F1 Saudi Arabian GP: “At one point we just decided to call it a day,” Max Verstappen pleased with ‘very good recovery’ in Jeddah
It is a one-two finish for the Red Bull drivers at the Saudi Arabian GP.
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Max Verstappen. Image via F1.
Max Verstappen finished P2 and had a good recovery despite starting P15. The Red Bull driver zoomed through the cars ahead of him. The team looks to be in a league of its own. Verstappen overtook the cars with such ease. However, the Red Bull driver gave his fans a shock when he reported a driveshaft issue towards the last 10 laps of the race. But it all worked out, and Verstappen went on to take the chequered flag and came home second with the fastest lap.
Max Verstappen was optimistic about his race at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix despite starting P15. During the qualifying, Verstappen had a drive shaft issue and this led to him taking a new component. Which is why he started so far behind. The Red Bull driver was three places behind his main rival from 2022, Charles Leclerc. However, he did not seem too worried about starting behind. And during the race, we quickly found out why.
The Dutchman stated after the race, “It wasn’t very easy to get through the field. Through the first sector, trying to follow in the beginning of the race was very difficult. A lot of sliding around. But once I cleared them one-by-one we got into the rhythm, and yeah, very happy to be here on the podium.” While Verstappen was happy with his recovery he wanted to win the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. He checked with his team engineer over the radio about his teammate Sergio Perez’s pace.
Max Verstappen was voted driver of the day at the Saudi Arabian GP
There were still some issues with the driveshaft for Max Verstappen like in qualifying, though, they were minor. When asked if he had these issues to the end, he said: “Yeah, right to the finish. But, I mean, I was in second, we had a big gap behind, so at one point we decided to just call it a day and just settle for second. Which anyways was a very good recovery, so I’m happy with that.”
Max Verstappen is currently leading the championship. The reigning world champion bagged 25 points at Bahrain Grand Prix and 18 points at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. He also got a point for the fastest lap, right on the last lap. When that was put to him, he said: “I gave it a go at the end, so luckily it worked out.” It was certainly a brilliant comeback for the Dutchman. His teammate, Sergio Perez, also repeated his result from last year’s Saudi Arabian GP. The result will definitely boost the Mexican driver’s confidence.
While Red Bull had a good race, Aston Martin was close behind. Fernando Alonso got a good start at the beginning of the race, however, the AMR23 did not have the pace of the RB19. Alonso had to settle for P3. Unfortunately for him, he had a 10 seconds penalty in the end. Everything worked out well for Red Bull. The team is leading both the drivers and constructors’ championships by a large margin.
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Sugantha Meena
(493 Articles Published)