Oscar Piastri took the world championship lead for the first time in his career after beating Max Verstappen to win the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Piastri hit Verstappen on the first turn and hit it on the first turn with a faster response to the light, but the Dutch stayed forward and rolled the brakes to insist on the corner. He set sails off the road and cuts Shikane and rejoins the truck on the lead.
Both drivers claimed points above team radio, but the race was stopped almost immediately due to a crash between Zonodah and Pierre Guthrie.
The pair tried to navigate turn 4-5 side by side, but the Red Bull Racing Car tagged the alpine and sent both to narrow down, forcing a 3-lap safety car out of the race.
The steward used the break to open an investigation into disagreements on Piastri and Verstappen’s first turn, punishing the Dutchman 5S for sided with the former and handing over the truck when he made a reboot to keep the lead. This decision allowed Piastri to play a long game. I sat just outside the DRS and was about 1.5 seconds behind the leader, leaving the strategic options I got from the penalty addressed to Verstappen open.
McLaren pulled the trigger at the end of lap 19. A slow 3.4-second stop made him sixth behind Lewis Hamilton, but the unorthodox movement around Ferrari outside of Turn 21 made him a few clear air to maximize his fifth and undercut.
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
Verstappen responded after two laps, but there was no chance. He offered a penalty before changing tires, rejoining the race behind Hamilton, causing his gap to piastry to be caught in a 3-second deficit.
With the benefit of Clear Air, Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris took the lead in turn, but were out of his way with 29 and 34 laps respectively – Piastri could not be reached by Verstappen, with only backmarker traffic intermittently reducing the gap.
He made the checkered flag a 2.8s winner. The first winner of the season started with pole this season and didn’t earn his third victory from the Five Grand Prix.
“It was a pretty tough race,” he said. “I made a difference in the beginning. I made my case a turn 1, and that was enough.
“Once we got inside, we weren’t out of turn one in two seconds.
“I ended up being a race and I’m very pleased with all the work we’ve done at the start.”
The victory left Piastri at the top of the rankings 10 points away from teammate Norris, becoming the first Australian to lead the title table since Mark Webber in 2010.
Verstappen was second-not-challenged, but was interpreted as a protest against the outcome, refusing to answer questions in post-race interviews.
“I love trucks, the rest is what it is,” he said. “I look forward to Miami, so I’ll see you there.”
Charles Leclerc completed his first Ferrari podium this season after holding back Rand Norris, who was quick to finish on the final nine laps.
Leclerc started with medium tires, but ran long until lap 29, switching to hard compound and constructing a handy tire offset that gave George Russell third and third on 12 laps.
Norris began with an opposing strategy from the 10th. It started with hard tires, but before switching to faster mediums, I drove long until lap 34. The McLaren driver blew Russell out on lap 41 for the fourth time, placing him behind the Ferrari driver in the final position of his speech 4.1 seconds later.
Gradually he was caught up in a scar-colored car, but was unable to surround himself with the doctoral range.
“I was very pleased with today’s race,” he said. “I think we absolutely maximized everything.
“I’m proud of what we did. Now we need to fight a little more to improve our cars.”
Mercedes teammates Russell and Andrea Kimmi Antonelli took the glow of Lewis Hamilton, who finished seventh among the frontrunners, to fifth and sixth.
Williams was the best performer in the midfield that was uncontroversial, with Carlos Sen leading home teammate Alex Albon in 8th and 9th place, moving his team to fifth in the Constructors Championship.
Isack Hadjar scored the final point in the race for the Race Bulls.
Liam Lawson finished 11th on the road, but swapped locations with Fernando Alonso and was demoted to 12th with a 10-second penalty to hand over the truck.
Haas duo Oliver Baerman and Esteban Ocon finished with Nico Halkenberg, Lance Stroll, Jack Douhan (the only driver to make two pit stops) and Gabriel Boltreto in 13th and 14th place.
