McLaren’s Oscar Piastri moved into the lead of the drivers’ championship with his third Formula 1 victory of the season in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
Piastri led home Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, with key moment of the race coming at the very first turn. Having started from pole, Verstappen remained ahead of Piastri by missing the corner, with a subsequent five-second penalty for the manoevre costing the reigning champion the lead to Piastri during his solitary pitstop.
The safety car was deployed before the first-lap was completed due to a collision between Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda. Gasly retired on the spot, while Tsunoda limped back to the pits, where his race also ended due to suspension damage.
Having been awarded his penalty shortly after the restart, Verstappen held a small lead over Piastri before the latter pitted for hard tyres on lap 20. Verstappen emerged three-seconds behind Piastri after serving his penalty during his pitstop two laps later. Piastri controlled the remaining 28 laps to finish 2.8 seconds clear of the Dutchman.
Mercedes’ George Russell maintained third at the start ahead of Charles Leclerc, and he remained ahead of the Ferrari driver after pitting on the same lap as Piastri. Lerclerc stayed out a few laps longer before making his stop, and he soon passed Russell before eventually coming home 2.4s behind Verstappen in third.
Following the qualifying crash which left him starting from the fifth row of the grid, McLaren’s Norris made up two spots almost immediately due to the Gasly and Tsunoda clash before taking seventh away from Williams’s Carlos Sainz on lap seven. He passed Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton for sixth on lap 13, only for the seven-time champion to fight his way back past with DRS, and the same scenario played as the pair completed the next tour.
Norris opted to wait until the DRS zone to pass Hamilton for a third time, and he then hunted down Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli before moving into fifth on lap 19. Having waited until 15 laps to go to make his pitstop, Norris used his fresh tyres to pass Russell for fourth. He reeled in Leclerc late on, but missed out on a podium spot by one second.
Russell was a further 18s adrift in fifth, one place ahead of his team-mate Antonelli. Hamilton was eighth ahead of Sainz, with Alex Albon ensuring both Williams scored points by holding off Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar to finish ninth.
Featured image credit: F1 on X
