“We were battling hard,” Max Verstappen fends off Charles Leclerc to win Saudi Arabian GP

“We were battling hard,” Max Verstappen fends off Charles Leclerc to win Saudi Arabian GP

Max Verstappen

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won a hard-fought battle to win the 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The Dutchman started the race 4th in the grid behind the Ferrari’s of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. Teammate Sergio Perez started the race from Pole Position for the first time in his career.

But despite starting from the second row, Verstappen set his eyes on the top step of the podium and powered through the grid. After an early pass on Sainz, he pushed on for the next 30 laps through two safety car periods to finally overtake Leclerc on the final 3 laps to claim the lead of the race.

The Dutchman crosses the line half a second ahead of Leclerc in a nail-biting finish to open up his 2022 account in style. He gave an account of his valiant efforts in his post-race interview and called it a hard-fought yet deserving victory.

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Max Verstappen Wins but Charles Leclerc sets the fastest lap

Max Verstappen vs Charles Leclerc

Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc exhibited wonderful wheel-to-wheel racing towards the last 10 laps of the race. In the 47th Lap, Verstappen made a lunge on Leclerc in the second DRS zone and the Monegasque was unable to make a quick counter as his tyres had significantly lost grip after defending Verstappen for the previous 45 laps.

Verstappen said “It was a good race, we were battling hard. We just had to play the long game, the tyres were wearing out quite quick. It wasn’t easy, eventually managed to get ahead – just really happy to kickstart the season.”

Despite the late Yellow flags in the penultimate lap, the two drivers kept a close distance and this only helped Max as he could retain his lead. recalled his new strategy to delay his overtake till the final overtake zone as a strategy he adapted from fighting Leclerc in the Bahrain Grand Prix.

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