Saudi Arabia Race Reaction
Image: Red Bull Content Pool
The second round of a very long season proved enthralling under the lights of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit as Sergio Pérez took his fifth career victory and Red Bull’s second so far in 2023.
Let’s take a look at some of the key moments of the Saudi Arabian GP:
Pérez wins for the 5th time
Qualifying on pole, Checo drove to a commanding victory, despite his lead being stolen by Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso at the first corner.
Starting on the medium compound tyre, the Mexican made his one and only pit stop under the safety car of lap 19, having fresh hard tyres fitted. Ever the tyre-whisperer, Pérez made those white-rimmed pieces of rubber last the remaining 30 laps, even managing a few fastest laps as the grip began to fade away.
Verstappen’s incredible recovery drive
After encountering a driveshaft issue in Q2 of qualifying on Saturday evening, the Dutchman found himself starting in P15 for Sunday’s main event. This proved to be no problem whatsoever for the Red Bull star, cutting through the field and - by only lap 24 - found himself running in P2, second only to his colleague Pérez.
In the latter half of the race, on lap 38, Verstappen was heard complaining of a “weird” high-pitched noise coming from his RB19 over the radio. He claimed to his engineers that this noise only occurred at high speeds - worrying for the team, as you can imagine, as roughly 80% of a lap around the circuit is spent at full throttle, in either seventh or eighth gear.
Eventually, though, Max’s car held up and he closed out the race P2, looking and sounding rather dissatisfied in post-race interviews, stating: “I am not here to finish second”.
Alonso’s 100th podium drama
Only dropping down one position in the race’s 50 long laps, Fernando once again proved that age is just a number in this sport. The soon-to-be 42 year-old kept good pace throughout the GP, persistently holding both Mercedes Brits behind lap after lap.
On only lap 2, the Aston Martin driver was awarded a five-second penalty for incorrect starting position on the grid.
Image: @123pnz on Twitter
As you can see above, Fernando’s AMR23 is a good foot or two too far to the left of the allocated grid slot. This indeed is a rookie mistake, despite the fact that Alonso would’ve perhaps done this to get just that bit closer to the apex of Turn 1 in order to overtake pole-sitter Pérez.
Interestingly, fans on social media are calling for a re-think from the FIA as, just visible on the photo, it appears as though Williams’ Logan Sargeant and Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas have made the same infringement as Alonso, yet they were not penalised.
The penalty drama continued as Alonso later was slated to receive another penalty for serving his 5-second penalty during his pit stop incorrectly, this time for 10 seconds.
The issue with the pit stop was that one of the mechanics operating the rear jack was supposedly touching the car with the jack before Alonso’s five seconds were up. This temporarily stripped the Spaniard of his 100th career podium and granted George Russell a third-place finish.
The FIA later reversed this decision after questions were raised over whether article 54.4 c of the FIA regulations had been infringed or not. An FIA statement claimed: “there was no clear agreement … that could be relied upon to determine that parties had agreed that a jack touching a car would amount to working on the car”.
Fernando therefore had his podium finish reinstated, much to the delight of fans and Aston Martin themselves.
Conclusion
So, to wrap it up, what have we learned from the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix?
Red Bull are as quick as ever, with both drivers looking very strong for the season ahead. Reliability and clashes between drivers may be a looming possibility, however - watch this space.
Aston Martin had a great result in Fernando, though they’ll want to look into fixing the cause of Lance Stroll’s DNF. The team will likely remain fervently on the FIA’s heels if more poor decisions are made by the regulatory body.
The Mercedes boys had a much better race than was expected - only time will tell whether team boss Toto Wolff’s claims regarding upgrade packages will come to fruition.
Ferrari’s race was decidedly mediocre, with Sainz and Leclerc finishing 6th and 7th respectively. This is a result that the Maranello outfit definitely wouldn’t have found ideal, despite a double points finish. Can Ferrari catch up R&D-wise in good time?
So, it’s all eyes forward for the Australian GP in Albert Park in two weeks’ time - we’ll be covering it here on Race Reaction.Read below the final race results:
1st - Sergio Pérez (MEX) - 25pts
2nd - Max Verstappen (NED) - 19pts (FL)
3rd - Fernando Alonso (ESP) - 15pts
4th - George Russell (GBR) - 12pts
5th - Lewis Hamilton (GBR) - 10pts
6th - Carlos Sainz (ESP) - 8pts
7th - Charles Leclerc (MCO) - 6pts
8th - Esteban Ocon (FRA) - 4pts
9th - Pierre Gasly (FRA) - 2pts
10th - Kevin Magnussen (DEN) - 1pt
11th - Yuki Tsunoda (JPN)
12th - Nico Hulkenberg (DEU)
13th - Zhou Guanyu (CHN)
14th - Nyck de Vries (NED)
15th - Oscar Piastri (AUS)
16th - Logan Sargeant (USA)
17th - Lando Norris (GBR)
18th - Valtteri Bottas (FIN)
19th - Alexander Albon (THA) - DNF
20th - Lance Stroll (CAN) - DNF
