Red Bull finished 1 and 4 with Ferrari 2 and 3 in the season’s second race. Hamilton (Mercedes) finished 10th.
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia—Max Verstappen regained his composure Sunday night by overtaking Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc with three laps to go to win the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at the Corniche International Circuit. Carlos Sainz Jr. was third in the second Ferrari.
Perez ended the race in fourth, followed by the Mercedes of George Russell in fifth. The second Alpine of Esteban Ocon took sixth, while Lando Norris scored McLaren’s first points of the season in seventh. Pierre Gasly finished his Alpha Tauri in eighth, with Haas claiming ninth with Kevin Magnussen. Hamilton took the last point in tenth.
As the race unfolded, Verstappen held back for a while as his teammate and pole-sitter Sergio Perez fought with Leclerc in the early laps. Then, Ferrari made a fake move with the pit team signaling that Leclerc would be coming in for a pit stop. He did not, but the Red Bull did, which ruined Perez’s chances for the lead.
And that was only the beginning of what turned into a suspense-filled night. Nicholas Latifi, who crashed his Williams in qualifying, repeated it on lap 16 to bring out a virtual safety car and, then, an actual safety car, which lasted for five laps. With a fine restart, Leclerc pulled ahead of Verstappen, who was now in second.
Then, on lap 36, Alpine’s Fernando Alonso and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo lost engine power, and neither driver could return to the pits, stopping just short. That outcome brought out the second safety car. It also had collateral impact on Hamilton, who started the race from 16th and worked his way into the top five. Still running on the same tires, Hamilton could not pit for a tire change because the pit lane was closed.
When the virtual safety car period ended, Leclerc and Verstappen battled tooth and nail with each driver losing and, then, regaining the lead. It finally went in Verstappen’s favor when he passed the Monegasque three laps from the end to take the checkered flag and win his first win of the year.
Max Verstappen: The middle bit (of the race) was just trying to stay with Charles without hurting the tires too much. Then the VSC (Virtual Safety Car) happened so the tires cooled down quite a bit and I started to fully push. It seemed like we had a good pace. That was why I could push up to Charles a little bit.
Verstappen’s victory was in stark contrast to last week when he retired from the Bahrain GP–a fate that befell five drivers in Jeddah. Latifi and Albion (Williams), Alonso (Alpine), Ricciardo (McLaren), and Bottas (Alfa Romeo) exited, while Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and Haas F1’s Mick Schumacher did not start the race, Tsunoda had drivetrain issues and Schumacher sat out because of Saturday’s qualifying accident.
Following two tough pre-tests and two consecutive races to begin the season, F1 will now take a two-week break. The season will continue April 7-10 at the Heineken Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne, Australia. It will be the sport’s first appearance in two years Down Under because of COVID-19 restrictions.
