Race report

F1 Saudi Arabian GP: Oscar Piastri wins to take title lead as Max Verstappen gets penalty

Piastri came out on top in Jeddah, with his race start battle with Verstappen playing a key role

Oscar Piastri took victory at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix to move into the lead of the Formula 1 drivers’ championship.

The McLaren man sealed his third win of the season, going back to back after taking the chequered flag in Bahrain last week as he benefitted from an early penalty against polesitter Max Verstappen.

Having qualified first, reigning champion Verstappen was not as quick off the line as Piastri from second and drove his Red Bull wide into Turn 2, earning him a five-second penalty that seemingly cost him a shot at victory.

Charles Leclerc took third for Ferrari, holding off a late challenge from the recovering Lando Norris, who had started down in 10th after crashing out in qualifying.

It was a great start from Piastri and he looked to pass Verstappen, who cut Turn 2 to retain the lead just moments before the sister Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda was caught up in a crash with Pierre Gasly’s Alpine.

Pierre Gasly, Alpine

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

There had been a safety car in all four previous F1 races in Jeddah and this time it was out by the end of lap one.

Gasly retired immediately having lost the majority of the rear wing, and Tsunoda’s race was also over despite making it back to the pits.

With the cars all falling into a designated pace, the radio back-and-forth began as Piastri called for Verstappen to surrender the lead, while the Dutchman insisted he had been run wide on purpose.

The stewards sided with Piastri and Verstappen was duly handed a five-second time penalty just as the race got back under way.

“Once I got on the inside, I wasn’t coming out of Turn 1 in second,” Piastri said. “I tried my best, obviously the stewards had to get involved but I thought I was plenty far enough up and in the end that’s what got me the race. So yeah, very happy with all the work we’ve been doing with the starts and that’s what won us the race today.”

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Norris, having opted to start on the hard tyre, was a beneficiary of the Tsunoda/Gasly incident and made up two places to eighth, before passing Carlos Sainz at the start of lap seven to continue his climb.

With Piastri keeping Verstappen within striking distance, Norris started to close on the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton, passing his compatriot but dropping back behind as the seven-time world champion got the benefit of DRS.

There was a repeat on the next lap, Norris again opting to pass at a time which gave Hamilton the DRS advantage into the final corner.

The next time around, Norris waited until the last bend himself before deploying DRS and passing Hamilton without fear of immediately losing the place back for a third time.

Norris was the man making moves through the pack and Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes was next up for the McLaren, who was up to fifth before the end of lap 19.

Meanwhile, Piastri was dropping back from Verstappen and pitted on lap 20, a slight delay costing the Australian a second in his box as he returned on the hard compound.

Verstappen was told to push, aiming to avoid any undercut and knowing he still had his penalty hanging over him as George Russell also opted to come in.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

Piastri, though, would be three seconds further up the road after Vestappen’s own stop two laps later as he took net lead of the race, with Leclerc and Norris having not come in for fresh rubber.

“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 pitstops,” Piastri added. “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.”

Norris was eking out his tyres, no doubt hoping for a timely safety car to cut down the time lost in the pitlane – although he eventually discarded his original set of tyres with 15 laps to go. The stop saw him drop back down to fifth but with much newer tyres than the quartet now ahead of him.

Piastri was now leading outright, Verstappen’s five-second penalty keeping him behind the McLaren, with Russell third and Leclerc closing him down in fourth.

The Monegasque squeezed through as Norris started setting the pace with the race entering the closing stages.

With Russell struggling, Norris also made his way past the Mercedes but was also placed under investigation by the stewards for crossing the white line on pit exit.

No further action was taken as Norris set about catching Leclerc to seal the last spot on the podium, but he ultimately ran out of laps before he could make a proper fist of it, closing to just over a second before the flag.

Russell finished fifth despite being concerned about his tyre wear in the closing stages, with Antonelli sixth and Hamilton finishing seventh, where he had started.

Sainz was eighth and played the ultimate team game, allowing the second Williams of Alex Albon to piggyback his DRS and keep Isack Hadjar at bay, the Racing Bulls man having to settle for 10th.

Saudi Arabian GP results

1 - 2
Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Pits	Points	Retirement	Chassis	Engine
1	O. Piastri McLaren	81	50	1:21'06.758		228.164	1	25		McLaren	Mercedes
2	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	1	50	+2.843 1:21'09.601	2.843	228.031	1	18		Red Bull	Red Bull
3	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16	50	+8.104 1:21'14.862	5.261	227.784	1	15		Ferrari	Ferrari
4	L. Norris McLaren	4	50	+9.196 1:21'15.954	1.092	227.733	1	12		McLaren	Mercedes
5	G. Russell Mercedes	63	50	+27.236 1:21'33.994	18.040	226.894	1	10		Mercedes	Mercedes
6	A. Kimi Antonelli Mercedes	12	50	+34.688 1:21'41.446	7.452	226.549	1	8		Mercedes	Mercedes
7	L. Hamilton Ferrari	44	50	+39.073 1:21'45.831	4.385	226.346	1	6		Ferrari	Ferrari
8	C. Sainz Williams	55	50	+1'04.630 1:22'11.388	25.557	225.173	1	4		Williams	Mercedes
9	A. Albon Williams	23	50	+1'06.515 1:22'13.273	1.885	225.087	1	2		Williams	Mercedes
10	I. Hadjar Racing Bulls	6	50	+1'07.091 1:22'13.849	0.576	225.061	1	1		RB	Honda
View full results