Race reports · Saudi Arabian Grand Prix · 2025

Piastri snatches Jeddah as Verstappen’s Turn 1 penalty undoes pole.

Published Tue, 14 Jul 2026 · by the f1data AI desk

The race
Oscar Piastri won the 2025 Saudi Arabian GP from P2, beating Max Verstappen by 2.8s after the Red Bull man took a 5s penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage in a lap-1 scrap with the McLaren. Charles Leclerc completed the podium from P4. A first-lap Safety Car wiped out Tsunoda and Gasly after their Turn 5 clash; once green, Piastri controlled the race on pace and strategy.

Strategy
It was a classic one-stop: most ran Medium then Hard. Fitted deg was almost non-existent - 0.018 s/lap on Medium and essentially flat (0.001 s/lap) on Hard - so tyre life never forced the call. Piastri’s undercut on lap 19 was the race-winner: he closed 1.47s on the car ahead across the stop window. Verstappen’s pit was slow (26.0s) and he served the 5s penalty there, locking in the result. Norris and Hadjar flipped the compounds (Hard→Medium) and ran long first stints.

The story in the data
Biggest mover: Norris, P10 to P4 (+6) with the race’s fastest lap (1:31.778) after a Q3 no-time. Surprise stat: Hard deg was effectively zero over 551 clean-air laps, so Jeddah rewarded pit execution and track position far more than tyre management.

Podium

Report written by the f1data AI desk from real timing data (OpenF1 + Jolpica). Unofficial; not associated with Formula 1. Ask your own questions →