{"id":41283,"date":"2025-04-21T02:38:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=41283"},"modified":"2025-04-21T02:52:01","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:52:01","slug":"oscar-piastri-takes-lead-in-f1-championship-battle-after-winning-in-saudi-arabia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=41283","title":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri takes lead in F1 championship battle after winning in Saudi Arabia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Oscar Piastri took the lead in the Formula 1 driver standings Sunday after he beat four-time world champion Max Verstappen<\/a> in an intense race in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The win puts Piastri, 24, of Australia, on 99 points, leapfrogging fellow McLaren driver Lando Norris, who is now 10 points behind in second place. Verstappen, who drives for Red Bull Racing, is two more points behind in third place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is shaping up to be a close and exciting championship battle, as the racing returns to the United States in two weeks for a Grand Prix weekend in Miami. It is shaping up to be Verstappen\u2019s most challenging title defense since he won his first trophy in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Norris, who started the season as the betting-odds favorite to win the championship<\/a>, has his work cut out for him as he admits he doesn\u2019t feel in sync with the evolving McLaren car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The race start Sunday proved crucial to the outcome. Verstappen started on pole position ahead of Piastri, but Piastri got a better launch and pulled alongside Verstappen on the inside into the first corner, prompting him to cut the chicane and keep the position. He was handed a 5-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, which is forbidden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell done everyone! It was a little bit more difficult at the start than I had hoped for. But yeah, very, very well done. The car was great,\u201d Piastri said on team radio after he took the checkered flag. \u201cMassive three weeks. And let\u2019s keep it going.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the postrace news conference, Piastri said leading the championship doesn\u2019t change anything for him. \u201cStill want to go out and try to win every race I can,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not that bothered by the fact that I\u2019m leading the championship, but I\u2019m proud of the work and the reasons behind why we\u2019re leading the championship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUltimately I want to be leading it after round 24, not round 5,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verstappen finished in second place, less than 3 seconds behind Piastri. Completing the podium was Charles Leclerc, giving Ferrari its first podium finish in the five grand prix in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Piastri has been the breakout star of 2025 in just his third season in the sport, winning three of the five races so far as Norris and Verstappen have each won one race. It the first time this season that the pole-sitter didn\u2019t win the race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the postrace interview, Verstappen declined to discuss the first-corner incident and said he looks forward to racing in the United States next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to keep it quite short. I just want to say a big thank you to the fans here in Jeddah,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a great weekend. I love the track. And the rest is what it is. I\u2019m looking forward to Miami.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verstappen said later in the news conference that he was \u201cpositively surprised with my pace,\u201d but he repeatedly refused to discuss the penalty and whether it cost him the victory. \u201cThe start happened, turn 1 happened, and suddenly it was lap 50,\u201d he deadpanned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norris endured a forgettable weekend, reflecting the inconsistency of his 2025 season. After having set the pace in the practice sessions and topped the earlier part of qualifying, he made a small but costly error and crashed on a hot lap, forcing him to start at 10th place. He fought his way back to fourth place Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The track in Jeddah is one of the fastest and most physically demanding on the F1 calendar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked to describe his emotions after the race, the famously stoic Piastri quipped, \u201cLooking for a couch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oscar Piastri took the lead in the Formula 1 driver standings Sunday after he beat four-time world champion Max Verstappen in an intense race in Saudi Arabia. The win puts Piastri, 24, of Australia, on 99 points, leapfrogging fellow McLaren driver Lando Norris, who is now 10 points behind in second place. Verstappen, who drives for Red […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":41285,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5782],"tags":[2090,26217,33034],"class_list":["post-41283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ep","tag-lead","tag-oscar","tag-piastri"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41283"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41286,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41283\/revisions\/41286"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}