Verstappen Dominates 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

Max Verstappen dominated 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix whilst Oliver Bearman finished seventh on debut.

Verstappen led from the start but lost the lead to McLaren’s Lando Norris on Lap 8 under a safety car caused by Lance Stroll crashing on Lap 6, only to reclaim the lead and ultimately victory on Lap 13

Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc rounded out the podium ahead of Oscar Piastri, Fernando Alonso and George Russell.

Bearman became the first British driver to score points on debut since Paul Di Resta in 2011 after the 18 year-old from Chelmsford finished seventh ahead of his fellow Brits – Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton, whilst Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top ten.

In the drivers’ standings, Verstappen leads Perez by 15 points whilst Leclerc moved up to third ahead of Russell and Piastri.

At lights out, Verstappen made a clean start to lead Leclerc and Perez as the top eight held order whilst Stroll jumped Yuki Tsunoda for ninth, and left the Japanese driver to fend off debutant – Bearman.

Piastri meanwhile cleared Alonso for fourth on the second lap into Turn 1 as the race quickly settled into a holding pattern for much of the field as Perez cleared Leclerc for second at the start of Lap 4.

Stroll however clipped the outside wall into Turn 22 with his front left tyre on Lap 6 which sent his Aston Martin into the barriers, which caused a safety car under which everyone but Norris, Hamilton, Hulkenberg and Guanyu Zhou pitted for hard tyres as the quartet stayed out on medium tyres.

Racing resumed at the end of Lap 9 with Norris leading Verstappen who had to be patient until he made a race-winning pass at the start of Lap 13, during which Perez passed Hamilton for third on that same lap.

Hamilton then lost fourth to Leclerc on Lap 15 whilst Norris fought off Perez until Lap 18, before the McLaren driver got usurped by Leclerc a further ten laps later.

Bearman meanwhile re-joined in 12th after his pit stop and quickly cleared Tsunoda on the restart before he passed Zhou on Lap 14, only to find himself behind stuck behind Hulkenberg who he described as “slow” prior to his overtake on the German at the start of Lap 21.

Out of the medium tyre runners, Hulkenberg was the first to pit at the end of Lap 33 after his teammate – Kevin Magnussen built up a gap for him to slot back out in 11th, having held up a queue of cars behind himself in 12th position.

Hamilton proceeded to make his stop on Lap 37 but Norris followed suit a lap later as the pair re-joined ninth and eighth respectively with a seven-second gap to Bearman in seventh.

At the checkered flag, Verstappen claimed his 100th podium appearance with his 56th victory in what was a ninth consecutive Grand Prix win, ahead of Perez and Leclerc who rounded out the top three ahead of Piastri, Alonso and Russell.

Bearman fought off the late charges of Norris and Hamilton to finish seventh as Hulkenberg rounded out the top ten, whilst the public voted Bearman as Driver of the Day for a mature drive to seventh which put him tenth in the standings on debut.

F1 will now head to Melbourne, Australia for the third round of the season from 22-24 March as Verstappen looks to equal his run of ten consecutive GP wins which he set last season.

Position	Driver	Team	Laps	Time
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	50	1h 20m 43.273
2	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	50	+ 13.643
3	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	50	+ 18.639
4	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	50	+ 32.007
5	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	50	+ 35.759
6	George Russell	Mercedes	50	+ 39.936
7	Oliver Bearman	Ferrari	50	+ 42.679
8	Lando Norris	McLaren	50	+ 45.708
9	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	50	+ 47.391
10	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	50	+ 76.996
11	Alex Albon	Williams	50	+ 88.354
12	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	50	+ 105.737
13	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	50	+ 1 Lap
14	Yuki Tsunoda	RB	50	+ 1 Lap
15	Logan Sargeant	Williams	50	+ 1 Lap
16	Daniel Ricciardo	RB	50	+ 1 Lap
17	Valtteri Bottas	Stake	50	+ 1 Lap
18	Guanyu Zhou	Stake	50	+ 1 Lap
19	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	5	Crash
20	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	1	Gearbox