Red Bull Soars but Ferrari Flails at Jeddah GP

James Minor ’23

Staff Writer

After 50 laps around the Jeddah Corniche Circuit on the coast of the Red Sea, The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was won by Red Bull driver Sergio Perez from his teammate Max Verstappen (+5.355 seconds behind). This start to the season marks only the second time Red

Bull have achieved two consecutive 1-2 finishes — the other coming in 2009. Fernando Alonso (+20.728) rounded out the podium, continuing to show the impressive pace of Aston Martin. Unfortunately for the Silverstone, UK based team, their other driver — Lance Stroll (20th, DNF) — suffered an engine issue that prevented him from contributing to a strong points day for the team. Mercedes seemed to stabilize their concerning position with a solid P4 and P5 for George Russell (+25.866) and Sir Lewis Hamilton (+31.065) respectively.

Qualifying proved to be quite eventful as it began with American Logan Sargent (P16, +86.293) was unable to set a representative lap time and even damaged his car after running over a curb too ag- gressively (curbs in F1 are not like those out on the street — they are not as steep and drivers will often ride them to help maintain speed through the corner). Q2 saw favorite for pole Max Verstappen retire from the session as he suffered a driveshaft issue that prevented him from advancing to the top 10 shootout in Q3. Verstappen’s exclusion cleared the way for team- mate Sergio Perez to take pole by just 0.465 seconds over Fernando Alonso. Charles Leclerc (P7, +43.162) qualified with a lap just 0.155 seconds slower than Perez, but started 12th after taking an engine penalty in just the second race of the season.

At the start of the race, Alonso

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