Defending champion Max Verstappen held off his old go-kart rival and last week’s winner Charles Leclerc to win the Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Sunday. Verstappen made up for a fuel pressure issue that afflicted both Red Bull cars and forced him to withdraw from the season-opener in Bahrain with a win in the second race of the F1 season.
Racing was competitive all day, and 0.549 was the closest winning margin since the 2020 Italian Grand Prix. The race came down to the final straight of the final lap, with the Ferrari just unable to reach the Red Bull despite a DRS advantage.
“Yeah, it was really tough, but a good race, we were battling hard in the front. Just start to play the long game, I just tried to get by. It wasn’t easy, but I just managed to get him, really happy that we just finally kickstarted the season.” Verstappen said.
He was complimentary of the style of racing the new cars provide, too. “It seems like once you get quite close you actually can have a good exit, and it’s a lot harder to plan your pass.”
Runner-up Charles Leclerc said, “It wasn’t enough today, but I really enjoyed that race. Again, it’s hard racing but fair. Every race is probably like this. I wanted to win today. We put more downforce so it was extremely difficult to cover Max in the straights, but he did a great job.” Leclerc maintains the championship lead after Sunday’s race.
He also spoke to his respect for Verstappen, who he congratulated on the radio and gave a thumbs-up to after crossing the line: “It’s always been there, especially when you finish a race like this. We’ve been pushing to the absolute limit, so of course there’s respect, but still of course disappointed.”
Carlos Sainz put multiple Ferraris on the podium. He also commented that “the Red Bulls were super quick in the last ten laps, they were flying and they were putting pressure on us.” But he focused on his improvement with the new car: “For me this race was a bit of progress from Bahrain.” He said he’s “getting there.”
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez finished fourth. After scoring the pole, a poorly-timed pit stop before a virtual safety car lost him the lead. Mercedes’ George Russell rounded out the top five, while his teammate Lewis Hamilton barely scored any points in tenth.
Cars throughout the field were afflicted with problems throughout the race. Yuki Tsunoda failed to start altogether, while Nicholas Latifi hit the wall to bring out the yellow. Daniel Ricciardo, Fernando Alonso, Valterri Bottas, and Alex Albon all failed to finish with mechanical problems throughout the race.
F1 2022 Saudi Arabian GP Results (.pdf)
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