Saudi Arabian Grand Prix – Max Verstappen wins the race with ingenuity

This second Grand Prix of the season was already in trouble for Tsunoda’s car, which couldn’t start due to a problem during its warm-up lap. As for Mick Schumacher, he also couldn’t start following his accident in qualifying the day before, so only 18 cars took the start this Sunday.

The departure

The start in this urban circuit was very clean and resulted in almost no incidents, except for a minor collision with Zhou’s Alfa Romeo, which will incur a 5-second penalty during his pit stop.

At the front of the race, no change in position is to be reported except for Russell taking the lead over Ocon on the 3rd lap.

A few laps later, it’s Verstappen who manages to gain the upper hand over Sainz’s Ferrari and secure third place.

Battles between Alpine

Ocon is somewhat struggling during the early laps, and once he is overtaken by George Russell’s Mercedes, Fernando Alonso comes back on him. Between lap 6 and lap 14, the two drivers engage in several battles, overtaking and re-overtaking each other multiple times, making the entire French team’s personnel sweat. In addition to losing time to Russell who is pulling away, even Valtteri Bottas manages to threaten Ocon. Although the spectacle is beautiful, one wonders if it has any significance for the team in terms of points. Otmar Sfaznauer, at the helm of the Alpine team, must ask the drivers to maintain their positions. This reminds us of the battles between Ocon and Perez when they were in the pink Racing Point team…

Pérez goes to the pit stop.

Sergio Perez is the first driver to pit under pressure from both Ferraris and his Red Bull teammate.

Safety car at lap 20.

It is Williams driver Nicholas Latifi who makes the mistake and causes the entry of the safety car!

It’s a crucial moment in the race since Perez has already been through the pit stops, and the drivers behind him can now benefit from a less time-consuming pit stop.

Almost all drivers went through the pits to change tires and put on hard tires, except for Lewis Hamilton, Kevin Magnussen, and Nico Hülkenberg.

At this precise moment of the Grand Prix, Perez has just lost the lead of the race and won’t even step on the podium. Bad luck, you say?

13 last unpredictable turns.

Finally, it was in the last few laps of the race that the final result of this Grand Prix was decided. The reliability of several cars unexpectedly failed almost simultaneously for three different drivers: Alonso, Ricciardo, and Bottas.

These retirements cause the entry of a virtual safety car. Max Verstappen takes advantage of this to get closer to Charles Leclerc, having warmed up his tires a little bit better.

Verstappen manages to gain the upper hand over Leclerc, who immediately overtakes him on the next straight.

Due to the DRS zones and the aerodynamic advantage gained by lowering the rear wing by several kilometers/hour, both drivers do not want to cross the DRS detection line first. Leclerc knows that Verstappen would have an advantage on the straight and therefore decides to ease off the throttle. Verstappen also doesn’t want to pass and both drivers brake abruptly to avoid being the one without DRS.

In this little game, Charles Leclerc wins the second round on lap 46. However, in the following lap, Verstappen, in all his ingenuity, decides not to activate his DRS on the first straight in order to not get too close to Charles Leclerc and not overtake him in the next straight’s DRS detection zone. He manages to get close enough to overtake Charles Leclerc on the next straight and take the lead. If Charles Leclerc stays close and if the suspense continues, an event changes everything: the yellow flags caused by Albon’s accident with Williams. The Thai driver attempted an overtake on Stroll which resulted in his retirement.

Leclerc, always very close, fails to activate his DRS and it is Max Verstappen who therefore wins the Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia 2022. He thus scores his first points this season. Charles Leclerc finishes ahead of his teammate at Ferrari, and Sergio Perez, who had secured pole position, finishes 4th.

Mercedes saves the furniture with George Russell in 5th position ahead of Esteban Ocon’s Alpine. Kevin Magnussen, Pierre Gasly, and Lewis Hamilton complete the top 10 and score points.

Note that only 13 single-seaters have finished this Grand Prix, which happened last time in Hungary and is rare enough to be pointed out.

Results of the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix 2022