A last-gasp move at the final corner, a sprint to the chequered flag, a photo finish: It would be great to see more grands prix finish that way.
That did happen on Sunday, but as it decided who occupied the final two places in the finishing order instead of the winner, it was widely overlooked.Jack Doohan caught 17th-placed Gabriel Bortoleto as the final laps counted down. Both drivers had changed tyres on the first lap of the race, but Doohan made a second pit stop while Bortoleto plugged away on his old rubber.
Doohan took 14 seconds out of Bortoleto in four laps to arrive on his tail at the final corner. The Sauber was powerless to resist, and Doohan beat him to the line by 0.042 seconds.
Up at the sharp end, Oscar Piastri beat Max Verstappen to the line by 2.8 seconds for his third grand prix victory of the season. It means he now has as many career wins as his team mate Lando Norris – this time last year both were yet to win their first grand prix.
Piastri’s win also propels him to the top of the championship table, overtaking Norris. He is the first driver to take the points lead off his team mate since Lewis Hamilton passed Valtteri Bottas at the 2020 Hungarian Grand Prix.
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The Melburnian is the first Australian driver to lead the world championship since Mark Webber after the 2010 Japanese Grand Prix. Webber is now Piastri’s manager.
Max Verstappen claimed pole position with a record-breaking lap of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, and continued Red Bull’s run of four consecutive poles at this track. He has an excellent record of converting pole positions to victories, with 33 wins from 42 poles. However he has found it increasingly difficult to keep up that rate: his last eight pole positions have yielded four wins.
Charles Leclerc joined them on the podium, giving Ferrari their first rostrum appearance this year. Norris chased him to the line for fourth and picked up his 15th fastest lap as he did. He now has as many as Jackie Stewart, Clay Regazzoni and Felipe Massa.
Aston Martin had little to cheer about in their 100th grand prix. Fernando Alonso’s point-less start to the season continued and Lance Stroll dropped out in Q1 for the third time this year. That was Stroll’s 75th Q1 elimination, which is the most of any F1 driver, surpassing the record held by Kevin Magnussen.
Stroll is also one of only two drivers to have entered all five races at this track but never scored a point. The other is Yuki Tsunoda, who crashed on the first lap on Sunday. That was at least better than his 2022 appearance when his AlphaTauri broke down before the start.
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Over to you
Have you spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.
2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
- Russell told race control what he thought of Verstappen’s first lap corner cut
- Doohan’s final corner pass on Bortoleto was F1’s closest fight for last place in seven years
- “Singapore plan” radio message was the wrong choice of words, Vowles admits
- ‘You’re the effective leader’: Full radio from Piastri and Verstappen’s Jeddah tussle
- Leclerc hopes new front wing for Spanish GP will be “turning point” for Ferrari
Andy (@andycz)
23rd April 2025, 7:44
Leclerc has now the same amount of podiums for Ferrari (44) as Alonso.
Jere (@jerejj)
23rd April 2025, 7:50
Oscar Piastri took the championship lead for the first time in his F1 career & consequently, he’s on his first winning streak.
Pierre Gasly’s second consecutive Saudi Arabian GP retirement & coincidently also on the opening lap, albeit earlier, as he more precisely retired from the opening lap into the pit lane in last year’s edition.
Gabriel Bortoleto finished last for the second consecutive race & second overall in his thus far short F1 career.
Esteban Ocon was the last to finish a race on the lead lap for the first time since the most recent Austrian GP, in which he finished a position higher.
However, this time around he crossed the timing line to start the 50th & final lap by a mere 2.7 seconds before the race-winning timing line crossing, so roughly 1.5 seconds of margin to the blue-flagging limit.
As for some extra mentions regarding two already-mentioned stats:
While I noticed Jack Doohan’s unseen late pass on him happening on the live timing, I failed to realize where on track it precisely happened & mistook a different pass happening in the T1-2 combo as that.
The fact that Mark Webber used to be the most recent Aussie to lead the championship rather than Daniel Ricciardo speaks volumes to some extent.
Lance Stroll’s record-breaking Q1 elimination amount is not only one of many undesired records but also note-worthy, given the team in which he’s competed for most of his F1 career.
Ultimately, he couldn’t have pointed out the matter better by saying that suffering a lot of Q1 eliminations is mostly a car-dependent thing & even referring to the current McLaren drivers that they’d reach this record just as equally if they drove for the current/recent past-level Sauber for 10 seasons.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
23rd April 2025, 8:41
Don’t tell Liberty – they’ll be showing even more of the Battle For 19th (with crowd noise and shots of somebody in a Sauber cap) on TV.
Jordi Casademunt (@casjo)
23rd April 2025, 12:22
If I’m not mistaken, this is the first time 2 drivers have led the championship for the first time in their careers since 2010.
Back then it was Webber and Vettel, so another 2 teammates, one of them being Australian who happens to be Piastri’s manager.
Picasso 1.9D FTW (@picasso-19d-ftw)
23rd April 2025, 12:25
Let’s not forget that Pirelli continue an unbroken run of no fewer than 291 victories since 2011, shading Verstappen’s record-breaking streak of 2023 by 281 and demonstrating their unrivalled prowess in Formula 1.
sumedh
23rd April 2025, 12:35
Most drivers get ejected out of F1 if they get eliminated in Q1 so many times. He doesn’t because his father owns the team.