A matter of centimetres
A three-way battle is developing for the Drivers' title, between the two challengers from the papaya squad, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris and reigning and four-time world champion Max Verstappen. They are currently separated by twelve points. Leading on 99 points is the youngest and possibly the most unexpected of the trio, Piastri, who moved into the lead on Sunday night in Saudi. His team-mate and pre-season favourite, Norris, is second, ten points down. Two points further back we find the gate-crashing Verstappen, the sport's tyrant who is not yet prepared to abdicate his throne, despite the shortcomings of this year's Red Bull and the fact he is practically carrying the team single-handed. Over the first five races, his team-mates, first Lawson and now Tsunoda have only picked up a meagre two points. 12 points is nothing in a season made up of 24 Grands Prix and six Sprint races. If you converted that gap to an actual physical distance, it would amount to no more than a few centimetres, just like the centimetres that decided the outcome of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
It was a matter of centimetres, impossible to say exactly how many, that ruined Norris' weekend when he put it in the wall between turns 4 and 5 in the final part of Saturday's qualifying, which obviously put him out of contention for pole and more or less ruled him out of taking the win. Then came the 70.7 centimetres – 10 thousandths of a second – that separated Verstappen from Piastri as the Dutchman took an unexpected pole, giving him an undoubted advantage for the race. Finally, there were the centimetres advantage that, depending on your point of view, Max did or did not have at the apex to turn 1 immediately after the start of the race. There was no doubt in the Stewards' collective mind as they gave Max a five second penalty which he served at his pit stop.
Considering that the gap between first and second at the chequered flag was just 2.843 seconds, one could say the penalty decided the outcome, but we will never really know. Who's to say Piastri wouldn't have passed Max anyway either later on track or during the pit stops? It's one thing to know your rival must serve a penalty, thus managing your strategy accordingly, but it's quite another to know you have to pass him one way or another to take the win, by squeezing every last ounce of performance out of your car. Yesterday, as was already the case a week earlier in Sakhir, it was clear how increasingly Piastri seems to be in control of these situations, running his race as effectively as possible. He took a risk at the start, challenging Max in what Max is best at, namely going wheel to wheel. Somehow it was Piastri who came out on top and after that, he didn't put a foot wrong to take a well-deserved win.
One thing is clear after yesterday's race, namely that, who have different qualities of their own. While Max had the measure of Norris last season, he now also has to figure out how to deal with Piastri.
