2025 Saudi Arabian GP winners and losers: Oscar Piastri takes the lead, Lewis Hamilton’s woes continue, Carlos Sainz shines and more
On Sunday, April 20, F1 returned to the fastest street circuit in the sport’s history to culminate the first triple-header of 2025 at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Whether it be a new championship leader, a controversial time penalty, or an early safety car, round five of one of the closest season’s yet has left fans with plenty to discuss.
Sports News Blitz’s F1 writer Henry Eccles takes a look at the big winners and losers to come out of another dramatic race weekend in Jeddah.
Winner: Oscar Piastri
After a dominant display in Bahrain last time out, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri arrived in Jeddah knowing he could end the triple-header on top of the Drivers’ standings.
And while the weekend may not have been as seamless for the Aussie in Saudi Arabia - missing out on pole position to Max Verstappen on Saturday - Piastri took the victory on Sunday with another drive that epitomised his season so far.
Cool, calm and collected.
The 24-year-old’s rapid start at lights-out initially got him ahead of Verstappen at the first corner, but the Red Bull driver cut the second to stay ahead.
The subsequent five-second time penalty for Verstappen ultimately gave Piastri the lead once the Dutchman took his pit stop.
Once at the front of the pack, like in Shanghai and Sakhir, there was simply no catching Piastri - the McLaren star took his third win in five races and moved to the top of the Drivers’ standings for the first time in his F1 career.
Piastri is now 10 points ahead of his team-mate Lando Norris, who started the race in tenth after a crash in qualifying but did well to recover to P4.
The truth, however, is that the mistake in qualifying could not have come at a worse time for Norris.
Momentum within McLaren only shifts further in favour of Piastri, whose clinical performances prove he is here to stay in this championship fight.
Loser: Max Verstappen
Admittedly, this feels harsh on Max Verstappen.
After another dazzling qualifying display, beating Piastri to pole position by just 0.010s, and a ‘good race pace’ on Sunday to take P2, it was not a bad weekend by any means for the Red Bull driver.
With upgrades expected in the coming weeks, and the flexi-wing clampdown due to be enforced at the Spanish Grand Prix, Verstappen’s miraculous performances have kept him in the title fight.
The Dutchman is still only 12 points off the lead, despite having to wrestle with a tricky and inconsistent RB21 car so far in 2025.
But while Red Bull ought to be happy with a P2 result in Jeddah, Verstappen very well could have come home with a victory if it were not for the time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage in his skirmish with Piastri.
“Yeah, potentially, it is what it is,” said a clearly frustrated Verstappen when asked if that was the case.
"You can't share your opinion because it's not appreciated apparently, or people can't handle the full truth,” the Red Bull driver later added.
“Honestly, it's better if I don't say too much.”
Team Principal Christian Horner also said the penalty was ‘very harsh,’ even sharing screenshots of Verstappen’s onboard footage during his post-race media session to prove he was ahead at the apex at Turn One.
However, Horner admitted the team is ‘highly unlikely’ to protest the decision, meaning Verstappen, who finished 2.8s behind Piastri, will have to settle for P2.
The Dutchman’s weekend was still better than his team-mate’s - as Yuki Tsunoda crashed out on the first lap following an almost unavoidable collision with Pierre Gasly.
While Tsunoda has already shown more promise against Verstappen than Liam Lawson did at the start of the season, it has still not been an ideal start to his senior Red Bull career.
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Winner: Charles Leclerc
At Jeddah, the Driver of the Day award eventually went to Norris, but it was Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who pulled off an almost perfect race.
Having secured P4 in qualifying, the best the Scuderia can realistically hope for, Leclerc and his team expertly executed their strategy to take their first podium of the season.
The Monegasque found himself in clean air in his opening stint, and opted to go longer on the medium tyre than his rivals.
After a masterclass in tyre management, the 27-year-old pitted for the hard tyres on Lap 29.
And thanks to a lightning 2.0s pit stop, he was in prime position to hunt down George Russell’s podium place on fresher rubber.
On Lap 38, Leclerc strolled past the Mercedes man, but the podium was by no means secure with the recovering Norris on the charge.
And yet, Leclerc held his nerve and stayed ahead of Norris’ pacier McLaren in P3.
It was a well deserved podium for Leclerc too, as he has shown glimpses of brilliance in the SF-25, particularly in the Grand Prix.
Qualifying is what has let Ferrari down so far in 2025, but Leclerc, typically strong on Saturdays, still says he has found a ‘sweet spot’ to match his driving style.
“I feel like in the last three qualifyings, I managed to maximise the potential of the car, but the potential is just not yet at the level where I wanted to be,” he said after qualifying.
In the race, Leclerc showed that there is something to work with in that Ferrari, and with just 11 points separating the Scuderia and Red Bull in P3 in the Constructors’, they can compete when they manage to get everything together.
Loser: Lewis Hamilton
While it is every driver’s dream to race for Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton’s start to life in red is slowly descending into a bit of a nightmare.
As Leclerc took Ferrari’s first podium in Jeddah, Hamilton crossed the line 30 seconds behind his team-mate in P7, failing to make any ground from another poor qualifying finish.
With the former Mercedes driver coming to the end of his career, his qualifying times were always going to take a hit at some point.
But being 0.531s slower than his team-mate is a cause for concern, whatever way you look at it.
And worse still, the race is where you would expect the experience of a seven-time world champion to shine through.
But only in his brief battle with Norris, in which he did jostle intelligently to gain the DRS advantage out of Turn 27, was there any sign of that Hamilton magic.
"It was horrible, not enjoyable at all. I was just sliding around. I didn't have grip.
“First stint, massive understeer, car not turning and then massive deg. The second stint, slightly better balance but still just no pace,” said Hamilton post-race.
“At the moment there’s no fix. So, this is how it’s going to be for the rest of the year. It’s going to be painful.”
Since the ground-effect regulations were introduced in 2022, comments like these have unfortunately come all too often from the former McLaren and Mercedes star.
While it may still be early on in his Ferrari career, it is alarming how quickly the Briton has cut the gloomy figure fans grew accustomed to towards the end of his Mercedes career.
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Winner: Carlos Sainz
If you asked Williams’ Team Principal James Vowles why he was so desperate to acquire Carlos Sainz’s services after his Ferrari departure, he would just have to point to the Spaniard’s weekend in Jeddah.
After a complicated start to his Williams’ career, it looks like Sainz is beginning to get the hang of his new machinery, and it shows in his qualifying.
On Saturday, Sainz improved on his P8 qualifying finish in Bahrain to take P6 in Jeddah - beating his team-mate Alex Albon for the second consecutive weekend.
Note that was also just ahead of Hamilton, who replaced the Spaniard at Ferrari.
Sainz did drop down to P8 in Sunday’s race, opting not to battle quicker cars around him too hard and avoiding the sort of race-ending incident he had with Yuki Tsunoda in Bahrain.
But a ‘best of the rest’ finish is currently the maximum Sainz can hope for, and he even helped his team-mate Albon secure double points for Williams in an impressive display of teamwork.
The Williams pair worked together to keep Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar behind in P10 - with Sainz letting Albon stay within DRS range for the final laps of the Grand Prix.
Mirroring the tactics that got him the win in Singapore in 2023, it was another smooth operation from the Spaniard, who reiterated his belief that Williams are ‘going in the right direction.’
Next up for F1 is the second Sprint weekend of the season at the Miami Grand Prix on May 2-4, with fans able to catch all the live action on Sky Sports F1.
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