Piastri reaps the rewards of forcing Verstappen into taking a penalty, takes the lead in the standings

As a result, the Australian driver also managed to take the lead in the drivers' standings, while Lando Norris fell back to second place, after the Briton crossed the finish line in fourth place.

Charles Leclerc managed to score Ferrari's first podium this season, while Verstappen is the first driver who did not win from pole position in the 2025 season.

Starting from the second row of the grid, Russell finished in P5, ahead of his current teammate, Kimi Antonelli, and his ex-teammate, Lewis Hamilton.

The two Williams drivers did well to work together and finish in P8 and P9 ahead of Isack Hadjar, with Carlos Sainz giving Alex Albon DRS, so the Frenchman could not get past them one by one on the mediums.

Inside the Top 10, everyone started on the mediums, except for Norris, who crashed out in Q3 the day before.

Piastri got off to a great start, and was alongside Verstappen into Turn 1, who cut the corner to maintain his lead.

Immediately after, in Turn 4, Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda made contact, causing a Safety Car and both drivers to retire from the race.

Verstappen did well on the restart, and kept the lead, but received a five-second time penalty for the previous incident with the McLaren.

After starting from further back than expected, Norris was in seventh place after 12 laps. The Briton tried to get past Hamilton in the final corner, but on the main straight, the seven-time world champion reovertook the McLaren driver, and the pair did the same the following lap as well. For only the third lap in a row did Norris stay behind the Ferrari in the final turn to have DRS for the straight, and make the maneouvre stick.

On Lap 19, Norris got up to P5, overtaking Antonelli on the straight as well.

Being a couple of second behind Verstappen, McLaren asked Piastri into the pit lane on Lap 20, but it was a slower stop by their pit crew. Red Bull reacted immediately, asking their driver to push, while Russell entered the pit lane on Lap 21.

Verstappen pitted on Lap 21, and because of his penalty, returned to the track behind his Australian rival. They were in P3 and P4 respectively, behind Leclerc and Norris, who were yet to pit at this point.

In terms of the frontrunners, Leclerc could stay out for the most laps on the mediums, only pitting on Lap 30 for hards. The Ferrari crew once again did really well, switching the Monegasque driver's tyres in only two seconds. Norris switched for mediums five laps later, with the Briton being in fifth place after his stop.

On Lap 38, Leclerc managed to caught up to Russell, and got up to third place, with Norris also chasing the two to finish on the podium in Saudi Arabia. However, the Briton was also investigated for cutting the white line at the pit lane exit.

After getting past Russell, the McLaren driver tried hard to hunt down Leclerc, but he just missed out on the podium. However, his pit lane exit incident required no further investigation by the stewards.