Oscar Piastri Wins Saudi Arabia GP As Max Verstappen Bags Time Penalty

 

Oscar Piastri has extended his race-winning streak to three at the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix, during which he outpaced pole-setter Max Verstappen, who finished second, and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc finished in third. 

Verstappen pipped the McLaren driver to the pole by 0.010s at the qualifying session, while Lando Norris was DNS due to an accident. However, the McLaren pair drove impressively, with Norris improving from P10 to finish in fourth. Verstappen was served a five-second penalty after a safety car was deployed following the collision between Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda.

The restart witnessed Verstappen leaving the track too early to gain an advantage over others and was handed a penalty. However, the contest between him and Piastri was tense until he served his penalty, and the McLaren driver led the race to the finish line. 

"Once I got on the inside, I wasn't coming out of Turn One in second," Piastri recalled. "I'm very happy with all the work we've been doing on the starts and that's what won the race for us today."

Pitting and Tyres 

Unlike Norris, Piastri started on medium tyres. The team wasted time when pitted for hard tyres; he spent more than three seconds, meaning he had less than a second advantage against Verstappen's time penalty for violating safety car rules. 

Norris started on hard before pitting for medium tyres. However, it worked out well for him since he started in the back row in P10 following his crashing out of Q3 of the qualifying session. He improved through the ranks and effectively battled Lewis Hamilton on hard tyres, though he attempted to get past the Ferrari three times before succeeding.

Verstappen served his time penalty in the pit while getting on hard tyres. The pit stop plan did not pay off for him, as Piastri had pitted first to gain an advantage. Meanwhile, getting on hard tyres worked well for Leclerc, enabling him to improve, speeding by Russell to finish in third. 

List of the top five in the front row

Oscar Piastri             McLaren 

Max Verstappen         Red Bull

Charles Leclerc          Ferrai 

Lando Norris            McLaren

George Russell         Mercedez