Round 2/24: Review of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Race

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Max Verstappen won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix for his 56th and 9th consecutive race win along with his 100th podium while Red Bull racing surpassed the tally of Williams for 115 Grand Prix wins in total. Sergio Perez finished P2 behind his teammate while Charles Leclerc finished P3 and managed to get the fastest lap of the race. Oscar Piastri in the McLaren finished P4 ahead of Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin.

The strategy for the race was clear with a one-stopper being the fastest option employing the Mediums and Hards. Most of the grid started on the mediums while Oliver Bearman and Valtteri Bottas started on the softs. Ferrari probably chose softs for Bearman to improve the grip and his confidence around the track. Pierre Gasly had a gearbox failure as he retired on the formation lap while Lance Stroll crashed on lap 6 bringing in the safety car and a series of early pitstops.

At the start of the race, Verstappen managed to get away quickly while Leclerc and Perez fought for P2 out of turn 1. Perez led initially but Leclerc managed to clinch the position back. However, the joy was short-lived as Perez was much quicker and could overtake Leclerc in lap 4. Behind them, Piastri managed to overtake Alonso at the start while Lando Norris got himself involved in a suspected jump start. Stewards however decided in favor of Norris and he got away with a penalty.

Bearman in just his first race impressed with a fine performance as he finished in P7 ahead of a chasing Norris and the seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. The Brit managed to win the driver of the day award as he was composed and methodical throughout the race. Initially, the fight for the Ferrari reserve driver was with Yuki Tsunoda for P10 but once he overtook him and Stroll crashed, it was pretty smooth sailing for him as he could run his own race. The only challenge was to overtake the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg who had not pitted during the safety car, and he managed it with a clean move.

Kevin Magnussen in the second Haas had a terrible day out with the stewards as he was penalised heavily for two incidents. First, he was involved in a mishap against Alexander Albon where the drivers touched in a heated battle while later he overtook Tsunoda and went out of the race track for a moment. Both incidents earned him 10 seconds each and that compromised his race. However, Haas played it well to back up Esteban Ocon, Albon, and Tsunoda away from Hulkenberg which in the end resulted in a point for the team. With points being extremely rare for the midfield teams with the top 5 pretty much stable, every point would mean positions later in the year.

For the leaders, it was pretty smooth sailing as neither troubled the others except for Perez receiving a 5-second penalty for unsafe release during his pitstop. Piastri on the other hand had issues overtaking Hamilton for the majority of his stint as the McLaren lacked straight-line speed. There were multiple attempts made by Piastri but each time he failed either locking up or overshooting the corner and had to give back the place to Hamilton. In the end, Hamilton had to pit for his mandatory stop and that got Piastri his position back.

The Mercedes were pretty poor this weekend as Aston Martin and McLaren proved to be much more efficient around the track. George Russell was the lead driver as he finished P6 behind Alonso while Hamilton finished P9 behind Norris. Ocon made gains in positions but it was not sufficient to get into points territory while Daniel Ricciardo and Tsunoda were poor in the race as neither could come close to a possible points finish. Sauber on the other hand finished P17 and P18 with a pretty poor pitstop for Zhou Guyanu at the end.

POS DRIVER CAR TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 01:20:43 25
2 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT +13.643s 18
3 Charles Leclerc FERRARI +18.639s 16
4 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES +32.007s 12
5 Fernando Alonso ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES +35.759s 10
6 George Russell MERCEDES +39.936s 8
7 Oliver Bearman FERRARI +42.679s 6
8 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES +45.708s 4
9 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES +47.391s 2
10 Nico Hulkenberg HAAS FERRARI +76.996s 1
11 Alexander Albon WILLIAMS MERCEDES +88.354s 0
12 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI +105.737s 0
13 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT +1 lap 0
14 Yuki Tsunoda RB HONDA RBPT +1 lap 0
15 Logan Sargeant WILLIAMS MERCEDES +1 lap 0
16 Daniel Ricciardo RB HONDA RBPT +1 lap 0
17 Valtteri Bottas KICK SAUBER FERRARI +1 lap 0
18 Zhou Guanyu KICK SAUBER FERRARI +1 lap 0
NC Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES DNF 0
NC Pierre Gasly ALPINE RENAULT DNF 0

References

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