Five winners and five losers from Saudi Arabia – Who leaves Jeddah the happiest and who has work to do?

Oscar Piastri ended the first triple header of 2025 in the best way possible as he snatched victory under the lights in Saudi Arabia – but many of his rivals will be pining for the break after a lacklustre performance in the desert. Here we pick our winners and losers from Jeddah …

Winner: Oscar Piastri

Oscar Piastri was disappointed to miss out on pole position after his McLaren team finished 1-2 in both second and third practice.

But his electric getaway from P2 in his words “won us the race” as he drew alongside Max Verstappen, with the Red Bull driver cutting the second corner and picking up a five-second time penalty that ultimately cost him the lead.

Piastri comfortably controlled the race once in the outright lead to become the first driver to win from below pole position this season.

It was the Australian’s third win in five Grands Prix this year and that moved him into the lead of the Drivers’ Championship for the first time in his career.

Oscar Piastri won for the third time this season with an impressive performance in Saudi Arabia.

Loser: Lando Norris

Lando Norris’ Qualifying woes continued in Saudi Arabia as he crashed in Q3 to start 10th and leave him with a mountain to climb on Sunday.

He gave the expedition a good go, the Briton able to extract supreme pace from his class-leading McLaren to run long on the hard tyres and pass a string of cars to recover to fourth.

However, he lost the championship lead and now trails teammate Piastri by 10 points heading to Miami – where he secured his first-ever Grand Prix win last year.

Winner: Charles Leclerc

This was Charles Leclerc’s most impressive drive of the season.

The Ferrari racer out-qualified his more decorated team mate Lewis Hamilton for the fourth time in five races to start P4.

He beautifully managed his medium tyres to run long in the first stint and give him fresher tyres to fight his way onto the podium – which was Ferrari’s first of the season.

Lando Norris recovered to fourth from P10 on the grid but had to watch as his teammate won again.

Loser: Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton’s struggles at new team Ferrari continued into Saudi Arabia as he simply could not get the car to do what he wanted it to do.

“I just lacked grip,” he said. “I lacked good balance. It was just fighting the car every corner and nothing I did would work.”

While P7 was his second-best Qualifying performance of the year, he was 0.531s slower than teammate Leclerc.

He fought Norris as long as he could, repassing him twice, but ultimately didn’t have the pace to attack either Mercedes ahead and ended up seventh.

Winners: Williams

Williams scored points with both cars for the second race this season, with Carlos Sainz taking eighth and Alex Albon ninth.

Sainz, who didn’t race in Saudi Arabia last year as he had appendix surgery instead, qualified a season’s best sixth.

The Spaniard then helped keep Albon in Drag Reduction System range to protect the Thai driver from Isack Hadjar in the closing stages.

P9 was Albon’s fourth finish in the points in five attempts this year and the double score helped Williams move up to fifth in the Teams’ Championship.

Carlos Sainz picked up his second top 10 finish of the season on the streets of Jeddah.

Loser: Max Verstappen

Verstappen showed his class once again with a sublime lap in Qualifying to take pole position by just 0.010s.

The Dutchman was disappointed to be penalised for his first corner antics – and that ultimately cost him a second victory of the season.

Second keeps him in the championship hunt, just 12 points adrift – but that will be of little consolation now as it was victory that the reigning four-time World Champion really wanted.

Winner: Isack Hadjar

Isack Hadjar wasn’t in the finest of spirits on Saturday after being out-qualified by Liam Lawson for the first time this year as he ended up a season-low P14 on the grid.

However, the Frenchman delivered when it mattered to snatch the final point in P10. That was the team’s first points in Jeddah since 2022 and his second points finish in the last three Grands Prix.

Max Verstappen started Sunday night’s race on pole but could not convert that to victory.

Losers: Mercedes

It’s a measure of how far Mercedes have come in recent times that there was disappointment internally with P5 and P6 in the Grand Prix.

Their Qualifying form was encouraging, with George Russell P3 – just 0.113s off pole – and Kimi Antonelli tying his best career start in P5.

But they didn’t have the race pace to take the fight to McLaren or Verstappen’s Red Bull – nor could they hold off Leclerc’s Ferrari.

Geroge Russell did not have the pace to fight for the podium in Saudi Arabia.

Winner: Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso does not celebrate finishes that are outside the top 10 – but his drive to 11th was among his very best, especially considering the Aston Martin is the ninth-fastest car at best.

The double World Champion recovered three places in the race from P14 to tie his best finish of the season as he edges closer to scoring for the first time in 2025.

It was a tough weekend for teammate Lance Stroll, who was booted out of Qualifying in Q1 for a record 75th time and went long in the first stint hoping for a Safety Car that never materialised.

Losers: Haas

Haas arrived in Saudi Arabia on the back of three successive Grands Prix in the points – but they simply didn’t have the pace to make it four on the bounce.

The American machine struggled in the high-speed corners, of which there are many in Jeddah, and that ruled them out of an appearance in Q3.

Both made progress in the race, but Ollie Bearman couldn’t repeat his heroics of last year – where he scored points on debut in a super-sub entry for Ferrari – and ended up P13, one place ahead of Esteban Ocon.

Their second non-score of the season sees them drop to sixth in the Teams’ Championship, albeit only five points shy of Williams and 10 clear of Aston Martin.

Aston Martin racer Fernando Alonso finished ahead of the two Haas drivers as he came home P11.