#SaudiArabianGP: @SChecoPerez clinches fifth-career victory. #F1

Perez Saudi Arabian GP victory – Sergio Perez lead from Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen to take a comfortable victory at the Saudi Arabian GP as Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso scored his 100^th podium in Formula 1 by taking third.

 

 

When the 50-lap Saudi Arabian GP began, Alonso dived ahead of pole-sitter Perez into the opening corner whilst the other Aston Martin of Lance Stroll overtook Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz around the outside at turn 13.

 

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri lost the front-wing end-plate on his MCL60 racer and was forced to pit.

 

After the opening tour Alonso lead from Perez, Mercedes’ George Russell, Stroll with Sainz fifth, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon sixth and Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton holding onto seventh.

 

The other McLaren of Lando Norris also was forced to stop for a new front wing.

 

On lap three, Alonso was hit with a five-second time penalty for starting a little outside is starting grid slot with the Spaniard replied with “copy”.

 

On lap four, Perez retook the lead from the penalty-hit Alonso with DRS assistance on the main straight into turn one

 

On the fifth tour, reigning world champion Verstappen who started the Grand Prix from 15^th made his way up into 12^th passing Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg.

 

A replay also showed that Piastri’s broken front wing came from contact with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.

 

On the ninth lap, Perez was in the lead, whilst Alonso was keeping close to the Red Bull with the latter pushing to build the gap ahead of third-placed Russell, which is over five seconds and thus would hold position when serving his five-second time penalty.

 

On the 11^th tour, Alonso was told by his Aston Martin team that the hard tyre “isn’t looking great” and that they were extending and only started to drop back from race-leader Perez.

 

Lap 12, Red Bull reported to Perez that his front-right is a concern, after his massive lock-up passing Alonso on lap four. The Mexican was over 2.6 seconds ahead of the double world champion, as Verstappen flew past Hamilton on the main-straight into eighth place continuing his charge.

 

On the 14^th tour, second-placed Alonso reported his tyres felt good and running in fresh air, with nearly four seconds to race-leader Perez out in-front.

 

On lap 17^th, 12^th-placed starter Charles Leclerc was up into fourth for Ferrari, with Verstappen behind him as Stroll stopped out on track with an issue bringing out the safety car.

 

On lap 18, the drivers took advantage of a free pit-stop during the safety car window as race-leader Perez came in with Alonso also stopping and serving his five-second time penalty.

 

On the 19^th tour it was Perez leading from Alonso with Russell third, Verstappen up into fourth with Sainz fifth and Hamilton finding his way ahead of Leclerc.

 

When the Grand Prix went back to green on lap 21, Perez comfortably broke away from Alonso and was two seconds clear by the end of the tour.

 

On lap 24, Russell could not hold Verstappen up any longer as the latter flew past the Mercedes into turn 27 using the slipstream with DRS assistance.

 

At halfway distance, It was a Red Bull one-two as Perez lead from now team-mate Verstappen who made his way by Alonso with the Mercedes pairing of Russell and Hamilton in fourth and fifth respectively.

 

On lap 28, Perez was leading from team-mate Verstappen by 5.2 seconds, both on nine-lap C2 harder compounds, whilst further back, Russell was holding Mercedes team-mate Hamilton at bay, which was helping out Alonso who was 1.5 seconds ahead of the Silver Arrows in third.

 

On lap 29, Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon was the second retiree to go with Stroll’s AMR 23.

 

With 20 tours remaining, race-leader Perez posted the fastest lap showing he was not going give this one up without a battle as his team-mate Verstappen was not cutting the gap down as quickly, whilst Alonso was a distant third and Hamilton fell out of DRS range from his team-mate Russell in the battle for fourth.

 

On lap 34, Leclerc was unhappy cruising behind his team-mate Sainz, both on the C2 white side-walled harder compounds and with team orders unlikely, sixth and seventh is not what the Scuderia would expect from this Grand Prix, especially since it’s pretty much on merit.

 

With 15 laps remaining, Verstappen was starting to take a couple of tenths from his race-leading team-mate Perez, but not enough with the gap sitting at 4.8 seconds.

 

On the 37^th tour, second-placed Verstappen was reporting a “weird noise”, with the Red Bull team closely monitoring the situation, especially after the driveshaft issue in qualifying yesterday as the gap went back up to 4.7 seconds.

 

With ten tours remaining, Red Bull asked Verstappen if the issue was still there and the Dutchman responded, “it’s still there”, but was told to keep going whilst his team-mate Perez out-front was complaining about a long brake pedal.

 

With six laps left, the fight to the finish between the Red Bull’s was in motion, and now told that Perez can push by the team, the gap went back up to 4.7 seconds, whilst Alonso was having a bit of a quiet race in third and if he finished there, he’d be able to claim his 100^th podium in Formula One.

 

On lap 48, Perez now lead by six seconds to team-mate Verstappen. Meanwhile, the battle down the back between the McLaren duo was heating up, as Norris is told not to make it too difficult for team-mate Piastri, despite Norris being on much better C3 medium tyres.

 

Perez crossed the line to take the Saudi Arabian GP victory by 5.355 seconds over team-mate Verstappen who grabbed the fastest lap bonus point as Alonso secured the final podium place and his 100^th in the sport.

 

Alonso initially lost his third placed finish following an investigation from the stewards for having his five-second time penalty in the pits served incorrectly and was hit with a ten second penalty to his race time relegating the Spaniard to fourth, but the race stewards reversed their decision and gave the Spaniard back his podium spot.

 

The Mercedes duo of Russell and Hamilton were fourth and fifth respectively as the Ferrari’s followed with Sainz and Leclerc taking sixth and seventh on the classification.

 

BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Ocon finished ahead of his team-mate Gasly in eighth as Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen rounded out the top ten.

 

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda finished outside the top ten in 11^th and in-front of the second VF-23 Haas of Hulkenberg and Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu who was 13^th.

 

The other AlphaTauri AT04 of Nyck de Vries ended his race 14^th and ahead of McLaren pairing Piastri and Norris who were 15^th and 17^th respectively as Williams’ Logan Sargeant split the MCL60’s.

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2023 Saudi Arabian GP – The Top Three

 

 

2023 Saudi Arabian GP Winner – Sergio Perez, #11, Oracle Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT, RB19:

“It turned out to be tougher than expected! I was on for the victory last year, so finally I got it. The team have worked so hard across the weekend, we had a lot of mechanical issues. We will keep pushing, we were the fastest car out there.”

 

2^nd Place – Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT, RB19:

“It wasn’t very easy to get through the field, trying to follow was difficult but very happy to be here on the podium. We decided to settle for second and call it a day, but it was still a very good recovery.”

 

3^rd Place – Fernando Alonso, #14, Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team-Mercedes, AMR23:

“What a start to the season, probably unthinkable! I need to review [the start], I made a mistake so when they told me I knew I needed to drive even faster. It’s a hard Grand Prix but I push all the way through like qualifying laps.”

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Formula 1 STC Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2023 Race Results Classification (50 Laps)

 

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	TIME/RETIRED	PTS
1	11	Sergio Perez	RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT	50	1:21:14.894	25
2	1	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT	50	+5.355s	19
3	63	George Russell	MERCEDES	50	+25.866s	15
4	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes	50	+30.728	12
5	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	50	+31.065s	10
6	55	Carlos Sainz	FERRARI	50	+35.876s	8
7	16	Charles Leclerc	FERRARI	50	+43.162s	6
8	31	Esteban Ocon	ALPINE RENAULT	50	+52.832s	4
9	10	Pierre Gasly	ALPINE RENAULT	50	+54.747s	2
10	20	Kevin Magnussen	HAAS FERRARI	50	+64.826s	1
11	22	Yuki Tsunoda	ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT	50	+67.494s	0
12	27	Nico Hulkenberg	HAAS FERRARI	50	+70.588s	0
13	24	Zhou Guanyu	ALFA ROMEO FERRARI	50	+76.060s	0
14	21	Nyck De Vries	ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT	50	+77.478s	0
15	81	Oscar Piastri	MCLAREN MERCEDES	50	+85.021s	0
16	2	Logan Sargeant	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	50	+86.293s	0
17	4	Lando Norris	MCLAREN MERCEDES	50	+86.445s	0
18	77	Valtteri Bottas	ALFA ROMEO FERRARI	49	+1 lap	0
NC	23	Alexander Albon	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	27	DNF	0
NC	18	Lance Stroll	ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES	16	DNF	0

* Note – Verstappen scored an additional point for setting the fastest lap of the race.

https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1142/saudi-arabia/race-result.html

 

Click here for the 2023 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings.

 

Round three of the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the famous Albert Park Street Circuit in Melbourne, Victoria for the Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2023 from Friday March 31-Sunday April 2.