Three-time world champion Max Verstappen dominated Formula 1’s 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, leading a Red Bull Racing 1-2 ahead of Sergio Perez, with Charles Leclerc taking third for Ferrari.
An early crash for Lance Stroll meant Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton were a factor in the lead fight after a brief safety car where they stayed out and did not pit, but they eventually finished in the pack behind Ferrari debutant Oliver Bearman.
This was an impressive drive for Ollie as a late replacement to the unwell Carlos Sainz. The Formula 2 driver did a superb job in the Ferrari and to take seventh place is an incredible achievement.
At the start, Verstappen and Leclerc launched in formation from the front row, with the polesitter soon swinging across his rival on the run to Turn 1, where Perez, having got a better start from third, attacked Leclerc.
The Ferrari was behind the Red Bull going into the opening complex but Leclerc fought hard to stay alongside and retook second at Turn 4.
He briefly looked as if he had the pace to keep with Verstappen even without DRS once it was activated on lap two of 50, but although Perez dropped back from Leclerc on that lap as he stayed close enough that the next time by the pit straight he blasted by with DRS to Turn 1.
But before the race could settle down, Stroll crashed his Aston Martin on lap 7 after hitting the inside wall at Turn 22 and going straight on into the barriers outside Turn 23, which meant the safety car was called into action.
All the frontrunners pitted to switch their starting mediums for hards, with Red Bull able to double-stack its cars and maintain track position over Leclerc, who in any case had the longest stop as Oscar Piastri and Fernando Alonso briefly came by.
Due to the having two cars running close together in the pack, McLaren and Mercedes had to leave Norris and Hamilton out at this stage, which meant the former went through to lead Verstappen in the safety car queue, with Hamilton behind and followed by Perez and Leclerc.
The race restarted on lap 10, with Norris running clear up front from Verstappen as the hard tyres took a while to warm up on the Red Bull.
He held out until the start of lap 13, with Verstappen using the DRS to get ahead as the pair flashed by the finish line at the back of the grid, with the champion moving back to first place a formality at Turn 1.
Behind, Perez passed Hamilton at that spot, with Leclerc taking two more laps to do likewise with a battling move on Turn 1’s outside.
As Verstappen shot clear, Perez finally breezed past Norris with DRS down the main straight at the start of lap 18, by which point he was over five seconds behind his teammate and had a five-second time addition for an unsafe release in front of Alonso during the safety car stops phase.
And yet even with the penalty for Checo, the speed of the Red Bull RB20 was fast enough to claim the top two positions at the end.
As the race approached the halfway stage, the two Red Bulls gone in the lead, Norris was able to stay clear of Leclerc, boosted by the race stewards clearing him of a possible jump start.
The McLaren’s mediums continued to slowly fade as Norris fell back from Perez, with Leclerc finally getting back up to third with an easy DRS pass towards Turn 1 at the start of lap 27.
As the race entered its final 20 laps, Verstappen led Perez by 7.3 seconds – a gap he extended to 8.6 seconds in a lifeless end to proceedings, other than the leader losing a little bit of time lapping the backmarkers before pushing hard on the final lap to end the race with a personal best time.
Leclerc, similarly, dropped 8.4 seconds behind Perez by the time he finally repassed Norris, to 9.9 seconds behind at the flag, which meant Perez’s pitlane penalty meant nothing to his result, although Leclerc was able to take the fastest lap bonus point with the fastest lap just 0.1 seconds faster than Verstappen’s effort on the final lap.
Norris finally stopped for soft tyres on lap 37, rejoining after a slightly slow stop due to a delayed right rear change just in front of Hamilton in eighth and ninth – Hamilton having stopped for the same tyre the lap before.
They faced a 6.0 seconds gap to close to Bearman ahead, who had battled by Haas driver in the early stages before running behind George Russell from there.
Hamilton, who had held off Piastri for most of the race before he finally stopped, closed in on Norris and several times looked for a speculative move at Turn 1, where Norris was handed a black-and-white flag warning for weaving in front of Hamilton as the final ten laps kicked off.
They ran out of time to catch Bearman’s seventh place, with the 18-year-old maintaining a 2.7 seconds gap to Norris by the flag.
Piastri ran solo in fourth, with Alonso a chunk behind in fifth and Russell chasing on a similar margin behind the Aston Martin driver.
Nico Hulkenberg scored the final point by staying out under the safety car, then with the twice-penalised Kevin Magnussen holding up the pack behind in the other Haas he was able to stay clear and go on to take P10.
The other retirement was Pierre Gasly, who completed just four laps before stopping in the pits, having reported a gearbox problem ahead of the start.
So a fantastic debut for Ollie Bearman in the Ferrari. To score points in his first appearance in Formula 1 was impressive. He has a bright future in front of him after this solid drive. As for Max Verstappen, as expected the three-time champion scored another win. Another excellent result for Red Bull. Kudos Super Max.
Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:20:43.273
2 Sergio Perez Red Bull +13.643s
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +18.639s
4 Oscar Piastri McLaren +32.007s
5 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +35.759s
6 George Russell Mercedes +39.936s
7 Oliver Bearman Ferrari +42.679s
8 Lando Norris McLaren +45.708s
9 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +47.391s
10 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +76.996s
11 Alexander Albon Williams +88.354s
12 Kevin Magnussen Haas +105.737s
13 Esteban Ocon Alpine +1 lap
14 Yuki Tsunoda RB +1 lap
15 Logan Sargeant Williams +1 lap
16 Daniel Ricciardo RB +1 lap
17 Valtteri Bottas Sauber +1 lap
18 Zhou Guanyu Sauber +1 lap
Lance Stroll Aston Martin DNF
Pierre Gasly Alpine DNF