Oscar Piastri wins the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and knocks Lando Norris off championship top spot after McLaren team-mate’s podium agony

Max Verstappen kept his counsel – well, a few curt remarks – as he stepped out of his Red Bull. But if you could read his mind, there was fury written in the speech bubble next to his head.

It related to the first corner, the pivotal moment at which Oscar Piastri won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Verstappen finished second.

As for Lando Norris, he has cursed himself as clueless, a muppet and an idiot in the space of a few days. But until his McLaren team-mate Piastri triumphed next to the Red Sea he was also known as the world championship leader.

No longer.

Yes, Norris produced a decent salvage operation to climb from 10th on the grid to finish fourth, but he is now 10 points – 89 plays 99 – behind the Australian who has emerged as the biggest thorn in the side of the Briton’s greatest ambition.

But, first, to the start. You could almost sense imminent drama on the way. The most striking aspect on the pre-race grid was the lack of elbow room. It’s tight on the start straight. And then into the first corner, a left-hander red with danger.

For this Jeddah Corniche Circuit should not be confused for a track suited to L-platers. It is the Cresta Run of Formula One, at average speeds approaching 160mph.

And, so, the early dose of almost predictable controversy. Verstappen, his car skewed a handful of degrees left in the pit box, realistically had to get through the opening bend in front, holding off Piastri, sharing the front row, or lose the contest.

The McLaren threatened too much pace, otherwise.

The two protagonists were pretty much level as they reached the crunch moment.

Verstappen ran off track and emerged ahead. A moment later Alpine’s Piere Gasly and Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda entangled at Turn 5. A safety car came out and the stewards sat in judgment on Verstappen’s actions.

Each driver pleaded his case. ‘He needs to give that back,’ suggested Piastri.

‘He just pushed me off,’ countered the world champion.

Piastri later added: ‘He was never going to make the corner whether I was there or not.’ He was correct and the stewards rightly, in my view, penalised Verstappen with a five-second penalty for gaining an unfair advantage.

‘That is f****** lovely,’ said Verstappen, who was still furious at the end of the race, barely engaging with David Coulthard in the post-race TV interview.

He merely said: ‘I’m going to keep it short. A big thank you to the fans here in Jeddah. It’s been a great weekend. I love the track. The rest, it is what it is. I’m looking forward to Miami, so I will see you there…’ And off he went.

As for the racing, Verstappen stayed in front manfully in the first stint. Piastri was first to pit, after 19 laps, from nearly three seconds back.

Two laps later, Verstappen was in. He sat in the pit box serving his penalty. This time Piastri was three seconds in front, having made a scything, incisive, I-want-to-win-this, move on Lewis Hamilton on the fast approach to Turn 22.

Piastri stayed ahead for the rest of the night, finishing nearly three seconds beyond Verstappen.

As for Norris losing the championship lead, it was not meant to be this way when he first established his advantage in the opening race in Australia, where he drove with a conviction that appeared to suggest he had shrugged off the demons induced by losing out on the title he should have won last year.

That was five races and a lot of trauma ago. 

The seeds of his relative disappointment were sown in qualifying. A needless crash at Turn 5 saw to that.

After his error-strewn display in Bahrain the previous weekend he had complained of feeling uncomfortable in the car.

Perhaps so. But it is machinery that every rival on the grid would exchange his left foot to drive. More pertinent to his predicament, it seems to me, is nagging disquiet in a place engineers can’t reach. It’s part of the human condition.

Anyway, casting those concerns aside, he was granted ground through the first lap crash. Then he left Williams’ Carlos Sainz behind him with a neat overtake. And, after exchanging DRS passes twice with Hamilton, he made the move stick decisively on lap 15 to take sixth place.

Norris, going long on hard tyres to everyone else’s mediums, led the race after the rest had pitted. He came out fifth. He zoomed past Mercedes’ George Russell, ailing badly on his tyres. That was for fourth, but he couldn’t quite catch Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who took Ferrari’s first podium of the season.

Last year Verstappen rattled Norris by what he said. This year Piastri is in danger of terrorising him by what he doesn’t say. How annoying his garage-mate’s helium calm must be. All the more so because he is slightly younger at 24 to Norris’s 25. In fact, you might have Norris down as the boyband half of the partnership.

Still, there is plenty for Norris to hold on to. He came here having finished on the podium in all four of the previous races and was agonisingly close this time. He is a splendidly fast driver and right in the mix.

By the way, the seething Verstappen lies two points behind him. Yikes.