F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix: Max Verstappen secures win by 0.5 seconds
27th March 2022Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took the race win in a thrilling Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as the Dutch world champion crossed the line five-tenths ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc!
Haas’ Mick Schumacher wasn’t taking part in the race after his hard crash in qualifying on Saturday. Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda was also another driver who wasn’t able to start the race after his engine cut out on him during his lap to the grid.
Only three drivers, Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Aston Martin’s Nico Hulkenberg were the only drivers to start the race on the hard, white-ringed, compound tyres while the remaining drivers were on the yellow-ringed medium compounds.
How the race unfolded…
It was a great start by Perez, who managed to keep hold of the lead of the race into the first corner, ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, while Verstappen was able to complete the move onto Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz on the exit of turn two.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, who had a poor qualifying performance, managed to make up a place on Williams’ Alexander Albon to place himself P14.
Mercedes’ George Russell moved up into fifth place after he made an impressive move into the apex of turn 27 on Alpine’s Esteban Ocon. The Briton also had the help of DRS to keep his W13 ahead of the Frenchman.
As the field went onto lap 4, Ocon and his teammate, Fernando Alonso, almost had a coming together on the pit straight as the French driver made a late move to defend his position. Fortunately, the two-time world champion was able to avoid a collision with his teammate.
Alonso finally got the move done on Ocon into turn one, on lap seven, but the French driver tried to regain his position from his Spanish teammate but the experienced world champion squeeze his teammate into turn two.
A lap later, Ocon tried a move into turn one – on Alonso, again – but the Frenchman left the track and rejoined ahead of his teammate. The #14 Alpine didn’t give the position until half a lap later.
Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou, on lap 13, was given a five-second time penalty after the Chinese driver had left the track and
On lap 14, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll was the first driver to venture into the pit lane to complete his mandatory pit stop as the Canadian swapped his medium tyres for the hard compound.
Out of the front runners, Ferrari ordered Leclerc into the pit lane with the ambition to box and overtake Perez. However, the Mexican Red Bull pitted before and the Ferrari Monegasque remained out on track.
However, as Leclerc was on his in-lap, the Williams of Nicholas Latifi found himself in the barrier on the exit of turn 27, on lap 16. As a result, the Virtual Safety Car was deployed before it was upgraded to a full safety car.
As Sainz returned to the track Perez was working his way around turns one and two and seemingly squeezed Sainz into the barrier. This was soon put under investigation by race control, on lap 19.
The safety car was finally recalled onto the pits on lap 20. After the marshals removed the crashed Williams, all 17 drivers were found to be on the hard compound tyres.
Leclerc tried his best to hold Verstappen off as he committed a very wide line on the entry into 27, he managed to catapult himself down the straight and retain the lead of the race. At the same time, Russell made a great move on Magnussen took P5 into turn one.
Hamilton, who started the race P16, made a move into turn 27 to take P6 away from Magnussen. However, the Danish driver was behind the #44 Mercedes before the DRS line and managed to blast his way past to regain his lost position. A lap later, Hamilton was able to make it stick after the seven-time world champion made a lunge on the Dane into turn one.
Zhou faced another investigation, on lap 26, for not serving his five-second time penalty he was given earlier on. As a result, he was given a drive through penalty.
On lap 33 of 50, Hamilton, Magnussen and Hulkenberg were still yet to pit while they were still running their worn hard tyres. The majority of the field had pitted, many completing their stops during the safety car period, and were on the hard compounds.
However, three laps later, Alonso was found travelling slowly in the first sector. The two-time world champion reported he had lost power, after a mechanical issue. Fortuantely, the Spaniard was able to limp his way around. On the same lap, McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo was slow on the exit of turn 27.
Both the Alpine and McLaren retired on the entry to the pit lane. As a result, the pit lane was closed to allow the track marshals to clear the stranded cars.
As the VSC ended, the pit lane was reopened and Hamilton had nine laps to regain all the positions he lost as the seven-time world champion dropped from P6 down to P12.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen made a move down the back straight, into turn 27 and gained the lead of the race. However, as Leclerc was behind the #1 Red Bull when they passed the DRS detection line, the Monegasque regained the position down the main straight.
Into the final corner, both drivers attempted to play DRS-chicken as they locked up on the entry of the final corner. With the wider line, Leclerc bolted around the corner and cleared a gap between himself and the defending world champion down the main straight.
With the help of DRS, Leclerc struggled to defend from Verstappen as the world champion took the lead of the race down the main straight.
There was a yellow flag waved down into turn one, as Albon made contact with Stroll. As a result, the last Williams driver was forced to retire after he suffered terminal damage to his front right tyre.
Despite Leclerc’s best efforts, Verstappen was able to keep the Monegasque Ferrari at bay to secure the win by five tenths of a second.
That’s it for the article: ‘F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix: Max Verstappen secures win by 0.5 seconds.’ However, after the Aramco attack this weekend and everything that followed, should this be the last race in Saudi Arabia? Let us know in the comments!
Read more Formula One here!
- F1 Saudi Arabia Qualifying: Sergio Perez on pole position for first time
- F1 Saudi Arabia FP3: Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc tops final practice
- F1: 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Preview
- F1 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix Qualifying: Charles Leclerc takes pole position
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