Saudi GP: Verstappen outsmarts Leclerc to win Jeddah thriller

Max Verstappen got payback for his disappointment in Bahrain as he beat Charles Leclerc to win the Saudi Arabian GP

The lead Red Bull and Ferrari drivers went head-to-head for the second race in a row, providing another thrilling duel in the closing laps at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

This was after a Safety Car heavily compromised polesitter and early race leader Sergio Perez, who had to settle for fourth as Carlos Sainz completed the podium.

Race Review

A clean start saw Perez hold the lead into Turn 1 with Verstappen getting the jump on Sainz up to third.

Starting 15th, Lewis Hamilton opted to start on the hard tyre compared to the majority on mediums and made slow progress through the field as a result.

The early laps saw an epic battle between the two Alpines as Esteban Ocon strongly resisted Fernando Alonso down the main straight.

Fernando would later get ahead but the two teammates continued to have a mighty battle, albeit allowing George Russell to get away in fifth.

A great first stint came undone for Perez when Ferrari duped Red Bull into pitting the Mexican after giving Leclerc the instruction to box.

Just as Checo rejoined, a strange crash for Nicholas Latifi at the final corner brought out the Safety Car.

That allowed Leclerc and Verstappen to pit and resume ahead while Sainz came out side-by-side with the Red Bull.

At the restart, the Spaniard picked up P3 as the stewards decided the Ferrari was ahead when he exited the pits behind the Safety Car.

Behind, Hamilton’s decision to start on the hard tyre meant he stayed out and ran 6th after battling Kevin Magnussen in the Haas, another to use the alternate strategy.

In the space of a lap, Fernando Alonso, Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas all retired with mechanical issues.

A Virtual Safety Car was needed to recover both the Alpine and McLaren that came to a stop just before the pit entry.

Unfortunately for Hamilton, he missed a call to pit just before the lane was closed. This meant he would stop under green flag conditions when the race resumed, dropping to P12 as a result.

Ahead, the VSC allowed Verstappen to close within the DRS range of Leclerc, triggering their battle for the win.

The Dutchman made his first move approaching the final corner as Charles backed off, this meant the Ferrari had DRS down the main straight and Charles duly repassed.

On the next lap, Verstappen once again pulled alongside on the back straight but would react just as Leclerc tried the same trick of gaining DRS on the run to Turn 1.

This caused both to lock up under braking before the Monegasque scampered ahead out of the corner.

With five laps to go though, Max was able to stay close behind through the final turn and produced the simple pass over the start/finish line to claim the lead.

While Leclerc would stay within a second for the remaining laps, a yellow flag caused by a clash between Alex Albon and Lance at Turn 1 plus the straight-line speed of the Red Bull meant he never had the chance to properly attack.

That meant Verstappen crossed the line just half a second clear of Leclerc, with Sainz and Perez third and fourth.

Russell would have a lonely run to fifth, half a minute behind the leaders in the Mercedes.

Ocon held off a charging Lando Norris by just 0.1s over the line in sixth and seventh, as the latter scored McLaren’s first points of the season.

Pierre Gasly overcame intestinal pain in eighth, while Magnussen proved too quick for Hamilton, as the Briton only gained two places on fresh tyres in the last 10 laps to claim P10.

Zhou Guanyu and the two Aston Martins were the only finishers outside the points in P11-P13.

Along with the five retirements, Yuki Tsunoda failed to start after a gearbox issue on his lap to the grid, while Haas opted not to start Mick Schumacher following his big crash in qualifying.