With Ferrari being on the back foot in the 2025 campaign so far, neither of their drivers had tasted champagne on the podium until the Saudi Arabian GP last weekend. Charles Leclerc ensured this streak ended with his stellar drive to P3 at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit and earned a maiden visit to the rostrum for the Scuderia.
After a disappointing qualifying, Leclerc started the race from fourth on the grid. However, he managed to extend his first stint on the medium tires with competitive lap times to ensure a tire offset in the final stint of the Grand Prix, as he pitted for fresher hard tires on lap 29.
That said, his closest rival on track, Lando Norris was on the alternative strategy and started chasing the Ferrari driver on faster medium tires. With the kind of pace McLaren had, many expected the #4 driver to easily pass him. But Leclerc managed to keep Norris at bay as they took the chequered flag separated by just over one second.
In hindsight, much credit goes to Leclerc for his podium finish, but as it turns out, his teammate, Lewis Hamilton also played a crucial role in ensuring that the McLaren driver did not finish ahead of the Monegasque.
In the opening stint of the Grand Prix, Norris was stuck behind the SF-25 of Hamilton. Going into the final corner, the wily old seven-time world champion allowed Norris to overtake him before the DRS detection zone. This allowed Hamilton to attack him back into turn one with DRS.
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The more perplexing fact was how this went on for two laps before Norris realized Hamilton’s game plan. For his third attempt, he slid back behind Hamilton and finally made the move on the #44 driver going into turn one with DRS—from there on, Hamilton was no threat to Norris.
However, Hamilton had already taken three laps away from Norris’ charge at that point and the time he lost squabbling with the 40-year-old saw him just get edged out by Leclerc at the end of the race.
Leclerc himself extensively used this move when he battled Max Verstappen for the win at the 2022 Saudi Arabian GP. Back then, both drivers played coy to avoid being a sitting duck down the main straight as the trailing car would get DRS. Eventually, Verstappen got the better of the Monegasque.
As for Hamilton, he naturally has a lot more experience relative to all of the other drivers. On top of that, having battled with Verstappen at the inaugural Grand Prix around the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in 2021, he knew how to tackle overtaking attempts, even by faster cars like Norris’ McLaren.
While he would’ve implemented such tactics to help his own cause, Hamilton inadvertently aided Leclerc to bag his first podium of the season. In doing so, Leclerc now sits tied with Fernando Alonso as the fifth-highest podium scorers for the Scuderia behind the likes of Kimi Raikkonen, Sebastian Vettel, Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher.
