Perez shines at Saudi in Red Bull 1-2

With one car capitalising from pole and the other recovering from the back half of the grid, Red Bull put on yet another dominant performance to secure their second 1-2 finish in a row under the floodlights in Jeddah.

After Max Verstappen prevailed in Bahrain, Sergio Perez stood on the top step in Saudi Arabia after a fine final stint, while George Russell was promoted to the podium after a post-race penalty to Fernando Alonso.

As the lights went out at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Alonso got off to a blistering start, cruising past Perez to claim the race lead into Turn 1.

Alonso’s adrenaline rush was temporary, however, when he was handed a 5-second penalty for incorrect starting location, with replays showing his Aston Martin far left in his grid box.

In the chaos of the opening few corners, Oscar Piastri lost a piece of bodywork, and after reporting of damage over the radio was forced to pit for a new front wing on the opening lap. One lap later, Lando Norris followed suit.

Carlos Sainz lost out to Lance Stroll on Lap 1, while his teammate, Charles Leclerc, capitalised on the pace of his Ferrari by moving up 3 places in the opening lap before finding himself in a tight battle with Pierre Gasly and Lewis Hamilton.

Not long after overtaking Gasly, Leclerc seemingly worked his way past Hamilton into P7.

By Lap 10, Verstappen had made up six positions to be running in P9. The Red Bull driver had an impressive start, having lined up out of position in P15 amongst the midfield cars, easily overtaking the likes of Valtteri Bottas, Kevin Magnussen and Zhou Guanyu.

On Lap 14, Stroll was the first to pit for new tyres after being baited over the Ferrari radio waves. The Aston Martin team opted to change from the medium tyre to the hard.

Two laps later, waiting proved beneficial for Sainz. His 2.7-second pitstop aided the Spaniard in overcutting Stroll, however, short-lived when the Canadian brought out the only Safety Car of the night.

Race leaders capitalised on the Safety Car, taking their free stop on Lap 18. The real winners under these conditions were Verstappen, who after pitting found himself ahead of both Ferraris in P4, and Alonso, who served his penalty with limited effect on his race.

The Safety Car ended on Lap 21 with the field getting away cleanly at the restart.

Hamilton passed Sainz for P5 after the Spaniard approached Turn 2 very deep, and immediately began distancing himself, being aided by his Medium tyres.

Meanwhile, his teammate, George Russell, lost out to the dominant pace of Verstappen.

After making up 15 places by the halfway mark, Verstappen swiftly made his way up to the rear wing of Alonso and breezed past the veteran down the main straight.

Brake failure cost Alex Albon his race, fortunately avoiding a Safety Car as he managed to retire to the pits on Lap 29.

Both Haas drivers found themselves on the fringe of the points, dropping in and out of DRS range from one another and battling with both Yuki Tsunoda ahead and Logan Sargeant behind for the final points position.

Red Bull remained in a league of their own. Perez maintained a 5-second lead over his teammate who had assumed a 9-second buffer over Alonso at Lap 33, however, at Lap 38 complaints started rolling in.

Verstappen jumped on his radio to report of a potential driveshaft issue, however, was reassured by his team of no issue despite it not settling in the cockpit. Perez reported of a long brake pedal, to which the team had a similar response.

Bottas was the first car to make a third tyre change, opting for the soft tyre despite already running down in last place and being lapped by the Red Bulls, while Zhou made moves on Sargeant to claim P13.

With 5 laps to go, the majority of battles across the field had settled, however, Sargeant, Norris and Piastri provided a long bout of entertainment while tussling for P15, ultimately seeing Piastri cross the line ahead of fellow rookie Sargeant and his teammate, respectively.

Managing issues and recovering from the back half of the grid, Red Bull crossed the line to claim their second 1-2 finish in a row under the floodlights in Jeddah, followed by Alonso who finished the Grand Prix in third.

Alonso, however, would not claim his 100th podium after it was deemed he did not serve his 5-second penalty correctly, promoting George Russell to third place.

Mercedes, despite taking their car down all week, managed to finish in P4 and P5, with Russell promoted post-race, directly ahead of both Ferraris and both Alpines, with Kevin Magnussen rounding out the points.

2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix results

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