This time, a McLaren driver managed to get the better of Max Verstappen.
At the Japanese Grand Prix a few weeks ago Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris entered Saturday as the favorites for pole position. But Verstappen stunned the duo by taking pole position, and then held them at bay for his first Grand Prix win of the season.
That scenario was squarely in play after qualifying at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Norris’ crash in Q3 saw him knocked out of the final segment of qualifying, and start the race in P10. Verstappen pipped Piastri for pole position by just 0.010 seconds, giving him a shot at holding the McLaren duo back yet again.
But the Australian driver was determined to get the lead into the first turn of the race. Piastri put Verstappen under pressure into Turn 1 after a strong start, and while Verstappen held on, race officials stepped in. Verstappen was handed a five-second penalty for leaving the track to gain an advantage, and that opened the door for Piastri’s win.
Making him the first three-time winner this season, and a new leader in the Drivers’ Championship race.
Here’s what we learned at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Oscar Piastri is a calm — and true — title contender
The first time I spoke with McLaren CEO Zak Brown, he did not hold back in his assessment of his driver pairing.
“Best driver lineup of the grid when you look at a combination of experience, age, talent,” started the McLaren boss. “So I think when you look at a complete package and you’re looking at, you know, five years down the road, there’s some awesome teammates out there but I think given our age, experience, and youthfulness, we’ve got a driver line up second to none.”
It was October of 2023, and McLaren had yet to win a Constructors’ Championship, and neither Lando Norris nor Oscar Piastri had won a Grand Prix.
But Brown was confident, and right now, it looks like he might be right.
Piastri’s win, his third Grand Prix victory of the season, vaulted him into first place in the Constructors’ Championship standings, solidifying his status as a true championship contender.
What might stand out most about Piastri is his demeanor, and his maturity, traits that Brown emphasized during our discussion that fall.
“He has all the same qualities Lando has just, what he doesn’t have is the experience Lando has. But as far as his natural skill, his determination, his maturity, you know, he’s 22 years old,” began Brown.
“Oscar kind of creeps up on it, he uses Friday as a test session and that’s exactly what Friday is, a test session. And he doesn’t get, which a lot of rookie drivers do get lulled into the, ‘I wanna win Friday free practice’ and then they end up not focusing on Sunday.
“So that takes a maturity to be able to come into a race weekend and be, mature enough and confident in your own abilities to look at the team timesheet on Friday and go, ‘oh, I’m a little further down than I’d like to be.’ But that’s because he’s thinking about Sunday. Not about Friday.”
Sunday in Saudi Arabia it was a blistering start that carried the day, to hear it from Piastri’s point of view. Starting second behind only Max Verstappen, the McLaren driver took advantage of an incredible launch off the line to put pressure on Verstappen into Turn 1.
The Red Bull driver maintained his lead, but did so by going off the track to stay in P1:
Race stewards eventually intervened, handing Verstappen a five-second penalty. That opened the door for Piastri to control the race after the Red Bull driver served his penalty on his pit stop, and the McLaren driver held on to take the checkered flag.
Speaking after the race, Piastri outlined how he was determined to get the lead off the line.
“Once I got on the inside, I wasn’t coming out of Turn 1 in second,” said Piastri.
Brown’s assessment of his rookie driver in 2023 matched the assessment from the driver Piastri battled into Turn 1.
“People forget a little bit – last year was his second year. Now he’s in his third year, and he’s very solid. He’s very calm in his approach, and I like that. It shows on track. He delivers when he has to, barely makes mistakes – and that’s what you need when you want to fight for a championship,” said Verstappen in the FIA Press Conference.
“At the end of the day, Oscar is using his talent, and that’s great to see.”
Piastri’s demeanor and maturity have made him a Grand Prix winner, and now the first driver this season to win three races.
They may also make him a champion.
Max Verstappen may be quiet, but he can never be counted out
Max Verstappen was not in a talkative mood after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix; he offered a brief assessment trackside and then repeatedly noted that he was not going to give extensive answers during the FIA Press Conference.
But he did do a lot of talking on the track this week, and it was a reminder that you can never count out a four-time champion.
It was another week where the McLarens were dominant from FP1 into qualifying, with both Piastri and Lando Norris tapped as favorites for pole position. But when the dust settled on Saturday evening along the Red Sea Norris was in P10 after his Q3 crash, Piastri was in P2, and it was Verstappen in pole position.
He did not convert that into a win, thanks in large part to Piastri’s “blistering” start which put Verstappen under pressure, and opened the door to the five-second penalty, but Verstappen recovered from there to take P2, and stay within striking distance of Piastri and Norris atop the Drivers’ Championship standings.
Remember, the RB21 is not the Red Bull challenger of recent years. In 2023 for example the RB19 was the dominant force on the grid, and Verstappen bent the entire field to his will week in and week out. The RB21 is a different beast altogether, and while the gap between McLaren and Red Bull might be smaller than we think, the MCL39 is the quicker car right now.
If Verstappen can keep pace, and Red Bull can deliver with their incoming upgrades, he still has a shot at chasing down Piastri and Norris. He was able to hold on last year despite working with inferior machinery, a testament to his skill as a driver.
But if he pulls it off again this year? Well, that would be, as Verstappen likes to say, “simply lovely.”
Lando Norris recovers again
Then there is Lando Norris, who delivered another strong recovery drive to finish fourth after starting tenth, just over a second behind Charles Leclerc.
As we wrote a week ago, there are certainly two ways to look at such a performance. On the “glass half-full” side, a recovery drive to pick up six spots and threaten for a podium after crashing out in Q3 is a strong effort. The kind of recovery performance that can keep you in the hunt for a title.
But the more times you have to deliver a recovery drive, the harder it is to win that title, and the tougher you make life for yourself.
Which is almost exactly what Norris said after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
With the triple-header coming to a close perhaps no driver needs a break more than Norris. The McLaren driver talked about giving himself a bit of a reset after the Bahrain Grand Prix, and now he’ll get some time off to recharge before heading to Miami.
Which will bring him back to the site of his first Grand Prix victory, and perhaps give him the boost he needs to right the ship after a few tough weeks.
Ferrari may have turned the corner but need more on Saturday
Is there finally light at the end of the tunnel for Ferrari?
Lewis Hamilton’s win in the F1 Sprint race at the Chinese Grand Prix aside, Sunday brought the team’s first podium of the season, as Charles Leclerc held off Norris down the stretch to take P3.
While it was not their best haul of points in a single race weekend this year — that came last week when Leclerc finished fourth and Hamilton finished fifth in Bahrain — a podium gives the team confidence that they can perhaps fight at the front throughout the rest of the season.
Provided they can deliver stronger performances on Saturday.
“I think we need to focus on qualifying because it’s been a very long time I haven’t been as happy with the car balance,” said Leclerc in the FIA Press Conference on Sunday. “I feel very at ease with the car in a way that I know I can extract the maximum out of the car more often than not, but unfortunately, the car potential is just not good enough to fight for better in qualifying. In the race, the good car balance had results. We were all surprised by our pace in free air on the first stint. That was really good. Everything else was perfectly executed. Strategy was great. Pit stops have been great the whole season and also the whole of last year as well. There wasn’t much more we could have done.
“I think we are close on the race pace. I think free air dictates a little bit who is going to win the race. That’s always been the case. Maybe this year a little bit more than other years. And obviously when that is the case, qualifying is more important. But unfortunately, for two years, we are just struggling in qualifying to put everything together.”
Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur was of similar mind.
“It was a good race especially with Charles of course, who took a well deserved third place,” said Vasseur in the team’s post-race report. “He was a bit conservative at the beginning, since he was in dirty air and our strategy was to extend the stint. His management was very good and he was able to increase his pace from lap 10 onwards, doing a wonderful job especially when he was in free air. In some parts of the race he was even faster than Piastri and Verstappen and this proves we are improving, at least in race trim, while we need to keep working on our form in qualifying.”
If Ferrari can find the one-lap pace they need on Saturdays, they have the race pace to make things interesting on Sundays.
Williams edges ahead in the midfield fight
As we discussed heading into the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the midfield fight is shaping up to be a fascinating battle.
Williams regained the lead in that fight, as both Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz Jr. finished inside the points, for the team’s second double-points result of the year. With Sainz finishing eighth and Albon behind him in ninth, the team banked six points to pull ahead of Haas for fifth, 25 points to 20.
They also used a bit of team strategy to accomplish that goal.
In the closing laps of the race Isack Hadjar was threatening Albon for P9, so Sainz did his best to keep his teammate within DRS range, to give Albon an assist at holding the Visa Cash App Racing Bulls driver at bay.
The strategy worked, thanks to a pair of “world-class drivers” executing at a high level.
“Really great work by the team,” said Team Principal James Vowles in Williams’ post-race report. “This was a well-earned, proper points finish, putting us fifth in the Constructors’ Championship. We are so fortunate to have two world-class drivers at the top of their game, and today you saw how that pays off. Today was about the team, not an individual, and I couldn’t be prouder.”
The result was also the best finish from Sainz this season, who seems to be getting his legs under him at Williams. That could be huge for this team as they look to hold onto fifth, and perhaps make some noise further up the grid.
Concern mounting at Aston Martin
Then there is the situation at Aston Martin, which seems to be troubling veteran driver Fernando Alonso.
Alonso finished 11th on Sunday but thought the result flattered their performance. “Today we are P11 also because Yuki [Tsunoda] and Gasly had contact in lap one and Liam [Lawson] had a 10-second penalty,” he said after the race. “If not, we were P14. But there’s still a long way to go.”
This is the first time since 2017 that Alonso has been held without a point over the first five races. Driving for McLaren that season Alonso did not break through until the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the eighth race weekend of the season.
He finished that year with just 17 points, as McLaren limped to a ninth-place finish in the Constructors’ Championship.
Returning to the present day, Alonso is worried that an even worse result might be possible for him.
“I gave everything on track,” Alonso said. “It was hard to keep up the pace with the cars in front. We were just not quick enough.
“P11 is the worst position probably you can finish and we need to get used to it. It’s going to be difficult to score points this year.”
Of course, there is hope on the horizon. Adrian Newey has been hard at work at his famous drawing board, trying to come up with some answers for the team.
But the more weekends like this that we see from Aston Martin, the greater the odds that the answers Newey comes up with are for the 2026 challenger, and not this year’s AMR25.
Up next: Miami
After a week off, the F1 grid heads to the United States for the first of three American races this year.
And — drum roll please — SB Nation will be boots on the ground all week long at Hard Rock Stadium. Last year’s Miami Grand Prix was my first time as an FIA-credentialed journalist at an F1 race, and by the time I figured out how everything worked, Lando Norris was on his way to the podium celebration as a first-time Grand Prix winner.
At least now I’ll know what to expect, so the coverage should be even better this year.
If you’re going to be down in Miami, say hello! Also make sure to follow me on social media, as I’ll be posting on both Bluesky and Threads all week long.