Perez was ahead until Round 16, when a flash of Ferrari engineers may have fired Red Bull into an early pit stop. This proved unfortunate. Williams’ Nicholas Latifi crashed in the final lap of the next lap and fired a VSC then Safety Car, with Leclerc, Verstappen and Sainz using capital. The Mexican was about to restart third in lap 21 when the Safety Car fell, but was found to have passed Sainz as the Spaniard exited the pits next to Red Bull during the scoring period, leaving the pole-sitter fourth. Another VSC appeared in lap 38 when McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo stopped at the exit of the pit, Alpine’s Fernando Alonso slowed down a lap earlier – and then stopped at the same spot as Ricciardo. By the time the VSC finished in lap 41, Verstappen was one second behind leader Leclerc – and now he was in the second round of their illustrious 2022 rivalry. With DRS, the Dutchman took the lead in the back straight in the 42nd lap, but Leclerc returned with DRS and kept the lead. Again in Round 43, Verstappen attempted a move, but locked it together with Ferrari in the final lap, with Ferrari holding the P1. A brief calm ensued and at the start of Round 47, before Verstappen ascertained that he had DRS and had won the lead over Leclerc, the league leader could not close it this time. Leclerc made the fastest lap with a second wind at the close – but Ferstappen kept him slightly away, removing the fear of a recent Sector 1 yellow flag (for Lance Stroll-Alex Albon coming together) to win by just 0.549 seconds. 1 Max Verstappen VER Red Bull Racing 1: 24: 19.293 25 2 Charles Leclerc LEC Ferrari + 0.549s 19 3 Carlos Sainz SAI Ferrari + 8.097s 15 4 Sergio Perez PER Red Bull Racing + 10.800s 3 US2 Georges27s. 10 George Russell took the P5 at the expense of Esteban Ocon, the Alpine driver who had lost to Mercedes in the 3rd lap and then fought with his teammate Alonso (DNF) in a thrilling battle early in the race. Ocon, who was left out of the race here for the P3 in 2021, kept McLaren’s Lando Norris away by a tenth of a second on the line in a drag race for the P6. Pierre Gasly scored a place in the P8 for AlphaTauri, with Kevin Magnussen’s Haas in ninth place from 10th on the grid and Lewis Hamilton – who was unlucky not to get into the pit during the second VSC – to get the last point from the start of P15. for Mercedes. Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu missed a second consecutive goal, conceding two penalties, the first for cutting a corner in an early scrap with Albon and the second for not executing the penalty properly when he put it in the pit. Stroll, Albon, Valtteri Bottas, Alonso and Ricciardo were the five drivers who did not fly the flag. Neither Mick Schumacher, who dropped out of the qualifiers, nor Yuki Tsunoda, whose AlphaTauri stopped with a technical problem in his lap on the grid, started the race. Click here to subscribe to F1 TV for improved match coverage, exclusive shows, video archiving and more
As it happened
Saudi Arabia’s second Grand Prix would never be a simple affair, given the tight constraints and high speeds of this demanding new city track. After the crash of Mick Schumacher in the 33G qualifiers, the paddock was relieved to have him back – even if he could not qualify for the Grand Prix. Yuki Tsunoda, who lost the qualifiers and was about to start 19th, stopped on his rounds on the grid with a suspicious problem in the drive system and climbed to end his participation early. Thus, 18 cars lined up on the grid, Sergio Perez in pole position for the first time in front of Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz (an electrical component in his car, which is believed to be a wiring loop that needs to be replaced before the race) and Max Verstappen shares the second row and Esteban Ocon leads George Russell from the third row. For the Scuderia, the lack of long-term training at the weekend made them compete in an unknown area. Kevin Magnussen (P10), Lewis Hamilton (P15) and Nico Hulkenberg (P17) were the only three drivers to start with hard tires, the rest with medium ones. The lights go out at 2000 local time and the second round of the race between Red Bull and Ferrari was in progress. Pereth pushed Leclerc out of the box, Verstappen led Saints for the P3 from turn 2 – while Okon held Russell back until the final corner fight in lap 3. ATTENTION: Watch the start of the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix as Perez leads away from the pole Later, Kevin Magnussen took the P9 from Pierre Gasly, who then lost another place to Lando Norris and Zhou Guanyu dropped to 17th place just ahead of Nicholas Latifi, with Lewis Hamilton finishing 14th. – but to complain about “no traction” in its hard composition. . Ocon had a difficult time in the main straight, almost forcing teammate Fernando Alonso into the obstacles at the beginning of Round 5. This sparked an intra-group battle for the P6 between the Alps, Alonso rushed to get through it, while the winner of the Hungarian Grand Prix of 2021 put his elbows until the start of the 7th round, when he finally gave up from turn 2. Ocon returned to the start of Round 8, passing Alonso off the track and giving way back – allowing Valtteri Bottas and Kevin Magnussen to board the train from the P9-P6, Bottas finally reached the P7 when Ocon told him to back off. his teammate. MUST SEE: Alpine Drivers Enjoy Heart-to-Heart Battle in Jeddah Sainz, meanwhile, began to lose touch with the top three, Perez created a gap in the lead, while Verstappen remained firm in third place as he lurked in Leclerc’s lap. Who would activate the undercut and open the pit window? Despite the sea of red in the pits, Red Bull dived first in the 16th round and put Perez in the box – changing from medium to hard – with the Mexican emerging fifth behind Russell. Fortune was not on Perez’s side as Nicholas Latifi, in the P18, then crashed on the last corner and pulled out a Virtual Safety Car – firing on opponents in the pit. The Safety Car soon appeared, with Leclerc driving Verstappen, Perez, Sainz and Russell on the train. Hamilton had made a steady rise, taking the P12 out of Stroll in the 10th lap and then the P11 out of Norris, with Gasly next as he reached the points until lap 15 without much trouble. The seven-time champion did not enter the pit during the Safety Car, pushing him to seventh place behind Magnussen (who also refused to enter the pit at the time) for the restart – which took place in lap 21 – with everyone now in the tough lineup. . In the 21st lap, Safety Car inside, Leclerc was dragged from the last corner and then quickly removed from Verstappen while Perez gave Pain to Sainz to avoid a penalty, the Mexican illegally passed a Sainz (coming out of the pits ) during the attention period. Hamilton tried to take the P6 from Magnussen in the final lap at the start of the 24th lap, but the Haas driver took the position again with DRS and with ease. The Briton did not make the same mistake next time, he kept the DRS to pass Magnussen in turn 1. Back at the front, Leclerc was just outside the DRS as the player approached the 30th lap of 50, but Verstappen began to pick up the pace – the Ferrari driver responded with his own turn to maintain the top four as was from the reboot. . Magnussen had not yet pitched in the 35th lap and lost the P7 to Alonso as a result, but shortly after that pass the Alpine driver slowed down. Did his car have a problem? “No power,” he replied in a radio message as an instruction to “cool the car” was delivered to the dashboard. Immediately after Alonso’s problem became apparent, Ricciardo was next to be cut, the McLaren driver stopped right at the entrance to the pit – then Bottas was taken to the pits with a problem for Alfa Romeo. The resulting VSC pushed Norris and Gasly to the top 10 and pushed the hard-core Magnussen and Hulkenberg into the pit. Hamilton was called too, but the call came too late. Alonso pushed the pit lane to close as he dragged and stopped at the entrance. “Are we in trouble or not?” asked Hamilton, who was circulating in P6 in the 39th round. He had a 13-second advantage on Ocon, but could not take advantage of it with the pit lane closed. The VSC finished in lap 41, with Hamilton coming in short for a new set of midfielders – with a slow stop – to finish 12th. Verstappen rushed under the VSC, his hard joints right in the window, and the Dutchman …
