A week after the disastrous start to the season in Bahrain, Max Verstappen has booked a resounding victory in the GP of Saudi Arabia.
Verstappen and Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc pushed each other to the limit and the Red Bull driver emerged as the winner in a fight up to the flag. With this he took revenge after his failure in Bahrain. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) finished third at the Jeddah circuit.
Start
Verstappen started in fourth place after a disappointing qualifying, behind the Ferraris of Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc and his own teammate Sergio Perez. At the start, Verstappen almost immediately gained a place by outwitting Sainz, while Pérez maintained his lead in the other Red Bull.
Leclerc and Verstappen pass Perez
While there was plenty of duels in midfield, the leaders Perez, Leclerc, Verstappen and Sainz were unable to attack each other; until on lap 16, under pressure from Ferrari, Perez was the first to change his tires and relinquish the lead. That cost him dearly, as a lap later the safety car appeared on track after Nicholas Latifi crashed. Leclerc, Verstappen and Sainz therefore lost less time at their stop and pushed Perez back to fourth place.
Surplace
After the restart, Verstappen opened the hunt for race leader Leclerc. The differences between the Red Bull and the Ferrari turned out to be negligible and the Monegask kept a counting margin against its pursuer every lap. That surplace was briefly interrupted when thirteen laps before the finish the cars of Fernando Alonso and Daniel Ricciardo and a virtual safety car situation arose.
fight
Then the duel between Leclerc and Verstappen really ignited and the Limburger overtook the Ferrari driver seven laps before the end, but Leclerc immediately recaptured the lead. Emotions ran high, Verstappen did not give up and four laps before the end he struck mercilessly: he grabbed the lead and, despite enormous pressure from Leclerc, did not relinquish it.
RESPECT #SaudiArabianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/PHIMJ9Gxb3
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 27, 2022
25 points
Last week, reigning world champion Verstappen dropped out in the very first race of the season, the Bahrain GP. The Limburger seemed to be on course there for a podium finish, until a vacuum in the fuel supply brought the Red Bull car to a standstill. As a result, Verstappen now has only 25 World Cup points to his name after two races.
The first win of the year is in for Max! #SaudiArabianGP #MaxVerstappen pic.twitter.com/t2F4pMW2Qz
— Viaplay Sport Netherlands (@viaplaysportnl) March 27, 2022
World Cup standings
Leclerc, who won the first race, remains World Cup leader with 45 points. Sainz (33 points) also has more points than the Limburger, who does pass the Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell in the ranking. Hamilton was tenth in Jeddah, Russell fifth.
Australia
The still fledgling Formula 1 season will continue in two weeks with the Australian GP.