The Dutchman from Red Bull hit hard to score his first points of the season. He is ahead of the two Ferraris.
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Max Verstappen.
One everywhere: defending champion Max Verstappen (Red Bull) won the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia on Sunday, the second round of the season, ahead of Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), winner of the inaugural event.
Attack, counter-attack and so on… the duo, who are emerging as favorites in 2022, put on a great show battling for victory in the last eight laps, like during the Bahrain GP last week.
The Spaniard Carlos Sainz Jr (Ferrari) completes the podium, also benefiting from the renewed form of the Ferraris thanks to the change in technical regulations this year. In a decidedly disappointing start to the season for Mercedes, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, 15th on the grid after poor qualifying, just entered the points, in 10th place overall.
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Intense fight between Red Bull and Ferrari in Saudi Arabia.
Poleman Sergio Pérez only finished 4th on the Jeddah circuit. At the head of the race, the Mexican of Red Bull was unlucky by stopping to change tires just before an accident of the Canadian Nicholas Latifi (Williams) which caused the exit of the safety car. His pursuers took advantage of the “free” pit stop offered by this “safety car” to overtake him.
The second Mercedes of Briton George Russell, finally, closes the Top 5, ahead of the French Esteban Ocon (Alpine) 6th and Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri) 8th, only separated by the Englishman Lando Norris (McLaren) 7th.
Controversy
Qualifying Saturday was marked by a violent accident suffered by Mick Schumacher (Haas), package Sunday. However, his state of health is not the cause. The 23-year-old German assured that he was “ready to race” but his team preferred not to urgently rebuild his disintegrated single-seater and keep spare parts for the next race, the Australian GP on 10 April.
Already controversial due to the dangerousness of the track and above all the human rights violations in the country, the Saudi Arabian GP, added to the F1 calendar in 2021, is now also in question for security reasons. This weekend’s event was indeed maintained despite the attack on an oil depot located a dozen kilometers from the circuit by Houthi rebels from neighboring Yemen on Friday.
Worried for the safety of the participants, the pilots debated this decision for more than four hours in the night from Friday to Saturday, before lining up behind the position of the organizers and their team bosses.
“We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t think it was fair,” Russell said later, on behalf of the drivers’ union (the Grand Prix Drivers Association, GPDA). Obviously there will be things to clarify after this weekend about what we are going to do next, but, from what I understand, everything was under control in this specific region.
“Of course, there are tensions, things to improve. We don’t want to be political about it, but I think we play a very important role in the modernization of this country. We’re making sure it’s on our agenda,” F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said.