Oscar Piastri didn’t just take the championship lead from Lando Norris, he also taught his team-mate a lesson. On the streets of Jeddah, he showed the Brit exactly how you deal with Max Verstappen when you come up against him on track.
Several times last year, Norris was too meek in his approach to battling with the Dutchman who will push to the limit, and sometimes beyond, to keep you behind. But the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was won at turn one when Piastri got the better launch off the line and then was not willing to give an inch more than he needed to.
Verstappen cut the first corner chicane and came back onto the track still ahead, but the stewards were having none of it and he was given a five-second penalty. That was the moment which decided the race. Once both had stopped and Verstappen emerged from the pit lane behind the Aussie, there would be no getting the lead back.
“Once I got on the inside, I wasn’t coming out of turn one in second place,” smirked McLaren driver Piastri, reflecting on that incident. Obviously, the stewards had to get involved, but I thought I was plenty far enough up and, in that end, that was what won me the race.”
Piastri kept the Dutchman at arm’s length for the rest of the Grand Prix to win back-to-back races for the first time in his Formula 1 career. It was his third victory of 2025 already after just five rounds, and he is the first Aussie to lead the championship since his manager, Mark Webber, in 2010 when he raced for Red Bull.
Verstappen was not too pleased with the way this one was taken away from him. If his pole position in qualifying was a surprise, then it was truly shocking to see his Red Bull car, which was just plain slow in Bahrain a week earlier, show race pace that was at least equal to that of the McLarens.
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He was less than three seconds behind Piastri by the time he took the chequered flag and bit his tongue as he picked up a microphone to reflect on the race. “I’m going to keep it quite short,” he warned interviewer David Coulthard, before thanking the fans and walking off.
A much happier man was Charles Leclerc who held off a late charge from Norris to record Ferrari’s first podium of the year. Norris did well tor recover to fourth place on a track which makes overtaking difficult but the damage was done on Saturday by his qualifying crash.
“I’m pleased on the whole,” the Brit said. “I make life tough for myself, especially at a race like that. it would have been much easier, a lot more chilled if I was just driving at the front. I need to make things easier and have better Saturdays.”
Also in need of stronger qualifying results is Lewis Hamilton, who started seventh and finished there, again struggling for pace in a Ferrari car he needs to get to know much better.
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