Published: Mar. 27, 2022, 6:11 a.m.. Max Verstappen. Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands in action during practice session ...
That was when Verstappen passed Hamilton in the final laps to come away with the victory, clinching the Dutchmen’s first F1 Championship. That opened the door for Charles Leclerc to cruise to the checkered flag, giving Ferrari their first win since 2019. After a historic win in Bahrain last week, the Formula 1 series returns to where it had one of its most exciting finishes to the end last season, as they get set to battle it out in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen pipped Charles Leclerc to win a thrilling 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after the Red Bull driver completed a late move on his Ferrari ...
Leclerc was forced to abort Turn 2 as a result, teeing up a last-lap showdown. With a tow down the main straight, Leclerc was forced to pull to the inside and defend on lap 42 of 50 but Verstappen thought against an attempted lunge. At the restart, Verstappen attempted to put Leclerc off-line at the final corner but the Ferrari driver was able to break the tow to lead unchallenged and build an initial advantage of 2s. Perez had been able to extract a lead of over two seconds against Leclerc, with Verstappen 1.5s behind the Ferrari driver while Sainz was a further 3.1s in arrears. As Sainz had to keep conservative to miss the rear of his team-mate at the first left-hander, Verstappen was able to tip-toe around the outside as the track snaked back for Turn 2. The defending champion grabbed the spoils by just half a second after a DRS-enhanced slipstreaming dice with Leclerc in the second half of the contest on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, after the Ferrari racer tried again to tactically out manoeuvre Verstappen on track.
Sporting News is tracking live updates and highlights for the second Formula One race of the 2022 season. Follow for complete results from the Saudi Arabia ...
Alonso has to pull out of a move, he tries to attack a gap on the inside of his teammate on the main straight, but Ocon closes the door, and Alonso has to pull out to avoid ending up in the wall. He doesn't attack on the final corner, and uses DRS on the straight to make a lunge on the inside. 1:23 p.m.: Another overtake from Hamilton, overtaking Norris on the inside, on the entrance to the hairpin. A good start from Max Verstappen sees him gets ahead of Sainz and split the Ferraris. Hamilton is up to 14th, while Gasly has dropped 2 places since lights out. He pitted, but the front jack wasn't working, and the team was so focused on finding a new jack they forgot to serve the penalty, it seems. 2:06 p.m.: It seems like an overheating problem for the Alpine, as Alonso struggles back to the pits. 2:25 p.m.: We're in to lap 48/50 and Verstappen holds Leclerc off on the main straight. His advantage over Ocon means he has time to stop and not lose his place, if the virtual safety car remains. Both cars locked up into the final corner, as both drivers wanted to have DRS on the straight. 2:24 p.m.: Hamilton is past Stroll and back into the points. The Dutch driver made hard work of it, repeatedly attacking too early and giving Leclerc DRS on the main straight, but eventually Verstappen was patient enough. Alonso, who spent much of the race in attack mode, got past Kevin Magnussen, but he lost drive moments later with some kind of cooling problem and had to limp around the track.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at Jeddah on Sunday, the second round of the 2022 Formula 1 World Championship, after a thrilling ...
Alex Albon and Lance Stroll collided at Turn 1 on Lap 48, just as the lead looked poised to change again. On the following lap, both locked up to try and make the other lose DRS, with Leclerc blinking first and Verstappen almost spinning as he too got back on the power. Hamilton passed Magnussen on Lap 23 but the Dane repassed him into Turn 1. Sainz was ahead of Perez at the safety car line, but the positions weren’t swapped before the restart on Lap 20, but he let him through soon after. Leclerc, Verstappen and Sainz all pitted for hards, with Perez feeding back into the field in third – coming very close to Sainz on the pit exit. Ocon re-attacked and regained the position using the run-off at Turn 1.
Saudi Arabia's minister of sport, Prince Abdulaziz Bin Turki Al-Faisal, said his country would not have hesitated in cancelling this weekend's Saudi Arabian ...
"So this is given to Formula One or any other events that we are hosting within the kingdom -- even our local competitions and so on. "Whatever they want, we are here to host Formula One as best as it can anywhere in the world. "We haven't got into the details but we are open to discussions," he said.
And here's Charles Leclerc: “It wasn't enough today but oh my god – I really enjoyed that race! It was hard racing, but fair … every race should be like ...
Lap 12/50: Magnussen looks to attack Bottas in P8 but the Finn gets his elbows out early and keeps his place. Lap 7/50: More fun: Ocon reclaims P7 from Alonso but leaves the track to do so, and has to give his place back. “No one can judge our morality, it is a matter of putting in place all the things that have to be considered. “Lost engine, lost engine,” wails the AlphaTauri driver as he makes his way to the grid. Perez keeps his from the Ferraris into turn one, and holds on to it brilliantly. But the virtual safety car has been upgraded to a real one, and Leclerc and Verstappen use the opportunity to pit … and they come out ahead of the brutally unlucky Perez. And all of a sudden it’s a Leclerc-Verstappen-Perez top three! Lap 14/50: Zhou Guanyu has been given a five-second penalty for leaving the track. I can’t accelerate,” he says – and he can’t get into the pits so just stops next to the entrance. The green flag is out and Hamilton has missed his chance to pit under the VSC. Lap 21/50: The green flag goes up pedals hit metal. Lap 41/50: Hamilton pits now, with the VSC gone, and emerges in P12. Now Verstappen, who has hit top speed much quicker than Leclerc attacks Leclerc’s lead! Ferrari get second and third, with Sainz just behind his teammate, but the victory goes to Verstappen and that late drama!
Charles Leclerc leads the drivers championship by 12 points from Carlos Sainz Jnr after this weekend's race.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen won an incredible battle over Charles Leclerc in Saudi Arabia with Carlos Sainz completing the podium behind his Ferrari team ...
Nico Hulkenberg was 12th having started on hards and pitted in the second VSC period, but was swiftly passed by a number of drivers. Leclerc put in fastest lap and was soon right on the Red Bull’s tail and, even though a collision between Stroll and Albon had triggered a double yellow flag, continued to track him down. But Leclerc hit back, going deep into Turn 1 with DRS and holding on to the lead of the race – the pair continuing their battle from Bahrain. On the start of Lap 47, Verstappen closed in once again and this time made sure he had DRS and a good run into Turn 1. Hamilton too was called in but the call came too late; Alonso prompted the pit lane to be closed as he too crawled to a halt at the entrance. Hamilton had made a steady climb, taking P12 off Stroll on Lap 10 and then P11 off Norris, with Gasly next as he made it into the points by Lap 15 without much trouble. He had a 13-second advantage on Ocon but couldn’t capitalise on that with the pit lane closed. Again on Lap 43, Verstappen attempted a move but locked up in unison with the Ferrari into the final corner, the Ferrari keeping P1. That triggered an intra-team battle for P6 between the Alpines, Alonso raring to get by while the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix winner put his elbows out until the start of Lap 7, when he finally conceded out of Turn 2. Perez led Leclerc off the line, Verstappen scything ahead of Sainz for P3 out of Turn 2 – while Ocon kept Russell behind until a final corner bout going into Lap 3. George Russell took P5 at Esteban Ocon's expense, the Alpine driver having lost out to the Mercedes on Lap 3 and then battled with his team mate Alonso (DNF) in an exciting early-race battle. The second-ever Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was never going to be a straightforward affair, given the tight confines and high speeds of this demanding new city circuit.