Red Bull’s winning streak continues in Saudi Arabia. On the shores of the Red Sea, the Red Bulls followed up their dominant performance from Bahrain to record another commanding double victory at the Jeddah circuit. Sergio Pérez enjoyed the first place this time, who was joined by his teammate Max Verstappen on the second row. Third place was won by Fernando Alonso, but he subsequently lost it when the stewards awarded him a ten-second penalty. Third place was subsequently won by George Russell, but in fact only for a few hours. Aston Martin protested against the commissioners’ decision and succeeded.
After Verstappen’s problems in qualifying, which condemned him to start from fifteenth place, the Dutchman had a busy Sunday. However, what we basically knew was confirmed: The RB19 monopost has no competition in the paddock. Max Verstappen easily made his way to the front with a huge speed advantage, when he overtook his opponents especially on the straights.
The Dutchman would probably take second place himself, but as they say, luck favors the prepared. Verstappen was helped in the 17th lap by the exit of the safety car, which saved him valuable time during the stop in the fight with Ferrari and Esteban Ocon. In the laps after the restart, Verstappen got ahead of both George Russell and Fernando Alonso and was only chasing his teammate. In the end, Sergio Pérez kept his pace and did not allow Verstappen to get closer.
At the very end, Red Bull made their fans nervous with radios about potential problems. Max Verstappen complained about the drive shaft, Sergio Pérez about the soft brake pedal. The engineers of both reassured us that everything is fine with the data, and we did not notice any significant losses even in the times achieved. Red Bulls were consistently the fastest of the entire starting field.
They put a point behind this performance in the last laps, when Verstappen and Pérez started to fight for a point for the fastest lap of the race. In the end, it goes to Max Verstappen for a lap of 1:31.906.
Third place was won by Fernando Alonso, or that’s how it looked at first. The native of Oviedo got off to an excellent start and immediately got ahead of Sergio Pérez, but the marshals immediately began to investigate him for incorrect starting position. It turned out that the Spaniard was not standing in the center of his box, but shifted to the left. Starting this season, there are stricter rules for judging starts, and Aston Martin received a five-second penalty, as did Esteban Ocon in Bahrain. However, it did not change anything in the fight for victory; Sergio Pérez overtook Alonso after only a few laps. Alonso knew that his rivals had red and black cars.
The Spaniard held third place during the race and reported satisfaction with the tires several times on the radio. The fight with George Russell had a rather distant character. In the closing laps, George Russell was ordered to hold on to Fernando Alonso by less than five seconds, as the Spaniard could face an extra penalty after the race for incorrectly serving his start penalty.
Alonso ended up with a lead of 5.138 seconds over Mercedes, but even that wasn’t enough for him: the stewards added exactly ten seconds to his final time, which relegated him to fourth place. Replays showed that the mechanic with the rear jack touched the single-post too early, so the penalty was not served in accordance with the rules.
After the race, Aston Martin lodged a protest against the decision and demonstrated that touching the jack with the single-seater was not a violation of the rules — the British stable found seven other cases where mechanics touched the single-seater’s jacks and avoided punishment. Alonso first found himself on the podium, then he was carried off it, so that he could finally return to it.
The fourth and fifth places belong to Mercedes. George Russell drove a fairly straightforward race and Lewis Hamilton bet on a reverse strategy with a start on hard tires. The silver arrows couldn’t think of more today.
However, they beat the pair of Ferraris in sixth and seventh place. Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc didn’t have a chance at the exit of the safety car at all, as they passed just a short time before him under the green flags. Charles Leclerc had a chance to get ahead of Lewis Hamilton during the SC stage, but the engineer advised him late on that he should add on the home straight and only slow down in front of the Mercedes to meet the SC time delta.
Another team double in the results comes from France. Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly take four, respectively. two points for the eighth and ninth positions.
Kevin Magnussen from Haas rounds out the top ten. In the end, the Danish racer dealt with Júki Cunod, who shouted in disappointment on the radio, but was unable to get back into the game.
The McLarens had a disastrous start to the race. In the second corner, the front wing of Oscar Piastri was first damaged, colliding with Pierre Gasly, and a lap later Lando Norris also stopped at his mechanics. The British driver also changed the front wing, as he ran over the debris of his teammate. Both papaya cars lined up at the very tail of the starting field and tried to get higher for the rest of the grand prix, but without any hope of points.
Lance Stroll and Alex Albon withdrew from the race. With his withdrawal, Aston Martin caused the exit of the safety car, as the FIA systems announced that the Canadian was still on the track. Williams had to retire the single-seater due to brake problems. We are waiting for information from the green camp regarding the cause.
Results of the Saudi Arabia WC 2023:
