F1 | Verstappen dominates: “Fantastic weekend and perfect feeling”

Two out of two, with the only flaw of not being able to hit the fastest lap in the final part of the race, when however he found himself in lapped traffic.

Max Verstappen also achieved victory in Saudi Arabia, dominating the Grand Prix from the first to the last lap without major difficulties, also achieving the hundredth podium of his career. After starting from the pole position won on Saturday with a three-tenths advantage, the Dutchman immediately widened the gap on Charles Leclerc behind him, who in reality then had to give way to Sergio Perez.

Verstappen immediately continued to extend his lead over Perez beyond three seconds, at least until the moment that changed the race. In fact, during the seventh lap, it was necessary to bring in the Safety Car due to Lance Stroll's impact with the barriers at turn 22, prompting many teams to take advantage of the neutralization period to make the mandatory stop.

On a track like that of Jeddah, where it is very complicated to overtake but where the limited degradation allows the tires to remain alive for a long time, the opportunity to stop was too good not to take advantage of it and this pushed the leading drivers to return, including Verstappen. Having completed the period behind the safety car, the Dutchman then extended his lead again, without much difficulty, winning under the checkered flag with a 15-second advantage over his teammate.

The only difficulty was the lapping in the final part of the race, in which Perez also had to extricate himself, which in reality also influenced the final gap. In general, however, the Dutchman had no rivals, winning comfortably.

“I think overall it was a fantastic weekend for the whole team. But also for myself, I felt really good with the car. And yes, it was pretty much the same in the race too. Of course, the last stint was a little longer than we would have liked, but with the safety car we had to stop. So the last laps, even with the laps and the cold tyres, were a bit difficult. But we had a good pace and we could manage it quite well even with the gap. So yes, overall I am very, very satisfied,” Verstappen said at the end of the race.

Race winner Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Clearly doing a stint of around 40 laps is far from ideal, but many drivers handled the hard tire well, reaching the finish line without major complications. However, it is important to mention that, with high-speed corners like those in Jeddah, it is important to maintain some consistency and not let the tires cool down, so much so that at one point Verstappen himself was told to reduce the lift off at the bottom of the straights to regain some temperature.

“I think ideally you wouldn't want to do such a long stint on that tyre, but we had to do it, and of course here, with all these high-speed corners, if the tire goes out of the window a little bit, it becomes a little bit more difficult.” , then added the three-time world champion, who started with a full swag.