Max Verstappen Leads Back To Back 1-2 Wins For Red Bull

At the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Red Bull achieved a commanding one-two finish, with Max Verstappen securing his 56th career victory, followed by teammate Sergio Pérez who overcame a five-second penalty to finish in second, ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

From the get-go, the Red Bull duo made strong starts, with Verstappen moving into the lead from pole position and Pérez, starting third, overtaking Leclerc around the outside at Turn 1. Leclerc quickly responded, regaining second place from Pérez by maintaining the inside track into Turn 4.

Further down the field, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri advanced past Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin to grab fourth place, while Lando Norris positioned himself in sixth for McLaren, amid speculations of a false start which was later dismissed by the race stewards.

Once DRS became available, Pérez narrowed the gap to Leclerc and by the third lap’s end, he utilized the DRS to breeze past the Ferrari at Turn 1.

The race’s rhythm was disrupted on the seventh lap when Lance Stroll of Aston Martin made contact with a wall, causing his car to crash into the barriers. Stroll was unscathed, but the incident brought out the Safety Car and prompted a flurry of pit stops. Norris and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton opted to stay out, leading the pack under the Safety Car, followed by Verstappen, Hamilton, Pérez, Leclerc, and Piastri, with Alonso in seventh.

After the Safety Car retreated on lap nine, Norris, on warmer medium tires, initially kept Verstappen at bay. However, as Verstappen’s hard tires reached optimal performance, the Red Bull drivers took charge. Verstappen passed Norris on lap 13, and Pérez followed suit, moving past Hamilton into third.

Pérez received a five-second penalty for an unsafe release during the pit stop chaos but managed to nullify the setback with his pace, reclaiming second place from Norris by lap 18.

Midway through the race, Verstappen had built a nearly seven-second lead over Pérez, with the latter also holding a comfortable gap over Norris, who was now feeling the pressure from Leclerc.

The race’s dynamic stabilized at the front, with the main action unfolding further back as Piastri climbed to fourth post-Hamilton’s pit stop, and Norris dropped behind Ferrari newcomer Oliver Bearman after his own stop.

With ten laps to go, Verstappen was firmly in control, pacing himself with an eight-second lead over Pérez, who was well ahead of Leclerc by 12 seconds.

Verstappen effortlessly sealed his 56th win, finishing eight seconds ahead of Pérez, who, even after his time penalty, secured second place by five seconds over Leclerc. Pérez celebrated his 37th podium finish.

Piastri finished fourth for McLaren, Alonso took fifth for Aston Martin, and Mercedes’ George Russell ended up in sixth. Bearman impressively secured seventh in his F1 debut, followed by Norris and Hamilton, with Haas’ Nico Hülkenberg rounding out the top ten.

Max Verstappen – P1

“It was great to get my 100th podium today and it was another great race for us this weekend. I am very happy to win here in Jeddah: it has been a great start to the year and we don’t know the full potential of the car yet so now we want to keep the momentum going. Because of the early pit stop with the safety car, I knew we had to work on managing the pace. Every time that I pushed I tried to extend the gap as you don’t want to be driving on the limit constantly and be taking too many risks in this circuit. It was a very long stint on the hard tyre during the race but the pace of the car was very good and I was good at managing my tyres. In the last stint, the tyres were getting cold and it was easy to lose the grip at the end, but we pushed through and I think we did everything well today. The ultimate goal is to fight for the championship so we are off to a great start.”

Sergio Perez – P2

“I think the early safety car compromised our race quite a lot unfortunately, I lost quite a lot going into traffic with Lando and Lewis, around seven to eight seconds. We needed to get through that quicker than we did to challenge for the win but other than that it was a strong drive and performance. I really feel like we have done the two steps forward that I was looking for this weekend, so we are getting closer to where we need to be. The Ferrari has the pace and I think there are tracks where they will be a lot closer to us, they probably didn’t maximise their full potential today and we did. Max is driving at a super high level and I think he is the only driver who has maximised qualifying and the race so far this season. It is great though because I have the best possible challenge in him. I must keep evolving weekend after weekend. Now, my full focus is on Melbourne and getting on top of what we have done here in Jeddah.”

Charles Leclerc – P3

“We maximised our potential today and couldn’t have done better than this. We struggled a bit on the Mediums, the Hards were tricky at first but improved throughout the stint and I was able to set the fastest lap on them with a bit of help from DRS. All in all, I felt good in the car. Ollie did an exceptional job this weekend. To get into a Formula 1 car starting from FP3, when you don’t know the car and the track is one of the most challenging of the season, it is impressive to see someone get up to speed so quickly. It was super nice to see him so happy and excited all weekend and he’s done a great job.”

2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Race Results