The Red Bull driver reports back to Saudi Arabia after the end of the season start in Bahrain – and Ferrari driver Leclerc is the one suffering. Shortly before the end of the race, things get dramatic on the course.
Max Verstappen has won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver won the second race of the 2022 Formula 1 season by a hair’s breadth ahead of Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc and reported back directly – at the start last week in Bahrain, the world champion was eliminated three laps before the end. Third was Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz. Red Bull and Ferrari seem to make up the world titles among themselves – and the Mercedes dominance is probably history.
“It was a great race. We fought hard up front. In the end you could see that we had a little better pace,” said Verstappen after his first win of the season and his 21st Grand Prix win overall. Leclerc, who after his opening win in Bahrain leads the World Championship with 45 points ahead of his Spanish team-mate Carlos Sainz (33/third place on Sunday) and Verstappen (25), enthused despite the narrow defeat: “It’s tough racing, but fair. Every Racing should be like that.”
The respect is “always there,” added the Monegasse, who drove against the 24-year-old Verstappen in karting times. For Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko, this duel will be “the world championship duel”.
It suddenly became turbulent
In the case of the racing car of record world champion Lewis Hamilton, after the disastrous exit in the first part of qualifying, Mercedes decided not to carry out the announced major conversion, from 15th on the grid it only went up to tenth place. His new teammate George Russell finished fifth after a clean race.
After the start, the race was uneventful for 15 laps. Then it suddenly became turbulent: pole setter and leader Sergio Perez (Red Bull) was the first top driver to get new tires, shortly afterwards Williams driver Nicholas Latifi landed in the wall – and triggered a safety car phase, from which Perez ‘ Rivals benefited. First and foremost Leclerc, who inherited the lead and fended off Verstappen’s furious attacks on the dangerous track, which offers hardly any overtaking opportunities.
The race temporarily took a back seat
At least for a short time, the other headlines of the day in Saudi Arabia faded into the background: the drone attack by Yemeni rebels on an oil storage facility near the track, the serious and ultimately minor crash of Mick Schumacher, who was watching the race in the Haas garage.
Schumacher, who was allowed to leave the hospital on Saturday evening, would have liked to start. “I’m fine. I would certainly be ready to drive,” said the son of record world champion Michael Schumacher on Sunday in the paddock (read more about this here).
The 23-year-old flew off in his Haas at more than 250 km/h in the second qualifying segment on Saturday and hit the wall badly. The car was just a wreck, which is why his team withdrew the car for the weekend.
For the next race in two weeks in Australia, the Haas with starting number 47 is to be rebuilt in peace and quiet. “It’s quite tight with the spare parts at this time of year,” said Schumacher.
Vettel was also missing
This led to a statistical curiosity: For the first time since the Portuguese Grand Prix in 1994, there was no driver with the surname Schumacher (Michael, Ralf, Mick) or Vettel on the starting grid.
Sebastian Vettel was also missing in the second race of the season because of his corona infection. Substitute Nico Hülkenberg again represented the four-time world champion properly, but in the obviously inferior Aston Martin the Emmericher was no better than twelfth place – after all, he beat Aston-Martin regular driver Lance Stroll (13th). For Vettel, the prospects are not rosy for his late season debut on April 10 in Melbourne.