JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — Oscar Piastri is the first Australian driver to lead the Formula 1 standings in 15 years after winning Sunday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
The McLaren driver won for the third time in five races this season and moved ahead of teammate Lando Norris for the championship lead. The last Australian to lead the standings was Mark Webber.
The start of the race made all the difference for Piastri, who battled polesitter Max Verstappen at the start.
Verstappen and Piastri raced wheel-to-wheel before Verstappen cut the apex into the first corner.
While the Red Bull driver initially held the lead, a five-second time penalty was assessed to Verstappen, who served the penalty during his pit stop and fell into line behind Piastri.
From there, Piastri raced to the victory.
“Once I got on the inside, I wasn’t coming out of Turn 1 in second,” said Piastri. “I tried my best, obviously the stewards had to get involved but I thought I was plenty far enough up and in the end that’s what got me the race. So yeah, very happy with all the work we’ve been doing with the starts and that’s what won us the race today.”
The 24-year-old driver finished 2.8 seconds ahead of Verstappen.
“Overall, it was a very promising race,” Verstappen said. “We were a bit unfortunate with the penalty, but besides that the car was strong. We had a lot of difficulties on Friday with our tyre management, so to have such a positive Saturday and Sunday meant that we really improved the car a lot. I was positively surprised to see how competitive we were on the mediums. I, of course had to try and open up a gap, but to actually pull away from the cars behind was nice.”
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc posted his first podium finish of the season in third.
Norris finished fourth, just ahead of Mercedes teammates George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.
Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton was seventh for Ferrari.
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