Red Bull Racing continued its strong start to the 2023 F1 season by securing a 1-2 finish at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at Jeddah Corniche Circuit on Sunday.
Sergio Perez started from pole position and led the entire race to finish first. His teammate Max Verstappen stormed back from P15 after having driveshaft issues in qualifying and used a the safety car at lap 14 to pit and advance his way to a second-place finish. Additionally, by securing the fastest lap of the race, Verstappen extended his championship points lead to 34 consecutive weeks.
Following Verstappen, Fernando Alonso finished third; however, he was assessed a 10-second penalty after the race for not properly taking his 5-second penalty during a pit stop, bumping George Russell up to 3rd. Alonso’s move from Alpine Racing to Aston Martin seems to be paying off with consecutive strong finishes.
Ferrari and Mercedes continue to struggle. Although Carlos Sainz finished 4th in qualifying, he ended up finishing 6th, behind Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, respectively. Charles Leclerc finished 7th after taking a 10-place grid penalty due to Ferrari changing its third different control electronics unit.
After two races, Verstappen sits on top of the championship leaderboard with 28 points, followed by Perez with 18 points.
Despite having Lance Stroll retire from the race due to an unknown issues, Aston Martin has taken major improvements this season that have put them ahead of Mercedes and Ferrari so far.
Next up is the Australian Grand Prix on April 2nd. Leclerc broke the track lap record there in 2022, which was previously held by Hamilton. It will be interesting to see if Ferrari can put away their woes from the previous two races and secure their first podium finish of the 2023 season.
