Saudi Arabian GP 2025: Piastri wins as Verstappen pays for Turn 1

Oscar Piastri won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah from second on the grid, crossing the line 2.843 seconds ahead of pole-sitter Max Verstappen. The race turned on its first corner, where Verstappen went off the track to stay in front and collected a five-second penalty. Charles Leclerc finished third for Ferrari's first podium of 2025, and Piastri left Saudi Arabia leading the championship for the first time in his career.

How Verstappen lost the race at Turn 1

Verstappen had beaten Piastri to pole by 0.010 seconds on Saturday, but he got away slowly. Piastri went around the outside into Turn 1, Verstappen braked late, missed the corner and rejoined still in the lead. Piastri said on the radio that the place should come back. It never did, and the stewards added five seconds to Verstappen's race instead. Verstappen's view was that Piastri had pushed him off.

A few corners later the first lap claimed two cars. Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly ran side by side, touched, and Gasly went into the barrier. Tsunoda made it to the pits, where Red Bull retired his damaged car. The safety car came out and racing resumed on lap 4.

From there Verstappen needed a five-second cushion and never built one. Piastri stayed within reach until McLaren pitted him at the end of lap 19. Verstappen stopped two laps later, served the penalty, took hard tyres and came out behind. He spent the last 29 laps chasing and did not have the pace to make it a fight.

Leclerc ran a long first stint on mediums and stopped nine laps after George Russell. The fresher hards paid off: he passed Russell into Turn 1 with 12 laps to go and finished 8.1 seconds behind the winner.

The teammate duels in Jeddah

McLaren. Lando Norris crashed at the exit of Turn 5 early in Q3, brought out the red flag and started 10th. He was the only driver in the top ten to start on hards, cleared Lewis Hamilton at the third attempt, undercut Kimi Antonelli and passed Russell late to finish fourth, about a second behind Leclerc. A strong recovery, but the race duel went to Piastri, and their head-to-head now reads 3–2 to Norris in qualifying and 3–2 to Piastri in races, in our count.

Ferrari. Leclerc was 0.606% quicker than Hamilton in qualifying, and the race gap was wider. Hamilton complained that he could not get the rear of the car to turn, was passed by Norris and finished seventh, 31 seconds behind his team-mate. Hamilton vs Leclerc stands at 4–1 to Leclerc on Saturdays and 4–0 on Sundays on F1 Duels.

Mercedes. Russell qualified third and held a podium place until his worn tyres gave Leclerc and Norris their chance. Antonelli was sixth, seven seconds further back. That makes it five out of five for Russell in both columns of their duel.

Williams. Carlos Sainz qualified sixth, his best grid slot for the team so far, while Alex Albon missed Q3 by 0.007 seconds. They finished eighth and ninth, with Sainz at times handing Albon DRS to keep the Racing Bulls back. Albon still leads the Williams duel 3–2 and 2–1. Behind them Isack Hadjar took the last point, while Liam Lawson dropped to 12th with a 10-second penalty for passing Jack Doohan off the track.

What it means for the title

Piastri's third win of the season, and his second in a row after Bahrain, puts him on 99 points, 10 ahead of Norris and 12 ahead of Verstappen. Norris still leads the McLaren qualifying count after five rounds. The column that pays points now belongs to Piastri. Every verdict from the weekend is on the Saudi Arabian GP duels page.