With championship favorite Max Verstappen starting 12, Alonso and Russell breathing down Sergio Perez’s neck on the grid, and a packed midfield, the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix promised floodlit fireworks from the get-go. One safety car aside, however, the blast around Jeddah proved to be fairly underwhelming, with Redbull’s inevitable pace seeing both drivers rise to the front of the pack, VER and PER spending most of the race quibbling about whether they should be doing 32.4s or 33.0s to secure the one-two.
McLaren can’t catch a break
Aussie Rookie Oscar Piastri would have hoped to improve on his rough debut, which was cut short after just 15 laps in Bahrain. However, Piastri instead found Pierre Gasly getting far too familiar with his front wing endplate on lap one, which departed for the outer reaches of the track shortly after. Not, however, before it made a quick port of call under Lando Norris’ front end, causing enough damage to ensure McLaren had to change not one, but two front wings in the first two laps. The team finished 16th and 17th, with the only plus point being a bright race for Piastri, who more than held his own against Norris with strong pace and a higher classification.
All the time you have to miss the space
A driver was caught short for parking incorrectly in their pit box on the starting grid for the second time in two races. Inexplicably, Fernando Alonso landed well wide of his grid slot and was awarded a five-second penalty as a result. Despite this, he made a wonderful dive up the inside of Perez at the start but was caught a few laps later. Alonso held onto P3 despite his penalty thanks to a safety car, finishing plenty of time behind the Redbulls and comfortably ahead of Mercedes to take the 100th podium of his career. However, the stewards fancied another look at Alonso serving his penalty in the pits. After it was determined that Alonso’s rear jack touched the car too quickly, Alonso was awarded a 10-second penalty, his podium passing to George Russell.
Stop the car, Lance
After pitting onto the hard tyres on lap 15, Lance Stroll was hastily ordered to bring his car to a stop just three laps later, triggering a safety car and a cascade of pit stops. Big losers were the McLarens of Piastri and Norris, who had already pitted once. Norris opted to pit onto the mediums and caught back up to the pack, but midfield rivals including Tsunoda, Ocon, Albon, De Vries, Sargeant, and Zhou Guanyu all scored a free stop. Frontrunners Perez, Alonso, and Russell all dived into the pits, with Verstappen also making a tyre swap to the hards. Lewis Hamilton gambled onto the mediums and was able to take a place off Sainz shortly after the restart.
A hot knife through butter
Verstappen started P15 on the medium tyre, and by lap 13 he had already cooked his way up to 8th. By lap 23, he was up to P3, passing George Russell as if his car had an engine problem, shortly thereafter he was up to P2 and bearing down on his teammate Perez. The two held formation for the rest of the race, with Perez bringing home the bacon in P1 and Verstappen five seconds back in P2. The Dutchman did, however, nab the fastest lap of the race and a potentially crucial championship point with his final go-around of the day.
He can’t stop, and he won’t stop
While a promising race for Williams rookie Logan Seargant unfolded through the first half of the grand prix, Alex Albon was forced to retire at the midpoint with brake failure.
Wrong when it’s right
A largely anonymous race for Ferrari saw Leclerc climb from P12 into the top 7. A rare strategy masterclass from Ferrari saw the team overcut Lance Stroll with both cars prior to the Canadian’s retirement, only for the team to switch off under the safety car. Leclerc’s pit wall, sleeping, forgot to tell Leclerc to speed up between the safety car lines as Hamilton came into the pits. The boys in red finished in a distinctly underwhelming P6 and P7.
Honorable mentions
Valtteri Bottas brought home an absolute stinker in his Alfa Romeo, finishing 38 seconds adrift in P18
George Russell held up Lewis Hamilton, telling Mercedes they should take advantage of Alonso’s five-second penalty by chasing him down. When his engineer told him Alonso had already served the penalty he exclaimed “Oh bother!” - which was censored by Sky Sports for some reason.
Oscar Piastri completed the race, and finished ahead of teammate Lando Norris, on just one set of tyres, which he took on lap two and nursed home for 49 laps.
Final classification
PER
VER
ALO (Penalty)
RUS
HAM
SAI
LEC
OCO
GAS
MAG
TSU
HUL
ZHO
DEV
PIA
SAR
NOR
BOT
ALB (RET)
STR (RET)
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