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2025 FIA Formula One World Championship
2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
Jeddah Corniche Circuit
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Sunday, 20 April 2025
Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen will be hoping for a smoother weekend at the
Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Sunday, April 20 after being plagued by a series of problems in Sakhir.
The reigning four-time world champion was looking to build on his first win of the season in the Japanese Grand Prix which kept him in sight of McLaren duo Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
But Verstappen only started seventh on the grid for the Bahrain Grand Prix after struggling in Qualifying and he encountered technical difficulties during both pit stops as well as reporting issues with braking before battling his way through the field to claim P6.
The Dutchman, who overtook Alpine's Pierre Gasly on the final corner to pick up eight points, is now five and eight behind Piastri and Norris respectively in the Drivers' Championship standings in third place.
Verstappen accepted that he wasn't able to challenge for a podium finish on the Bahrain International Circuit given the state of the RB21, but is hopeful the team can make some progress in Jeddah.
"Basically everything went wrong!" Verstappen declared. "We had a poor start, too much wheelspin when I dropped the clutch, and then the first stint again [I had] basically the same problems that I had in Qualifying, plus we were just overheating our tyres too much compared to the competition ahead of us.
"Then [at] the first stop I think the lights got stuck on, but of course I don't want to drive through the lights - you want to stay and stick to the protocol of the team - so that put me into traffic as well, then the hard tyres unfortunately didn't work so I was sliding around even more than I was on the soft.
"Then we boxed again, [which was an] even worse pit stop, so then I was last. And, yeah, considering everything, to be honest to finish P6 is then alright. I mean, more than that was anyway not possible even with good pit stops or other tyres selected, realistically.
"It's of course not what we want, but it's just where we are at with our car and the tyre behaviour that we have with the car. Everything is just highlighted even more on a track like this."
2025 Bahrain Grand Prix results:
Winner: Oscar Piastri - McLaren
Second Place: George Russell - Mercedes
Third Place: Lando Norris - McLaren
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