Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
AP
—
Oscar Piastri has shown he has the pace to fight for the Formula 1 title. In winning the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Sunday, he showed he can win an argument, too.
For the first time this season, a penalty played a key role in deciding a race win as Piastri went top of the standings with his victory.
Piastri’s two earlier wins this season had been dominant drives from pole position. This time he had to get past four-time champion Max Verstappen.
Verstappen started on pole but went off the track when battling for the lead with Piastri at the very first corner. He stayed in front but got a five-second penalty. Piastri argued he had got in front of Verstappen on the inside of the corner and deserved the place.
“Once I got on the inside, I wasn’t coming out of turn one in second,” Piastri said.
“I tried my best. Obviously the stewards had to get involved. I thought I was plenty far enough up and that’s what won me the race.”
Charles Leclerc was third for Ferrari and Piastri’s McLaren teammate, Lando Norris, finished fourth thanks to a smart strategy and overtaking. Norris had started 10th following a crash in qualifying.
It was the second win in a row for Piastri, who took the victory in Bahrain last week and has three wins from five races this year. He’d only won two before this season.
Piastri leads the standings by 10 points from Norris, with Verstappen two points further back in third.
Piastri was three points behind Norris going into Sunday’s race, partly because of a costly spin at his home race in Australia, the first GP of the season.
He becomes the first Australian to lead the F1 standings since Mark Webber — who is now Piastri’s manager — in 2010 as a Red Bull driver. No Australian has won the title since Alan Jones in 1980.
Piastri said the penalty was what gave him the win. He had problems keeping up with Verstappen’s car before the pit stops without damaging his tires.
Piastri beat Verstappen off the line and was slightly ahead into the first corner, only for Verstappen to run wide across the chicane. Following a crash between Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly seconds later, Piastri and Verstappen argued their cases over the radio while lined up behind the safety car.
Verstappen accused Piastri of forcing him off but the stewards disagreed and gave the Dutch driver a five-second penalty for driving off-track and gaining an advantage. That was “lovely,” Verstappen reacted sarcastically. He had to serve the penalty parked at his pit stop before the crew could touch the car to change tires.
Asked about the incident after the race, Verstappen instead praised the fans and the track and said “the rest is what it is.”
Norris recovered to fourth after starting 10th.
Norris’ strategy was the opposite of most of the field, starting on the slower, longer-lasting hard tires. It meant he briefly led the race after most other drivers had pitted earlier and could have put him in a position to win if there was a incident requiring the safety car or red flag while he was leading.
There nearly was a big crash when Fernando Alonso and Gabriel Bortoleto banged wheels while battling for position near the back of the field. Two-time champion Alonso ran into a runoff area but kept his car under control.
