Oscar Piastri has picked up his third win of the season with an assured drive to victory in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the Australian driver becoming the new Drivers’ Championship leader in the process.
There was early drama as the race got underway, with pole sitter Max Verstappen and second-placed Piastri going wheel-to-wheel before Verstappen cut the apex into the first corner.
While the Dutchman initially held the lead, a five second time penalty for the manoeuvre saw him drop behind the McLaren man after serving the penalty at his pit stop.
Lando Norris – embarked on a recovery drive from P10 – inherited the lead for some time as the frontrunners pitted, with the Briton having opted for a longer first stint by starting on the hard tyres.
But Piastri took over P1 when his team mate stopped for medium rubber, the 24 year old going on to eke out an advantage at the front.
The full top 10 are- P1: Piastri, P2: Verstappen, P3: Leclerc, P4: Norris, P5: Russell, P6: Antonelli, P7: Hamilton, P8: Sainz, P9: Albon and P10: Hadjar.
What a result from Piastri! His third win of the season, and he did it in great style, cool, calm and collected! The Australian driver had such a strong weekend, he will be looking forward to the next race to continue this momentum.
As for Lando Norris, P4, just narrowly missing out on a podium but a good recovery drive from the Brit.
A decent drive from Verstappen, a shame he couldn’t grab the win but going up against the McLaren it has got a lot more race pace than the Red Bull, plus he had a 5 second penalty from the incident with Piastri so that didn’t help his chances.
As for his teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, it was a day to forget… On Lap 1 he collided with his former team mate Gasly as both drivers hit the wall.
While Gasly was out of the running in the Alpine, Tsunoda managed to limp back to the pits but it was quickly confirmed that he was out of the race.
Now onto the final podium finisher, Charles Leclerc, what a race for him! The first podium of the year for Ferrari (apart from the Sprint) a lovely drive from the Monegasque. They seemed to have pace this weekend, more than the Mercedes team.
As for Hamilton he finished 7th, not the best but not the worst and he still scored points. It seems when he switched to the hard tyres he struggled on them which is no surprise as he has had this problem before.
Now onto the Mercedes drivers, 5th for Russell and 6th for Antonelli, not amazing from the Silver Arrows but there pace this weekend just wasn’t their to battle for podiums.
Double points for Williams! 8th for Sainz, his best finish in the Williams car so far. And 9th for Albono, overall a good weekend for the team, which they will be hoping for more of.
And our final points scorer is Isack Hadjar in 10th, the rookie is flying so far, another points finish.
Now the next race we have a little wait now, which is the 4th May and were headed to Miami for Round 6!
Jordan's Track Talk 
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