Max wins a thrilling Saudi GP, Ferrari complete the podium as 5 cars retire

Max Verstappen outsmarted the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc in an exciting race under the lights. In a race that involved a load of car retirements due to issues, we saw the AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda retire before his car even got to the grid. Mexican pole-sitter Sergio Perez started the race strong but finished P4 at the Formula 1 Saudi Arabia Grand Prix 2022

 

 

FINAL STANDINGS FORMULA 1 SAUDI ARABIA GRAND PRIX 2022

 

1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT

2 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI

3 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI

4 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT

5 63 George Russell MERCEDES

6 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT

7 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES

8 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI RBPT

9 20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI

10 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES

11 24 Zhou Guanyu ALFA ROMEO FERRARI

12 27 Nico Hulkenberg ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES

13 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES

14 23 Alexander Albon WILLIAMS MERCEDES

NC 77 Valtteri Bottas ALFA ROMEO FERRARI

NC 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT

NC 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES

NC 6 Nicholas Latifi WILLIAMS MERCEDES

NC 22 Yuki Tsunoda ALPHATAURI RBPT

Perez Started Strong

This was the first time that Redbull driver Sergio Perez qualified at the top of the timesheets in the 215 races that he participated in. This meant that the Mexican driver started the race at P1, and he did not disappoint. He got off to a brilliant start as the Redbull car tore up the street circuit. By lap 15 he had a lead of 2.5 seconds to Charles Leclerc. 

 

The Alpine Battle

A strong battle that raged during the initial laps of the Grand Prix was by Teammates Fernando Alonso and Estaban Ocon. Both the Alpine drivers were going at it brilliantly, with the duo swapping places constantly at every possible turn. Team Boss Otmar Szafnauer  said that the team did not give the drivers any instructions, but rather they let them race for a few laps before getting involved. However, there was trouble in store for Alonso as his car lost power in lap 36 and the veteran was forced to retire.

The Alpine twitter admin had a hard time with all the overtaking

Lap 8/50

Esteban in P6, Fernando P7. 😅#SaudiArabianGP https://t.co/oQHzvLtjws

— BWT Alpine F1 Team (@AlpineF1Team) March 27, 2022

 

Latifi Crash

The Formula 1 Safety car was deployed on track during lap 16 when Nicholas Latifi found himself in the barriers and was thankfully uninjured, but this caused a shuffle in the standings.
Sergio Perez, who was at P1, found himself in P4 after Latifi called in the Safety Car AFTER Perez went in and changed his tyres. This meant that the top 3 were Leclerc, Verstappen and Sainz.

 

To Red Bull:

Latifi giveth
Latifi taketh away

— Tommo (@TwommoF1) March 27, 2022

Under the safety car, Lewis Hamilton climbed to P7. The Mercedes Driver was one of the gamblers who started the race on the harder compound tyre as he hoped it would require him to pit fewer times than his rivals. Hamilton finished the race in an impressive P10 as he looked to be in damage limitation mode during this race. His teammate George Russell secured the P5 finish, behind Serio Perez.

 

Double Retirement 

The Jeddah Corniche race track is one of the few ‘Street Circuits’ on the calendar. These race circuits are much more narrow than your conventional racetracks, which feature large runoff areas.This causes the race director to call out the safety Car or Virtual Safety Car as the marshals are on the track removing the damaged car, while the other cars continue running the race.
Which is exactly what happened with the double retirements of Alonso and McLaren’s Daniel Riccardo.
The Australian driver reported over the radio that his car had ‘ No drive’ and he parked his car on the track during lap 37. This was yet another disappointing race for the former Redbull driver as he failed to impress in Bahrain as well. His teammate Lando Norris however impressed everyone with a mighty P7 finish for a race where he started P11.

 

Daniel has an issue triggering a VSC.

Gutted for you, DR.

[Lap 38/50]

— McLaren (@McLarenF1) March 27, 2022

Super Max 

When the flags went green once again and the safety car disappeared into the pits, there was a race that everyone was waiting for . The Current World Champion Max Verstappen was hot on the tail of Charles Leclerc. From lap 41 onwards, the duo battled it out gloriously. The drivers swapped places throughout the lap with Charles Leclerc constantly getting the better of Max Verstappen at the end of the DRS zones. 

However, Max patiently waited for his turn and finally came out on top at the end of lap 47 as he saw the chequered flag to take home his first victory of the season. This came after a truly disappointing start to the season where his car was retired in the last laps of the race.

Following an intense battle, Charles Leclerc said “It wasn’t enough today, but oh my god, I really enjoyed that race! It’s hard racing but it’s fair, every race should be like this. It was fun, I’m obviously disappointed, I wanted to win today”. 

 

The Saudi Arabia Grand Prix delivered Formula 1 ‘s promise of closer wheel racing. Throughout the night we saw drivers fight back when they were overtaken, a welcome sight after what we were used to from the Turbo Hybrid Era. Viewers were in for an assortment of battles right from Max vs Leclerc, Two pink Panthers of Ocon vs Alonso to the most unexpected Magnussen vs Hamilton. In the end, the HAAS Driver won that battle and finished in P9 above Hamilton in P 10 

Drivers Championship after the Saudi Arabia Formula 1 Grand Prix 2022

1 Charles Leclerc MON FERRARI 45

2 Carlos Sainz ESP FERRARI 33

3 Max Verstappen NED RED BULL RACING RBPT 25

4 George Russell GBR MERCEDES 22

5 Lewis Hamilton GBR MERCEDES 16

6 Esteban Ocon FRA ALPINE RENAULT 14

7 Sergio Perez MEX RED BULL RACING RBPT 12

8 Kevin Magnussen DEN HAAS FERRARI 12

9 Valtteri Bottas FIN ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 8

10 Lando Norris GBR MCLAREN MERCEDES 6

 

The F1 circus now travels to Australia. However the teams have 2 weeks to prepare for the race as the action continues on the 8th of April,