2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Race Review

Piastri Wins Again to Take Championship Lead

After a great start, it was Oscar Piastri who took yet another victory in 2025 to finally take the led of the World Drivers’ Championship! An angry Max Verstappen saw his chances of winning dwindle with a 5-second time penalty whilst Charles Leclerc rounded out the Top 3 for Ferrari’s first Podium of the season!

The Biggest Talking Points

The Biggest Talking Point of this Race came right at the first corner as a great start for Oscar Piastri got himself alongside Max Verstappen into Turn 1, and Max made the decision to cut across the inside of Turn 2 to keep the lead. Now, there was then a big incident between Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly which wiped both men out of the Race, leading to a Safety Car. As the Race got back underway, Max Verstappen was handed a 5-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, and I found this penalty to be quite ridiculous. Now, I will say that Max did keep the position by going off the track, so he should’ve been told to give the place back. However, the fact he wasn’t told do that and was just handed a penalty instead made little to no sense, it kind of took him out of contention once he served his penalty in the pitstop phase.

Other things of note that took place in this Race was Lando Norris was making his way through the field quite well, even though his race craft could again be questioned as he kept overtaking Lewis Hamiton too early (it reminded me a little bit of Sergio Perez at Austria 2023)! To be honest, this was another Race that wasn’t that entertaining, Max couldn’t gain enough time back on Oscar to give us an actual fight at the front, and after George Russell’s tires fell of an absolute cliff, Lando was hunting down Charles Leclerc for the final spot, but he too couldn’t quite get close enough! Another thing to note is Williams played a brilliant team strategy, with Carlos Sainz keeping Alex Albon in DRS behind him in order to stop Isack Hadjar from passing the pair of them, and I also want to mention that Liam Lawson was given a 10-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, and that one is even more ridiculous than Max’s!

The Standout Drives in the Race

I’ve given out two 10’s for the 2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, and the first one is obviously for Oscar Piastri! Oscar is in the groove right now, he’s now won back-to-back Races, and the fact he has the Championship lead in just his third season in the sport is pretty impressive! The other driver I’ve given out maximum points to is Carlos Sainz, and I was really tossing and turning as to what to give Carlos for this Race, but at the end of the day, P8 was the best possible result that Sainz could’ve achieved so I really don’t think he can be downgraded for anything, especially after his brilliant bit of team play! Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc were also very strong to come home on the Podium whilst Alex Albon and Isack Hadjar did well to score points!

Drivers Who Had a Shocker

For the second straight week, I haven’t given anyone a 1, and maybe I’m being too kind, or maybe no one’s having an absolute shocker right now! Jack Doohan and Gabriel Bortoleto’s strategy to pit under the Safety Car and go the whole rest of the Race on Hard tyres didn’t work for them, I mean Gabby nearly had a massive incident with Fernando Alonso, but I’ve still seen many performances that have been an awful lot worse!

Overall Race Results and My Ratings

1. Oscar Piastri: 10

2. Max Verstappen: 9

3. Charles Leclerc: 9

4. Lando Norris: 8

5. George Russell: 7

6. Andrea Kimi Antonelli: 7

7. Lewis Hamilton: 4

8. Carlos Sainz: 10

9. Alex Albon: 9

10. Isack Hajdar: 9

11. Fernando Alonso: 7

12. Liam Lawson: 7

13. Oliver Bearman: 6

14. Esteban Ocon: 5

15. Nico Hulkenberg: 5

16. Lance Stroll: 4

17. Jack Doohan: 2

18. Gabriel Bortoleto: 2

19. Yuki Tsunoda: - (DNF)

20. Pierre Gasly: - (DNF)