McLaren driver Oscar Piastri clinched his third victory of the F1 2025 season at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah.

Piastri took to the lead of the World Championship for the first time in his career, with polesitter Max Verstappen forced to settle for second after being hit with a five-second penalty for an incident at Turn 1 on the opening lap.

Oscar Piastri wins 2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

Charles Leclerc completed the top three with his result representing the Ferrari team’s first podium of the F1 2025 campaign.

Medium tyres were the order of the day as the tyre blankets were removed on the grid, with Lando Norris the only member of the top 10 to start on hards.

Isack Hadjar, Lance Stroll and Nico Hulkenberg were the only others to elect for hard tyres at the start.

Piastri immediately applied pressure on Verstappen at the start with the Red Bull cutting the track at Turn 1 in order to stay ahead of the McLaren.

“He needs to give that back. I was ahead,” Piastri said over team radio as the incident with Verstappen was noted and soon investigated by the stewards.

“He was never going to make that corner regardless of whether I was there or not,” he soon added.

“Ah, he just forced me off,” Verstappen argued. “There was no intention of him to make that corner.”

Meanwhile, a tangle between Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly at Turn 4, the scene of Norris’s crash in qualifying, saw the Safety Car deployed.

Damage to his rear wing saw Gasly out on the spot with Tsunoda able to make it back to the pits before retiring.

Gasly’s Alpine team-mate Jack Doohan, Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Haas’s Esteban Ocon all took the opportunity to pit under the Safety Car with the aim of making it to the end of the race on hards.

The race resumed on Lap 4 with Verstappen leading Piastri, George Russell, Charles Leclerc, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Lewis Hamilton, Carlos Sainz, Norris, Alex Albon and Fernando Alonso.

Verstappen was handed a five-second penalty immediately upon the restart as Piastri fought off Russell and Leclerc, with the Red Bull establishing a one-second lead within a matter of corners.

“Well that is **** lovely!” Verstappen responded after being informed of his penalty.

Hadjar relieved Alonso of 10th with a decisive move into the last corner on Lap 4.

Piastri clocked the fastest lap to momentarily enter Verstappen’s DRS range on Lap 5, before the Red Bull upped the gap to more than a second through the high-speed sweeps of the first sector with the benefit of clean air at the front.

The pattern continued for a number of laps as Verstappen kept his lead over Piastri stable at around one second.

Verstappen took exception to being hit with a track limits excursion during the incident at Turn 1 on the opening lap, claiming it had been discussed beforehand that such situations would not count as a track limits breach.

Meanwhile, Norris’s recovery continued with a DRS-assisted move on Sainz for seventh at Turn 1 at the start of Lap 7.

Albon was told to manage the gap to Sainz, who himself had overused his tyres while trying to keep up with faster cars in Bahrain a week ago, with Albon snapping back to remind Williams thar Hadjar was too close behind for him to ease his pace.

Norris reported to McLaren on Lap 12 that his hards were overheating in traffic, suggesting that clean air would be “incredible” as the pit-stop phase approached.

Norris took sixth from Hamilton moments later, before the Ferrari used DRS to blast back past on the pit straight.

The same happened a lap later, with Hamilton seemingly allowing Norris past into the final corner to ensure that he had DRS for the main straight to quickly take back sixth.

“Play the game,” Norris was told as the battle unfolded, switching to Strat 8 and holding back into the final corner to make the move stick on Hamilton into Turn 1 at the start of Lap 15.

“I’m still sliding around here, mate,” Hamilton reported as he was quickly dropped by Norris. “I can’t turn the rears.”

Further back, Liam Lawson was making encouraging progress, overtaking Oliver Bearman and Alonso in quick succession to rise to 11th.

At the front, Verstappen extended the gap over Piastri to more than 2.5 seconds by Lap 18 with Russell a further eight seconds back.

“My tyres are toast,” the Mercedes driver reported.

Norris entered the top five with a move on Antonelli on Lap 19 with Piastri told to box at the end of the lap.

A 3.4-second stop saw the McLaren rejoin a couple of seconds behind Hamilton in sixth, with Antonelli and Alonso also taking the opportunity to stop.

Verstappen was told to push hard and opted not to respond the next lap as Russell came in for hards at the end of Lap 20 with a stop a full second faster than Piastri’s.

Piastri made a bold move on Hamilton on the approach to the high-speed Turn 22, with Verstappen serving his five-second penalty as he switched on to hards.

Verstappen’s extended stoppage saw Piastri take the lead at the start of Lap 22 with a three-second lead over the Red Bull, with the yet-to-pit Hamilton separating the pair.

Verstappen put a move on Hamilton around the outside at the end of Lap 23, with the Ferrari pitting moments later as team-mate Leclerc stayed out in the lead, around three seconds ahead of the hard-tyred McLaren of Norris.

Piastri held a 3.9 second lead over Verstappen at the time the Red Bull was released into free air.

There was a brief scare for Alonso on Lap 25 as Bortoleto drifted across the track and made contact with the Aston Martin, which found itself sandwiched between the Sauber and the outside wall at Turn 1.

Bortoleto was shown the black-and-white flag for moving under braking following Alonso’s complaints over team radio.

Leclerc finally pitted at the end of Lap 39, promoting Norris to the front with net leader Piastri 3.6 seconds further back and by now having extended the gap to Verstappen to more than 4.5 seconds.

“Lando’s plan is to keep extending,” Piastri was told with the Australian responding that it was “not ideal” to be following in the dirty air of his team-mate.

Doohan and Bortoleto were struggling after pitting early for hards, with Lawson finding himself investigated after passing the Alpine off the track at Turn 1 in a repeat of the skirmish between Verstappen and Lawson.

Lawson was soon hit with a 10-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

Leclerc used his healthy tyre offset to set a new fastest lap as he closed on Russell for fourth, with Norris finally told to pit at the end of Lap 34, locking up slightly as he entered the pit lane.

A 2.6-second stop saw Norris rejoin in fifth on mediums, five seconds behind with Leclerc with tyres both younger and a step softer with 15 laps remaining.

However, Norris was soon noted for crossing the white line at the exit of the pit lane following his stop, but escaped punishment with the stewards finding no grounds for further action.

Leclerc’s relentless pursuit of Russell culminated in a pass into Turn 1 on Lap 38, leaving him seven seconds adrift of Verstappen.

“Well done, Charles,” Leclerc was told.

“Thank you, Bryan,” the Ferrari driver responded to much hilarity.

More team radio fun came at McLaren, where Piastri was heard complaining about a red flashing light on a balcony overlooking the circuit, claiming that it was easy to to confuse it for the trackside symbol for a red flag.

Meanwhile, team orders were in play at Sauber and Haas as the early stopping Bortoleto and Ocon were both asked to move aside for Hulkenberg and Bearman respectively, with eighth-placed Sainz insistent on staying ahead of Albon as the Williams pair came under pressure from Hadjar.

Norris eroded the gap to Leclerc to less than two seconds in the fight for the final podium spot, setting a new fastest lap of the race in the process.

Traffic proved an issue for Piastri in the closing laps as he commented: “Ah man, he needs to get out of the way.”

Elsewhere, Russell raised concerns about making it to the end with his front left showing signs of wear and tear in the final couple of laps.

Piastri took the chequered flag by more than two seconds over Verstappen, collecting consecutive victories for the first time in his career following his triumph at last week’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

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