F1: OSCAR PIASTRI WINS SAUDI ARABIA GP, OVERTAKES LANDO NORRIS IN CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

Australian wins third race from five so far this year, with four-time champion Max Verstappen in second place in Jeddah

Oscar Piastri won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Sunday and seized the Formula One championship lead from McLaren teammate Lando Norris with his third win in five races.

Red Bull's four-times champion Max Verstappen was runner-up, 2.843 seconds behind the Australian, after starting from pole at Jeddah's Corniche circuit, with Charles Leclerc taking Ferrari's first podium of 2025 in third. Norris finished fourth, after racing back from 10th.

Verstappen's plan unravelled within seconds of the start when he and Piastri went wheel-to-wheel into the first corner, with the champion running wide to stay ahead and collecting a five-second penalty that he served in the pits.

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"It was a pretty tough race," Piastri said after 50 laps in 30 degree heat. "I'm very, very happy to have won.

"Made the difference at the start. Made my case into Turn One, and that was enough. Definitely one of the toughest races I've had in my career."

Victory made Piastri, triumphant in Bahrain last weekend and China last month, the first Australian to lead the championship since his manager Mark Webber in 2010 and also the first back-to-back winner this season.

He now leads Norris, whose race was heavily compromised by a crash in qualifying, by 10 points after starting the race three behind.

Piastri has 99 points to Norris's 89 and Verstappen's 87. Champions McLaren stretched their lead over Mercedes in the constructors' standings to 77 points.

"I'm not bothered that I am leading the world championship but I am proud of the hard work we have done to get here. I want to be leading the championship after round 24, not round five," the Australian said.

George Russell was fifth for Mercedes with Italian teammate Kimi Antonelli sixth and seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton seventh for Ferrari.

Williams had Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon eighth and ninth with Racing Bulls' French rookie Isack Hadjar the final points scorer in 10th.

The talking point of the race happened moments from the off as the top two fought for the lead with Piastri getting a better launch.

Piastri held his ground, making the corner but still behind Verstappen who did not give the place back after going off and cutting the corner. Both appeared convinced they were in the right.

"He needs to give that back, I was ahead," Piastri told McLaren over the team radio. "He was never going to make that corner regardless of whether he was there or not."

Verstappen gave his version in similar fashion to Red Bull: "He just forced me off, there was no intention of him to make that corner."

Stewards later said, after reviewing the data, that it was Piastri's corner but they had given Verstappen only a five second penalty rather than the usual 10 because it occurred on the first lap and corner.

Verstappen reacted at the time by saying sarcastically "Oh, that is lovely", and said little after the race, while Red Bull boss Christian Horner said it was an incident that "we've all got our opinions on".

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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.

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2025-04-21T01:55:43Z