McLaren’s Oscar Piastri took his second consecutive victory and grabbed the F1 championship lead with another dominant win, this time in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The triumph made Piastri the first Australian to top the drivers’ standings since his manager, Mark Webber, led the title fight for Red Bull in 2010, and it might change the dynamic inside the McLaren garage, with Piastri seeming to be taking over as team leader.
“It was a very tough race and I’m obviously really happy to have won,” said Piastri, after his third victory of the season and fifth of his career. “We did all the parts we needed to do right, but we needed a bit more as Max [Verstappen] was a little bit too close for my liking. It’s always a tough race around here and it’s a little bit later in the year as well so it’s a little bit warmer and a little more humid, so one of the toughest races I’ve had in my career.”
The McLaren driver crossed the line 2.843 seconds ahead of Red Bull‘s Max Verstappen in the 50-lap race, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finishing 5.261 seconds back in third. Lando Norris took fourth, in the second McLaren, with Mercedes driver George Russell completing the top-five.
The two consecutive wins allowed Piastri to leapfrog teammate Norris by 10 points, 99-89, with Verstappen just another two points behind. Russell lies fourth, on 73 points, with Leclerc fifth, at 47.
With 188 points, McLaren extended its constructors’ championship lead to 77 over Mercedes’ 111 markers, with Red Bull third, at 89 points.
Verstappen surprised many by taking the pole on Saturday, but could not convert the position into a victory. At the start, the Red Bull driver went off track in the first turn, battling for the lead with Piastri, and got slapped with a five-second penalty.
Verstappen dropped behind the McLaren driver after he served the time penalty during his first pit stop and stayed there until the checkered flag. While he tried to make a race of it, Verstappen never got close enough to challenge Piastri and settled for second.
The four-time and defending world champion definitely did not agree with the penalty, exclaiming “well that is [expletive] lovely” in the car when told of the sanction by the team.
“I’m going to keep it quite short,” said an obviously still angry Verstappen in the post-race TV interviews. “I’m just going to say a big thank you to the fans here. It’s been a great weekend and I love the track. Otherwise, it is what it is, and I’m looking forward to Miami, so see you there.”
Leclerc put on a tire management clinic on his way to third, taking the mediums to Lap 29 before he pitted for hard tires. That strategy gave him much fresher tires than the cars around after he emerged in fifth and tried to chase a podium.
Leclerc got into a podium spot at the beginning of Lap 38 by getting past Russell at the end of the start-finish straight and stayed there to the finish, with his newer tires also helping him keep Norris at bay in the closing stages.
“I was very, very happy with the race today, I think we maximized absolutely everything,” said Leclerc, who delivered Ferrari’s first podium of 2025. “I’m very proud of what we‘ve done but now we need to improve the car. I never thought we’d finish there [on the podium]; honestly, I thought this race would be about defending the cars behind. We need to keep pushing and hopefully upgrades are coming soon.”
Meanwhile, previous championship leader Norris faltered for the second consecutive grand prix, this time due to an accident in qualifying that saw him start 10th on hard tires. After saying on Saturday that he needed “to take it on the chin,” Norris put the bit between his teeth in the race and made an impressive recovery.
Norris gained a couple of spots on the start, then moved into the top-five by easily getting past Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli on Lap 19, following a spirited battle with Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton a few laps earlier. He then went to Lap 34 on his hard tires before pitting and slotting into fifth, behind Leclerc, with both getting past Russell before the end to minimize the championship damage to Piastri.
Canadian Lance Stroll experienced another difficult grand prix, ending the race in 16th, exactly where he started. It marked the third consecutive race where Stroll ended the day outside the top-15 after starting the year with sixth- and ninth-place finishes in Australia and China, respectively.
