After a thrilling two weeks of racing, F1 was back in action this weekend with the FORMULA 1 STC SAUDI ARABIAN GRAND PRIX 2025, concluding the season’s first triple-header. Max Verstappen narrowly managed to beat Oscar Piastri to pole position, setting up a very close race for the lead.
Oscar Piastri had a better start compared to Max Verstappen in pole position. The two were wheel-to-wheel on the run into the first corner. Piastri got his car marginally ahead at the apex of the first corner, narrowly able to keep his car on the racing surface. Verstappen, on the outside of the first corner, was forced to cut the second corner, maintaining his lead in the race.
Piastri argued that Verstappen wouldn’t have made the corner even if the McLaren wasn’t on his inside, while Verstappen argued Piastri had forced him off the track. An opening lap safety car for a crash between Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda, in turn four, prevented Verstappen from swapping positions. However, it didn’t appear likely that the four-time champion would do that. The stewards investigated the incident while marshals worked to clear the stricken Alpine from the circuit, awarding Verstappen a five-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
It was a lenient penalty because it was the opening lap. Ten seconds is the typical penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, which is what was handed to Liam Lawson later in the race when he narrowly cut the same corner when overtaking Jack Doohan.
Verstappen left the restart until very late in the final corner, catching Piastri off guard. Piastri was immediately under pressure from George Russell and Charles Leclerc behind. He was able to fend off the threat into the first corner. The McLaren lingered around one second behind the sole remaining Red Bull for many laps before dropping back around 14 laps into the grand prix.
With the gap growing out front to nearly three seconds, Piastri pitted for hard tyres on lap 19. Russell pitted on the following lap, but Verstappen waited until lap 21 to respond to the undercut threat. He rejoined the race in P5 behind Lewis Hamilton, whom Piastri had overtaken earlier in the lap with a bold move around the outside of the high-speed turn 23.
The race was briefly led by Charles Leclerc, who did a spectacular job extending the life of his medium tyres. Even more than 25 laps into the race, Leclerc was continuing to set a blistering pace with his mediums. He finally pitted on lap 30 for a set of hard tyres, having failed to extend far enough for soft tyres.
This unleashed Lando Norris into the race lead. After a critical crash during qualifying left him in P10, he started the race on the alternate strategy, being the only car in the top ten to start on the hard tyres. He had climbed his way up to the top five before the pit window opened for the mediums. He was surely hoping for a late safety car, but it never came, and he was forced to pit on lap 41, giving himself fresh mediums for the final laps.
There was a brief scare in the McLaren garage as the stewards noted that Norris had crossed the white line at the pit exit, which would have been a five-second time penalty. But after further review, it was a false alarm.
With Piastri a comfortable few seconds ahead of Verstappen at the lead, the late-race battle was between Leclerc and Norris for P3, both having overtaken Russell shortly after their pit stops. Both drivers were on newer tyres; Leclerc on the hards and Norris on the mediums. But it was a long shot for Norris, failing to get within DRS range before the checkered flag fell.
Charles Leclerc earned the bottom step of the podium, scoring Ferrari’s first podium of the season. Although he had gained some time while the leader fought through the lapped traffic, Max Verstappen had to settle for a P2 finish. But it was Oscar Piastri who earned his third victory of the season, promoting himself to the lead of the World Drivers’ Championship title battle.
The drivers will get a week off now before heading to the United States for the first time this season. It will be the Miami Grand Prix on the weekend of May 4.
| Pos. | Driver | Laps | Time | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 50 | 1:21:06.758 | 25 | ||
| 2 | 50 | +2.843 | 18 | ||
| 3 | 50 | +8.104 | 15 | ||
| 4 | 50 | +9.196 | 12 |  | |
| 5 | 50 | +27.236 | 10 | ||
| 6 | 50 | +34.688 | 8 | ||
| 7 | 50 | +39.073 | 6 | ||
| 8 | 50 | +64.630 | 4 | ||
| 9 | 50 | +66.515 | 2 | ||
| 10 | 50 | +67.091 | 1 | ||
| 11 | 50 | +75.917 | |||
| 12 | 50 | +78.451 | |||
| 13 | 50 | +79.194 | |||
| 14 | 50 | +99.723 | |||
| 15 | 49 | +1 Lap | |||
| 16 | 49 | +1 Lap | |||
| 17 | 49 | +1 Lap | |||
| 18 | 49 | +1 Lap | |||
| DNF | 1 | ||||
| DNF | 0 |
| 1 | O. Piastri | 99 |  | |
| 2 | L. Norris | 89 | -10 |  |
| 3 | M. Verstappen | 87 | -12 |  |
| 4 | G. Russell | 73 | -26 | |
| 5 | C. Leclerc | 47 | -52 | |
| 1 | McLaren | 188 | | |
| 2 | Mercedes | 111 | -77 | |
| 3 | Red Bull | 89 | -99 | |
| 4 | Ferrari | 78 | -110 | |
| 5 | Williams | 25 | -163 | |
