Piastri Wins in Jeddah to Take Formula One Championship Lead

Race winner Oscar Piastri (R) of Australia and McLaren celebrates with his teammate on the podium during the F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia at Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. on April 20, 2025. Alex Pantling/Getty Images

Oscar Piastri won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on April 20 to seize the lead in the Formula One world championship from McLaren teammate Lando Norris with his third win in five races.

Red Bull’s four-time champion Max Verstappen was runner-up, 2.843 seconds behind the Australian, after starting from pole at Jeddah’s Corniche circuit but collecting a five-second penalty for a first corner clash with Piastri.

Charles Leclerc was third for Ferrari’s first podium of the campaign and Norris clawed his way from 10th on the grid to fourth.

Victory made Piastri, triumphant in Bahrain last weekend and China last month, the first Australian to lead the championship since his manager Mark Webber in 2010 and also the first back-to-back winner this season.

He now leads Norris, whose race was heavily compromised by a crash in qualifying, by 10 points after starting the night three behind.

Piastri has 99 points to Norris’s 89 and Verstappen’s 87. Champions McLaren stretched their lead over Mercedes in the constructors’ standings to 77 points.

George Russell was fifth for Mercedes with Italian teammate Kimi Antonelli sixth and seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton seventh for Ferrari.

Williams had Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon eighth and ninth, with Racing Bulls’ French rookie Isack Hadjar the final points scorer in 10th.

There was immediate controversy at the start as Verstappen and Piastri went side-by-side into the first corner, with the Red Bull emerging ahead after cutting across the runoff.

Stewards decided the champion was at fault and handed him the penalty, with Verstappen reacting by saying sarcastically, “Oh, that is lovely.”

The safety car continued a sequence of appearing at all five races in Saudi Arabia so far, with an appearance at the end of the opening lap after Verstappen’s teammate Yuki Tsunoda and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly collided and crashed.

Both drivers retired, Tsunoda after getting his car back to the pits.