The Dutchman won the second race of the season in Saudi Arabia on Sunday ahead of the Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull, which started from pole position, was fourth on Sunday. The Monegasse Leclerc retained the lead in the World Cup. Fifth was George Russell in the Mercedes, his teammate Lewis Hamilton was tenth.
Verstappen and Leclerc kept the tension high in Jeddah until the last lap, at the finish there were a few overtaking maneuvers and immediate counterattacks. “We fought hard up front. It was very difficult. I’m really happy that we started the season with a kick start,” said Verstappen, who celebrated his 21st career win. “I’m a bit disappointed,” said Leclerc.
Verstappen took third place from Sainz at the start, after that there were no position changes at the top for a long time. In midfield, however, things got down to business: Fernando Alonso and his Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon fought – much to the annoyance of their superiors in the pits – a tough stable duel, Valtteri Bottas in the Alfa Romeo and Kevin Magnussen in the Haas got involved in the fight. Hamilton, who started from 15th place, found it difficult to keep up with the pace of the people in front in his Mercedes.
Pole-sitter Perez was the first of the leading quartet to change tires at the start of lap 16, just as Williams driver Nicholas Latifi had an accident. The safety car was used, which almost everyone used for their first pit stop. Not so Hamilton and Nico Hülkenberg, who already had the Hart compound at the start. Sainz was illegally overtaken by Perez when exiting the pit lane, but at the restart of the race the Mexican fairly gave third place back to the Spaniard.
Hamilton meanwhile worked his way up to sixth place, the duel was now Leclerc against Verstappen again. However, the Dutchman did not come that close to the Ferrari hopefuls for the time being. After the retirements of Alonso and Daniel Ricciardo, the virtual safety car was activated again in the final phase. Verstappen then overtook Leclerc with DRS support, but Leclerc immediately took the lead again. The battle continued until the checkered flag. Four laps before the end, Verstappen took the lead and never relinquished it.
AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda’s car stopped on the installation lap due to a problem with the oil pressure in his drive. Mick Schumacher was pulled out of traffic by the Haas team as a precautionary measure on Saturday after his qualifying accident.
The third World Championship round of the year will take place in Melbourne on Australia’s southeast coast in two weeks.
Source: Nachrichten
