It was the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix’s critical juncture. And no, it was not the controversial lap-one clash between Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen, officiated fairly and promptly by the stewards, who handed the Red Bull driver a five-second penalty. Of course, the punishment was a pivotal verdict. But it was not the pivotal moment.
In fact, the moment that won Oscar Piastri the race came 20 laps in. Pitting before leader Verstappen, Piastri had two laps to steamroll around the world’s quickest street circuit before the Dutchman pitted himself. But he had a problem: Lewis Hamilton.
The Ferrari driver was up ahead on the road and had the potential to hold up the McLaren driver. Normally, Piastri could simply have waited until the main straight – one of the longest straights on the calendar – to make the move with superior speed and DRS. But he didn’t have time. Instead, he caught the joint-greatest driver of all time completely off guard with an inspired pass.
Sure, Piastri was way faster than Hamilton. But approaching the scarily rapid turn 22 section, the fearless Australian swung his McLaren inches from the wall around the outside, threading his MCL39 through the eye of a needle and past the Ferrari. Martin Brundle blurted out “wow” on commentary, while David Croft labelled it “sensational”.
That freed him up to power on, and open up a lead to Verstappen, which the Dutchman, ultimately, could not pull back.
It was the race-winning moment. It was the overtake of the year so far; a breathtaking, daring on-track manoeuvre. But more than that, it was Piastri’s most ruthless statement yet, as he took the lead in the world championship for the first time.
Fascinatingly, it was a move that mirrored Piastri’s last-lap overtake on Hamilton at the season-opener in Australia. And perhaps even more pointedly, when faced with an identical scenario with Hamilton a few laps later, even Verstappen did not dare try and squeeze his car through the narrow window provided on this tight, fast-paced track. Instead, he made his move in a more orthodox fashion, around the outside at the final turn.
Verstappen, in the end, finished 2.8 seconds behind Piastri as a second victory of the year for the Dutchman slipped through his fingers. Inevitably, that margin ruffled feathers down at Red Bull afterwards, with Christian Horner providing photographic evidence at his post-race media briefing from Verstappen’s on-board camera which showed, in his view, that his driver was “ahead at the apex.”
Most observers – including this correspondent – believe Verstappen was duty-bound to give the position back, having left the track and gained the advantage of running in clean air. He didn’t, and the stewards acted accordingly.
“Max can’t just disappear at this point in time,” Horner argued. “Perhaps these rules need to be relooked at. I don’t know what happened to ‘let them race’ on the first lap, that just seemed to have been abandoned. I don’t know where he’s supposed to go, he can’t just vanish.”
The Red Bull team principal added that his team are “highly unlikely” to appeal the verdict. Verstappen refused to comment on the incident in the press conference afterwards, for fear of reprimand from the FIA for airing his honest views.
Yet for the Dutchman, after an under-par weekend in Bahrain, it was a promising few days in Jeddah. He is, clearly, McLaren’s closest challenger this year and – driving at his very peak – is very capable of contesting the world championship this year, against two drivers inexperienced in the nip-and-tuck of a title race.
But while his teammate Lando Norris floundered with his crash in qualifying (though he did fight back to finish fourth on Sunday), Piastri showcased again his composed aura in the cauldron of noise. He becomes the first Australian since Mark Webber (his manager) in 2010 to lead the drivers’ championship, with his lead now at 10 points.
And some even now have him as the favourite, ahead of the next race in Miami in a fortnight.
“He’s won 10 per cent of his races and now has won the same amount of races as Lando,” Brundle said, after Piastri’s fifth win in 51 starts. “The writing is on the wall – he is the favourite for the world championship.”
If his scintillating form continues, in the grid’s quickest car, Piastri could well be dreaming of a first world title. Except he won’t. He’s far too measured in his thought process for that.
“I’m not that bothered by the fact that I’m leading the championship,” he said. “But I’m proud of the work and the reasons behind why we’re leading the championship.
“Ultimately, I want to be leading it after round 24, not round 5.”
The message is clear: feet on the ground, onto the next one.
