+ A
A -
dpa
Munich
Formula One world champion Max Verstappen won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Sunday in a fascinating duel with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc at the Jeddah Corniche street circuit.
Verstappen bounced back from Red Bull’s disastrous double did not finish in Bahrain last weekend with a decisive pass on his rival on the 47th of 50 high-speed laps through the tight streets.
There was only one full safety car, caused by Nicholas Latifi crashing his Williams, on lap 17 and this ended the hopes of pole sitter Sergio Perez - who had pitted his Red Bull a lap previously.
“Especially in this place we knew we could be in that situation,” the Mexican said. “It is racing, it will come for me.”
Leclerc, Verstappen and Carlos Sainz in the other Ferrari moved up with later stops as a result but a pair of cars losing power late on caused a virtual safety car and set up an eight-lap sprint finish.
Verstappen held off a final lap charge to kick-start his title defence though Leclerc did bag the fastest lap bonus point. Sainz took third ahead of Perez while Lewis Hamilton moved his Mercedes into 10th from his lowly start position of 15th.
“It was a really tough race but a good race,” said Verstappen. We were both battling hard at the front.
“They were really quick through corners and we were really quick on the straight.
“I tried to get by, it wasn’t easy, they were playing smart tricks in the last corner, but eventually I managed to get ahead.”
After the drama of Friday, when action took place against the backdrop of a missle attack against an oil depot some 20 kilometres away from the track, with Yemen’s Houthi rebels claiming responsibility, the only incidents were inside the circuit.
Mick Schumacher did not start his Haas after a massive qualifying crash and Yuki Tsunoda’s Alpha Tauri lost power in the warm-up.
Perez was defending his first career F1 pole in 215 attempts and did superbly until being undone through no fault of his own but Latifi’s crash.
Hamilton had fought up to sixth having not pitted but his hopes of a miraculous turnaround ended when he missed a narrow window to box when Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren then Fernando Alonso’s Alpine stopped at the pit entry on laps 37 and 38.
When racing resumed Verstappen was right behind Leclerc and, as with last week, the pair exchanged places in a nip and tuck battle before the Dutchman finally emerged on top.
Leclerc scarcely slowed under yellow flags for Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin and Alex Albon’s Williams colliding but he could not recover.
“It was not enough today,” he said. “I really enjoyed that race, it was hard racing but fair.
“We were quite quick in the corner, but slow in straights. It was extremely difficult for me to cover Max in the straight. Max did a great job, it was a fun race.” George Russell (Mercedes), Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Lando Norris (McLaren), Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri) and Kevin Magnussen (Haas) also finished in the points ahead of Hamilton.
“Not much has changed since the last race but it has only been a few days,” said the Mercedes man. “I couldn’t keep up with the Haas at the end. We have a lot of work to do for sure but I have a great team.”
Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo) and Nico Hülkenberg, again deputizing for the coronavirus-infected Sebastian Vettel for Aston Martin, were 11th and 12th ahead of Stroll while Valtteri Bottas was another who failed to finish when his Alfa lost power.
The next race is the Australian Grand Prix on April 10.
Leclerc will start in Melbourne atop the standings on 45 points with Sainz on 33 and Verstappen on 25 while Hamilton, chasing a record eighth title, has only 16.
Munich
Formula One world champion Max Verstappen won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Sunday in a fascinating duel with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc at the Jeddah Corniche street circuit.
Verstappen bounced back from Red Bull’s disastrous double did not finish in Bahrain last weekend with a decisive pass on his rival on the 47th of 50 high-speed laps through the tight streets.
There was only one full safety car, caused by Nicholas Latifi crashing his Williams, on lap 17 and this ended the hopes of pole sitter Sergio Perez - who had pitted his Red Bull a lap previously.
“Especially in this place we knew we could be in that situation,” the Mexican said. “It is racing, it will come for me.”
Leclerc, Verstappen and Carlos Sainz in the other Ferrari moved up with later stops as a result but a pair of cars losing power late on caused a virtual safety car and set up an eight-lap sprint finish.
Verstappen held off a final lap charge to kick-start his title defence though Leclerc did bag the fastest lap bonus point. Sainz took third ahead of Perez while Lewis Hamilton moved his Mercedes into 10th from his lowly start position of 15th.
“It was a really tough race but a good race,” said Verstappen. We were both battling hard at the front.
“They were really quick through corners and we were really quick on the straight.
“I tried to get by, it wasn’t easy, they were playing smart tricks in the last corner, but eventually I managed to get ahead.”
After the drama of Friday, when action took place against the backdrop of a missle attack against an oil depot some 20 kilometres away from the track, with Yemen’s Houthi rebels claiming responsibility, the only incidents were inside the circuit.
Mick Schumacher did not start his Haas after a massive qualifying crash and Yuki Tsunoda’s Alpha Tauri lost power in the warm-up.
Perez was defending his first career F1 pole in 215 attempts and did superbly until being undone through no fault of his own but Latifi’s crash.
Hamilton had fought up to sixth having not pitted but his hopes of a miraculous turnaround ended when he missed a narrow window to box when Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren then Fernando Alonso’s Alpine stopped at the pit entry on laps 37 and 38.
When racing resumed Verstappen was right behind Leclerc and, as with last week, the pair exchanged places in a nip and tuck battle before the Dutchman finally emerged on top.
Leclerc scarcely slowed under yellow flags for Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin and Alex Albon’s Williams colliding but he could not recover.
“It was not enough today,” he said. “I really enjoyed that race, it was hard racing but fair.
“We were quite quick in the corner, but slow in straights. It was extremely difficult for me to cover Max in the straight. Max did a great job, it was a fun race.” George Russell (Mercedes), Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Lando Norris (McLaren), Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri) and Kevin Magnussen (Haas) also finished in the points ahead of Hamilton.
“Not much has changed since the last race but it has only been a few days,” said the Mercedes man. “I couldn’t keep up with the Haas at the end. We have a lot of work to do for sure but I have a great team.”
Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo) and Nico Hülkenberg, again deputizing for the coronavirus-infected Sebastian Vettel for Aston Martin, were 11th and 12th ahead of Stroll while Valtteri Bottas was another who failed to finish when his Alfa lost power.
The next race is the Australian Grand Prix on April 10.
Leclerc will start in Melbourne atop the standings on 45 points with Sainz on 33 and Verstappen on 25 while Hamilton, chasing a record eighth title, has only 16.
