Australian driver Óscar Piastri (McLaren) is the new leader of the Formula 1 World Championship after winning Sunday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the fifth race of the season, held on the street circuit in Jeddah. Spaniards Carlos Sainz (Williams) and two-time world champion Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) finished eighth and eleventh, respectively.

At just 24 years old, Piastri picked up his third career F1 victory — and third of the season — in a tough night race under the Saudi heat, beating Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull), who had started from pole, and Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), who also made the podium.

Lead change and tight fight in the standings

Brit Lando Norris (McLaren), who came into the weekend as the championship leader, had to settle for fourth after starting from P10 due to a crash in Q3. With that result, Norris loses the top spot in the standings to teammate Piastri, who now leads with 99 points, ten more than him.

Verstappen sits third overall, 12 points off the lead and just two behind Norris, after finishing second in a race where Mercedes drivers — Brit George Russell and young Italian Andrea Kimi Antonelli — came home fifth and sixth.

As for Carlos Sainz, who had his best qualifying of the year starting from sixth, he crossed the line in eighth, just behind seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who’s set to replace him at Ferrari next season. The Spaniard managed to finish ahead of his new teammate, Thai driver Alex Albon.

Young Frenchman Isack Hadjar (RB) also scored points by finishing tenth in what was one of the hottest races in recent years, on the fastest street circuit of the calendar. The rookie crossed the line just ahead of Fernando Alonso, who started 13th and pushed his AMR25 to the limit to climb two spots before the checkered flag.