McLaren’s Oscar Piastri took a composed Saudi Arabian Grand Prix win to take the lead of the Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship after a first corner tussle with Max Verstappen resulted in the Red Bull driver being handed a time penalty that eventually dropped him to second behind the Australian. 

At the start of the race, Verstappen got away well from pole, but on the other side of the front row Piastri’s reactions were marginally quicker. On the run to Turn 1 the McLaren driver nosed ahead of the Red Bull driver on the inside and in Turn Verstappen was forced to cut the corner. The Dutchman continued in the lead, however. 

Further back in the pack, Yuki Tusnoda, in the other Red Bull, had Pierre Gasly on his right-hand side and as the pair went into a corner there was contact. Both drivers spun into the wall and while Gasly sustained heavy damage Tsunoda was able to limp back to the pits where the damage was judged to be too great and get retired. 

The Safety Car was deployed and during the caution, the Race Stewards ruled that Verstappen had left the track and gained an advantage at the start and he was handed a five-second time penalty. 

The Dutchman controlled the lap 8 restart well and he quickly built a one-second lead over Piastri, with Russell third ahead of Leclerc and Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli. Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton was sixth. McLaren’s Lando Norris, who had started in tenth on Hard tyres, had risen to eighth after the lap one incident and after the restart muscled his way past Williams’ Carlos Sainz to take P7. 

He then set about was tussling with Hamilton and after twice getting past the Ferrari driver only to be passed again on the pit straight, the Briton at last chose to bide his time and on Lap 15 he held back ahead of the final corner, got DRS, and finally dismissed the seven-time champion. The McLaren driver then began to close up to Antonelli and on lap 18 he powered past the Italian to claim fifth place. 

At the front, Verstappen began to pull away from Piastri and by lap 19 he had carved out a three-second gap to the Australian as the pit window opened. On lap 20 Piastri blinked. He dived into the pits to take on Hard tyres and emerged behind Hamilton. Verstappen though stayed out, with his race engineer urging him to keep his good pace going. 

At the end of lap 21, the Dutchman made his stop. But after serving his time penalty and bolting on a set of Hard tyres he exited the pit lane three seconds behind Piastri. The Australian then began to post fastest laps to build the gap to over four seconds. At the front, Leclerc, on aged Mediums, now led the race, with Norris, on starting Hard tyres and still setting competitive times, in P2. 

Leclerc finally decided he’d had enough of his tyres at the end of lap 29 and after switching to Hard tyres he rejoined in fifth place, behind Russell. Norris finally made his pit stop at the end of lap 34 and after fitting a set of Mediums, he dropped into fifth place, behind Leclerc.

Their stops propelled Piastri back to the lead, 4.5s ahead of Verstappen who was 6.5s clear of Russell. Leclerc was on the move, though, and with fresh Hard tyres on board he quickly reeled in Russell. On lap 38 he closed right up to the Mercedes and powered past on the pit straight to claim the final podium place. Russell, struggling for pace, was then reeled in by Norris who eased past under DRS to take fourth place. 

And though the McLaren driver tried to close on Leclerc, the order at the top stabilised and after 50 laps Piastri took victory just 2.8s ahead of Verstappen. Leclerc hung on to third ahead of Norris with Russell in fifth. Antonelli took sixth in the second Mercedes with Hamilton in P7 ahead of Sainz and Alex Albon who handed Williams a double points finish. Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar took the final point with tenth place

2025 FIA Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix – Race 
1 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 50 1:21'06.758 
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT 50 1:21'09.601 2.843
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 50 1:21'14.862 8.104
4 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 50 1:21'15.954 9.196
5 George Russell Mercedes 50 1:21'33.994 27.236
6 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 50 1:21'41.446 34.688
7 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 50 1:21'45.831 39.073
8 Carlos Sainz Williams/Mercedes 50 1:22'11.388 1'04.630
9 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 50 1:22'13.273 1'06.515
10 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 50 1:22'13.849 1'07.091
11 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 50 1:22'22.675 1'15.917
12 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 50 1:22'25.209 1'18.451
13 Oliver Bearman Haas/Ferrari 50 1:22'25.952 1'19.194
14 Esteban Ocon Haas/Ferrari 50 1:22'46.481 1'39.723
15 Nico Hülkenberg Sauber/Ferrari 49 1:21'11.367 1 lap /4.609
16 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 49 1:21'12.285 1 lap /5.527
17 Jack Doohan Alpine/Renault 49 1:21'26.022 1 lap /19.264
18 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber/Ferrari 49 1:21'26.064 1 lap /19.306
     Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1 2'45.662 Accident damage
     Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 0 - Accident.