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Sergio Pérez takes his second chance with F1 win in Saudi Arabia
A year after a victory went begging, Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Pérez won from pole in Jeddah, with Max Verstappen storming from 15th and making it a 1-2 for the team.
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You don't often get an opportunity to make amends for the one that got away, but in Sunday's second round of the 2023 season, the Mexican grabbed his second chance with both hands.
Perez's fifth F1 win was his fourth on street circuits (Azerbaijan 2021, Monaco and Singapore 2022), adding weight to his reputation as F1's foremost street fighter. While the Mexican's run to P1 was relatively smooth on the circuit nestled against the Red Sea, team-mate Max Verstappen's second place wasn't as plain sailing after a 15th-place start – but for the second time in 2023, the team finished under night skies with a 1-2 result.
Pérez's win was his 5th in F1, four of those coming on street tracks
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
With the Red Bull duo sitting pretty out front after Verstappen passed Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso for second place with 25 laps left, the late-race intrigue focused on which of the pair would lead the title race after two rounds, with one world championship point available for the driver who set the fastest race lap while finishing inside the top 10.
With both drivers reporting issues late in the race – Pérez a soft brake pedal, Verstappen with suspected driveshaft gremlins – it was the Dutchman who saved his best for last, a final lap of 1m 31.906s seeing him snaffle that final one point and lead the title chase by that number after two races.
For the second straight race, Alonso joined the Red Bull Racing pair on the podium, but the result wasn't confirmed until several hours afterwards. The Spanish veteran copped a post-race 10-second penalty for incorrectly serving a previous penalty at his first pit stop, dropping him to fourth behind Mercedes' George Russell, but had his podium reinstated after an investigation. It was a dramatic way for Alonso to bring up his 100th F1 rostrum.
Here's how a relatively tame – by Saudi Arabian GP standards – played out on the sweeping Jeddah streets on Sunday.
More on the reigning double F1 world champion
Checo checks the box
The record books will show Sergio Pérez started and finished first in Saudi Arabia, but this wasn't a win without its initial difficulties or late dramas.
The Mexican described the ageless Alonso as a "lion" after qualifying and the Spaniard roared as soon as the lights went out for the start, beating Pérez into the first corner to lead a race for the first time in over a decade. Soon after it became clear where some of that advantage had come from. Alonso was investigated and then penalized five seconds for not lining up in his grid slot correctly for the start.
Pérez didn't wait for the Aston Martin to serve the penalty, decisively pushing past Alonso into the first corner on Lap 4, and victory looked like his to lose until Lap 18, when Lance Stroll's Aston Martin crawled to a smoking halt at Turn 13 with brake failure.
Alonso denied Pérez off the line, but the Mexican soon pushed past
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
A safety car was called and Perez's heart must have skipped a beat after losing the lead in Jeddah 12 months previously when a similar stoppage saw him fall from first to fourth by an unfortunately-timed pit stop. This time, though, there were no such worries. The Mexican pitted from the lead with the field neutralized, kept it once racing resumed and won by a comfortable 5.355s, despite reporting some concerns with a "long" brake pedal as the laps counted down.
"It turned out to be tougher than expected," Pérez said of a Saudi Arabia race that featured only one safety car period; the previous pair of races in Jeddah had combined for eight safety car pauses.
"We really did a job in the first stint but that safety car – again – tried to take the victory out of us again in Jeddah, but not this time."
Pérez held the fastest race lap – and a chance to lead the world championship for the first time in a career that dates back to 2011 – until Verstappen's final flyer, but knows he has a car to fight for more prizes in the races ahead.
"The team did a fantastic job, they've worked so hard during the weekend," he said after leading for 47 of the 50 laps. "We had a lot of mechanical issues and these guys have been on top of that. So I'm really happy for them.
"We will keep pushing hard, and we were the fastest car out there today so I'm pleased for that."
Max makes the most of a weekend of curveballs
In a quiet moment, Max Verstappen will surely look back at his second place in Saudi Arabia as a case of making the most of a bad hand, as the second race of the season threw up one trip wire after another to knock him off balance.
Verstappen's difficulties started before he got to Jeddah, an early-week stomach bug delaying his arrival in Saudi Arabia until a day before the first practice sessions and he was then denied a shot at pole position after a driveshaft failure ended his qualifying in Q2. A 15th-place finish was scant reward for the prodigious pace that saw him lead all three practice sessions.
Starting on the medium-compound Pirelli tire to allow himself the maximum strategic flexibility, Verstappen played it safe at a track where chaos has been a constant since the maiden Saudi Arabian GP in 2021 and was well placed to strike after the mid-race safety car propelled him to second place after the pit stops had shaken out with 25 laps left. But animated discussions with the Red Bull Racing pit wall – Verstappen said he felt like the driveshaft issue was returning late in the race – saw him call off the fight to pursue Pérez, although he did have enough in reserve to snare fastest lap and retain the world championship lead at the death.
Verstappen pushed on the final tour to take fastest lap
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
"It wasn't very easy to get through the field," Verstappen said. "Through the first sector (of the circuit), trying to follow was difficult, a lot of sliding around. Once I cleared them one-by-one I got into a rhythm, so I'm very happy to be on the podium.
"Right to the finish … I was in second and we had a big gap to behind, so at one point we decided to call it a day and settle for second, which was a very good recovery. I gave it a go at the end, so luckily it worked out."
While second place is a less-than-ideal result for a two-time world champion, Verstappen did at least maintain his perfect podium record in Jeddah with three trophies from as many visits, while he also banished an unwelcome piece of history. He'd previously started from 15th on the grid only twice in his 165-race career before Sunday, with both races (Bahrain 2015 and Bahrain 2018) ending in retirements.
Tsunoda’s anguish, De Vries banks data
Scuderia AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda came agonisingly close to getting his 2023 points tally off the mark in Saudi Arabia. The Japanese driver was one of the big winners from the safety car stoppage on Lap 18, jumping into the top 10, before losing out in the shadows of the chequered flag.
Tsunoda fought tenaciously in the final laps with Haas driver Kevin Magnussen for the final world championship point on offer, eventually ceding the position at the first corner with four laps left and finishing a frustrating two seconds from the points in 11th.
Tsunoda battled ferociously with Magnussen in the final laps
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
De Vries started from 18th on his first visit to the daunting Jeddah Corniche Circuit, his pre-race acclimatization compromised when he missed all of the one-hour third practice session because of an engine change.
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Alonso's belated century celebrations
Fernando Alonso's spirited start and strong finish placed the Spaniard in elite company with 100 F1 podiums – only Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel, Alain Prost and Kimi Räikkönen have achieved the feat before. His start-line error was initially compounded by a second penalty when his Aston Martin team was deemed to have worked on his car before the five-second time penalty had elapsed in his pit stop, but a post-race investigation found that was not the case.
"I think today is not good for the fans, when you have 35 laps to apply a penalty and to inform about the penalty," Alonso mused afterwards.
"But I really enjoyed the podium. I had the trophy, I had pictures, I celebrated with the champagne."
Elsewhere, Ferrari's decision to start Charles Leclerc on soft tires for the opening stint of the race after the Monegasque was demoted 10 grid places for engine component changes didn't bear fruit. Leclerc finished seventh, one place and seven seconds behind team-mate Carlos Sainz.
Time to snap a Down Under drought?
Next up for the F1 travelling circus is one of the longest road trips of the year, to Melbourne for 26th world championship running of the Australian Grand Prix on April 2. Speaking of lengthy, it's been a long time between drinks for Red Bull Racing Down Under. Sebastian Vettel's 2011 victory was the last (and only) time the team has saluted from the top step of the Albert Park podium.
Verstappen made his debut in Australia (for Scuderia Toro Rosso in 2015) and has a podium with third in 2019, but Australia – along with Singapore – is one of two races that's been a permanent fixture on the calendar since his rookie season that he's been unable to win… yet. He retired while running in a strong second place a year ago.
Pérez – like so many others of this generation of drivers – debuted in Albert Park too, for Sauber way back in 2011. Last year's second place from third in the grid in Melbourne was the first of 11 podiums for the season, his strongest in F1 so far.
F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia results
Rank
Person
Team
Race time
Points
1
Oracle Red Bull Racing
1m 21s 14.894s
25
3
Fernando Alonso
Aston Martin
+20.728s
15
4
George Russell
Mercedes
+25.866s
12
5
Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes
+31.065s
10
6
Carlos Saniz Jr
Ferrari
+35.876s
8
7
Charles Leclerc
Ferrari
+43.162s
6
8
Esteban Ocon
Alpine
+32.832s
4
9
Pierre Gasly
Alpine
+54.747s
2
10
Kevin Magnussen
Haas
+ 1m 4.826s
1
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