Formula 1: Max Verstappen beats Charles Leclerc in Saudi Arabia
Max Verstappen got past Charles Leclerc in the final five laps to win the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Verstappen had a faster car in a straight line and the two drivers realized that having the DRS advantage on the main straight was the key to winning the race. Leclerc allowed Verstappen to pass him in the final corner at one point only to pass him back on the main straightaway to keep the lead. But Verstappen exercised patience with five laps to go and refused to pass Leclerc in the final corner. That allowed him to sprint past on the straightaway and hold off Leclerc for the rest of the race.
Verstappen's win denies Ferrari's Leclerc the chance to win the first two races of the season. It also comes after both Verstappen and Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez both failed to score points in Bahrain after mechanical failures in the final laps knocked both out of the top 10.
Perez started the race on the pole but was the victim of poor crash timing early in the race. Nicholas Latifi crashed 16 laps into the 50-lap race just after Perez had pitted. The caution allowed Leclerc, Verstappen and Carlos Sainz to pit under caution and jump Perez on track. Perez ended up fourth behind Carlos Sainz.
Lewis Hamilton was also the victim of poor caution timing. Hamilton worked his way up to sixth after starting 15th because of a poor qualifying effort on Saturday. But Hamilton got that high up the running order because he waited longer to pit than anyone else. Both Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso brought out a virtual safety car with over a dozen laps to go when their cars stalled at the entry to the pits.
Hamilton was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time on the track and couldn't duck into the pits before they were closed during the VSC so the cars could be retrieved. Hamilton had to pit after the race restarted with 10 laps to go and dropped to 12th before getting back into the points by the end of the race.
Sunday's race went on despite a suspected missile attack Friday during the first practice at an oil production facility just miles from the Jeddah Corniche Circuit. Formula 1 is off next weekend before racing in Australia for the first time in three years on April 10. The 2020 and 2021 Australian Grand Prix races were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
