Five winners and five losers from the F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

One driver delivered a statement victory on his way to moving into the lead of the F1 world championship.

It was the perfect ending to F1 2025’s first triple header for the driver in form who once again emerged as our biggest winner from round five.

Here is who else impressed and underwhelmed in Jeddah…

Winner - Oscar Piastri

Undoubtedly, the big winner coming away from Saudi Arabia - and the triple header - is Oscar Piastri.

Piastri made it back to back wins in the Middle East to take his third victory of the year and with it move into the world championship lead ahead of McLaren teammate Lando Norris, who ends up as a bit of a ‘loser’ despite his damage-limiting recovery to fourth.

It was another faultless drive from Piastri, who, having narrowly missed out on pole to Max Verstappen, benefitted from a penalty for his main rival to assert his credentials in the title race.

Loser - Lewis Hamilton

A shocker in Saudi Arabia for Lewis Hamilton, whose early woes with Ferrari continued on race day.

Hamilton described the race as “horrible” and had no explanation for his lack of pace as he finished where he qualified in seventh, a whopping 31 seconds and four places behind teammate Charles Leclerc.

The seven-time world champion seems lost with Ferrari’s 2025 car and does not appear to have an answer to his early teething troubles.

Winner - Williams

Another big winner on the night was Williams.

After a brilliant lap from Carlos Sainz in qualifying to put his Williams sixth, the team would have been hoping for points, but to end up with both their cars inside the top-10 was a huge bonus.

Sainz knew he wasn’t in a race with the likes of Hamilton and Norris but perfectly executed his run to eighth, and even dragged teammate Alex Albon along in his DRS to help protect a P8-P9 finish that moves Williams up to fifth in the constructors’ championship.

Loser - Yuki Tsunoda

It had been looking like another encouraging weekend for Yuki Tsunoda, who for the second time in a week progressed into Q3 and looked in a solid place to score more points for Red Bull.

But those hopes vanished on the first lap when he got tangled up with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly in a race-ending incident for the pair.

While it was simply a racing incident with no obvious blame apportioned to either driver, Tsunoda certainly comes away from Jeddah as a loser. That’s three races with Red Bull and just two points to show for it.

Winner - Charles Leclerc

Leclerc has made his frustration at Ferrari’s deficit to the frontrunners clear but he turned in another starring performance on Sunday night.

Despite having to drive around the deficiencies of his SF-25, Leclerc was at times the fastest man on track as he scored Ferrari’s first podium of the year with a brilliant run to third.

Leclerc once again comfortably outperformed Hamilton all weekend as he continues to be the shining light of what has otherwise been a massively disappointing start to 2025 for Ferrari.

Loser - Alpine

Alpine were targeting consecutive finishes in the points after Gasly once again qualified inside the top 10, but the French team came away from Jeddah empty-handed after their lead driver was wiped out on Lap 1.

With Jack Doohan too far back to challenge for points in Gasly’s absence, it ended up being another weekend Alpine, who have a quicker car than their championship position suggests, were left to rue what might have been.

Winner - Max Verstappen

Verstappen may have been left fuming at a penalty he felt cost him victory, the Dutchman should be happy when he looks back on the weekend once the dust has settled.

Red Bull ultimately produced a remarkable turnaround following their horror show in Bahrain, as Verstappen pulled off another special lap to claim an unlikely pole and contested for the win throughout.

The team and Verstappen will be buoyed how competitive they were in Jeddah, with the four-time world champion only 2.8s behind Piastri at the chequered flag. Verstappen also gained ground on Norris.

Loser - Mercedes

After another promising showing in qualifying left George Russell frustrated to have missed out on pole as he took third, Mercedes’ pace disappeared on Sunday.

Russell looked set to be Verstappen and Piastri’s nearest challenger but he ended up being beaten by both Leclerc and Norris and struggled for pace on both the medium and hard compound.

Late degradation concerns left him nursing his car home to a distant fifth, ahead of rookie teammate Kimi Antonelli who fared no better in a rather anonymous race for Mercedes.

Winner - Isack Hadjar

A strong drive from Isack Hadjar who made the most of a great strategy to work his way into the top-10 and grab the final point on offer in 10th.

The French rookie got the better of teammate Liam Lawson on race day after suffering his first qualifying defeat to the sacked Red Bull driver on Saturday.

Following Tsunoda’s promotion to the main Red Bull squad, Hadjar is quickly asserting himself as the team leader at Racing Bulls.

Loser - Lance Stroll

A weekend to forget for Lance Stroll, who broke one of F1’s unwanted records for the most Q1 qualifying exits in history, having been eliminated at the first stage for a 75th time.

Despite two DNFS, Stroll was only able to finish where he started in 16th and a lap down, while he was also beaten by a slower Sauber in the process.

Aston Martin do not have a competitive car this season but teammate Fernando Alonso was still able to reach Q2 and drag his car to 11th.