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

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 weekend 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 off at Turn 2, earning himself 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.

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 on lap 13 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 has 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 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.

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

Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info

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Main Information Additional Data 1  -  2
Cla	Driver	#		Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Pits	Points	Retirement	Chassis	Engine
1	O. Piastri McLaren	81		50	-			1	25		McLaren	Mercedes
2	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	1		50	+2.843 2.843	2.843		1	18		Red Bull	Red Bull
3	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16		50	+8.104 8.104	5.261		1	15		Ferrari	Ferrari
4	L. Norris McLaren	4		50	+9.196 9.196	1.092		1	12		McLaren	Mercedes
5	G. Russell Mercedes	63		50	+27.236 27.236	18.040		1	10		Mercedes	Mercedes
6	A. Antonelli Mercedes	12		50	+34.688 34.688	7.452		1	8		Mercedes	Mercedes
7	L. Hamilton Ferrari	44		50	+39.073 39.073	4.385		1	6		Ferrari	Ferrari
8	C. Sainz Williams	55		50	+1'04.630 1'04.630	25.557		1	4		Williams	Mercedes
9	A. Albon Williams	23		50	+1'06.515 1'06.515	1.885		1	2		Williams	Mercedes
10	I. Hadjar RB	6		50	+1'07.091 1'07.091	0.576		1	1		RB	Honda
11	F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing	14		50	+1'15.917 1'15.917	8.826		1			Aston Martin	Mercedes
12	L. Lawson RB	30		50	+1'18.451 1'18.451	2.534		1			RB	Honda
13	O. Bearman Haas F1 Team	87		50	+1'19.194 1'19.194	0.743		1			Haas	Ferrari
14	E. Ocon Haas F1 Team	31		50	+1'39.723 1'39.723	20.529		1			Haas	Ferrari
15	N. Hulkenberg Sauber	27		49	1 lap			1			Sauber	Ferrari
16	L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing	18		49	1 lap			1			Aston Martin	Mercedes
17	J. Doohan Alpine	7		49	1 lap			2			Alpine	Renault
18	G. Bortoleto Sauber	5		49	1 lap			1			Sauber	Ferrari
dnf	Y. Tsunoda Red Bull Racing	22		1				1		Collision	Red Bull	Red Bull
dnf	P. Gasly Alpine	10		0						Collision	Alpine	Renault
View full results

In this article

Mark Mann-Bryans

Formula 1

Oscar Piastri

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