Australian Oscar Piastri won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Sunday to take 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 world champion Max Verstappen finished second, after starting from pole position at Jeddah’s Corniche circuit, with Charles Leclerc third for Ferrari’s first podium of the campaign. Norris was fourth.
Victory made Piastri, triumphant in Bahrain last weekend and in 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.
Norris, who had led by three points before the race and is now 10 behind Piastri, started in 10th place after crashing in qualifying.
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.
“It was a pretty tough race. I’m very, very happy to have won. Made the difference at the start. Made my case into Turn One, and that was enough,” said the happy winner.
“Definitely one of the toughest races I’ve had in my career,” he added after 50 laps in 30-degree temperatures around a super-fast track.
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.
Source: Reuters
