after starting in P10, with George Russell securing another top-five finish. Russell’s teammate, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, Williams’ Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon, and VCARB’s Isack Hadjar rounded out the points places.
Piastri attacked Verstappen right off the line, but the Red Bull man pulled out his defensive skills to keep the lead of the race, though his evasive action sent him off-track. Behind him, Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda came together, bringing out the Safety Car. The damage ended Gasly’s race, and while Tsunoda thought he could hang on, he too had to retire the car due to damage. Racing resumed after a lap, with Verstappen being handed a five-second penalty for going off track.
While Verstappen held on to the lead, with Piastri breathing down his neck, further down the grid Piastri’s teammate was involved in a tight battle with Lewis Hamilton as the two exchanged places back and forth for a couple of laps. Hamilton was hanging on to that sixth place before Lando Norris finally got him on Lap 15 and breezed away. Norris then passed Andrea Kimi Antonelli on the main straight on Lap 19 to move into the top five. Verstappen, meanwhile, had built a gap of three seconds to Piastri as McLaren called the latter in for his stop the following lap, while Red Bull chose to stay out.
A slightly slow stop saw Piastri come out in P6, 22 seconds behind Verstappen, with Charles Leclerc moving into second. Verstappen came in for his stop two laps after Piastri had and, after serving his five-second penalty, came out three seconds behind Piastri in P5 as Leclerc inherited the lead of the race, although he, Norris, and Hamilton were the three in the top five who hadn’t pitted yet.
When Hamilton went in for his stop a couple of laps later, Verstappen was directly behind Piastri by 3.8 seconds as the race reached its halfway stage. Leclerc, after his stop, came out on hard compound tyres flying, putting in fastest laps one after the other and threatening for a podium place.
Piastri took the lead of the race as his teammate came in for his stop on Lap 35. Norris rejoined the track in P5, with Verstappen over four seconds behind the race leader. Leclerc swept past George Russell on Lap 38 on the main straight to move into the podium places.
Further down the grid, the two Aston Martin cars were fighting outside the points places, with Fernando Alonso getting past his teammate, Lance Stroll, on Lap 40 to move into P12. The Williams drivers, meanwhile, were trying to help each other to stay on the fringes of the points.
The last couple of laps saw Hamilton fight with Kimi Antonelli, the driver who replaced him at Mercedes, for P6, with the young Italian trying to hang on, while Norris tried to push Leclerc for the final podium place, but the Ferrari driver managed to hold on to the spot.
Piastri, meanwhile, put in a composed drive to take the win ahead of Verstappen, who finished second.
Not only is this Piastri’s third win of the season, making it back-to-back wins for the Australian after winning in Bahrain last week, it has also seen him take the lead of the World Drivers’ Championship, dislodging his teammate from the top spot. This is also his first win of the year without starting on pole.
Leclerc’s P3 finish, meanwhile, is Ferrari’s first podium of the season, with Norris finishing fourth after starting in tenth due to a driver-error in Qualifying.
The completion of the 2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix concludes the season’s first triple-header. Racing will return in two weeks’ time as the grid moves to Miami.
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