After the disappointment of a late retirement from the season-opener in Bahrain last weekend due to a vacuum in the fuel system of his Red Bull car, Verstappen bounced back to defeat Leclerc in an enthralling race at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
Carlos Sainz Jr completed the podium ahead of Sergio Perez, who lost out in the early safety car period having pitted just before it which allowed the three podium finishers to leapfrog him, with George Russell having a lonely race for Mercedes in fifth place.
Lewis Hamilton put in a recovery drive having started in 15th place, but saw his charge limited to 10th place at the finish partly due to missing a pitstop window when the pitlane was closed in a virtual safety car period as both Fernando Alonso and Daniel Ricciardo stopped on-track due to separate mechanical problems.
While there was plenty of action on the track, focus about circuit safety regained attention after Mick Schumacher’s heavy qualifying crash which ultimately ruled him out of the race due to car damage.
The entire race weekend was also thrown into doubt by a missile attack on an oil facility close to the Jeddah track during Friday practice, with extensive meetings between F1 bosses, the FIA, Saudi security officials and the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association to discuss the security around the race before agreeing to continue.
Motorsport Network’s Director of Digital Strategy Jess McFadyen and Autosport Grand Prix editor Alex Kalinauckas join host Martyn Lee to analyse the Saudi Arabian GP on the Autosport Podcast.
You can listen to the podcast using the player below, or via all good audio platforms including Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.
