F1 title fight is increasingly focused on McLaren but Verstappen still hopeful

JEDDAH: Ahead of Sunday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, this Formula 1 season is looking like McLaren vs. McLaren. Still, defending champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull says he hasn’t lost hope.
McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are the only ones to consistently have the pace through the first four rounds of the championship.
Norris has a three-point lead but admits he isn’t at his best — though he had the fastest time of the day in practice on Friday — while Piastri has momentum after winning in Bahrain last week.
Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes have all had their moments but none has been a consistent challenger, as McLaren’s 58-point constructors’ championship lead shows.
Friday practice
Norris went fastest in the second practice session, while Yuki Tsunoda crashed to continue his difficult start with Red Bull.

Nooo! Yuki Tsunoda is into the wall and the red flag is deployed

The Red Bull driver is OK#F1 pic.twitter.com/K6uChMFWOE

— Formula 1 (@F1) April 18, 2025

Norris was .163 seconds faster than Piastri in the second session, which was run under floodlights and more representative of race conditions than the hotter daytime session. Verstappen complained earlier in the day of his car feeling “very loose” in high-speed corners but ended Friday third fastest, .280 off Norris.
In his third race weekend with Red Bull since replacing Liam Lawson, Tsunoda clipped the wall on the inside of a corner and slid into the barrier on the other side, requiring a red flag.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was the surprise leader in the first session, just .007 of a second faster than Norris. Charles Leclerc of Ferrari was .07 off Gasly in third and Piastri fourth, barely a tenth of a second off the pace. Lewis Hamilton was eighth