Perez gets maiden career pole but Verstappen turns tables on Sunday

Max Verstappen took his first victory of the season after an intense battel with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc as Red Bull scored points for the first time in 2022. Carlos Sainz finished third, giving Ferrari a double podium for the second consecutive race while Polesitter Sergio Perez had to settle for P4.

By Malhaar Khaladkar

New Delhi, 28 March 2022: Sergio Perez outqualified his decorated teammate Max Verstappen only the second time in his Red Bull career, as the world champion had to settle for P4 on Saturday. Perez had his hands full with the two Ferrari’s close behind. Another shock on Saturday came from the 7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who exited in Q1 for the first time since 2017, that too on pure pace.

As the lights went out, the top 2, Perez and Leclerc maintained position. Meanwhile, Verstappen sneaked past Sainz for P3 on lap 1. Behind, Mercedes’ George Russell got past Esteban Ocon to run in P5 by lap 3 and teammate Hamilton recovered to P10 by lap 15.Laps 5-7 saw an enticing battle between Alpine teammates Ocon and Fernando Alonso for P6. With Ocon later being instructed by the team to hold position on Alonso.

Sainz in P4 dropped back from the top three cars. The gap between Perez and Leclerc hovered around 3s as the pitstop window opened on around lap 13. Top 5 cars were on medium tyres. With there being a significant advantage of undercut, Ferrari called Leclerc saying, “box to overtake”. Essentially meaning whatever Perez does, do the opposite. Red Bull acted on this, to avoid getting undercut and pitted Perez on lap 15 for hard tyres. Lady luck was not on Perez’s side as Williams’ Nicholas Latifi crashed in the final corner, bringing out a virtual safety car and then the full safety car. With the race neutralised everyone took advantage and pitted bar Kevin Magnussen, Hamilton and Nico Hulkenberg who started on the hard tyres.

Naturally Perez lost out to Leclerc and Verstappen who emerged in P1 and P2 respectively. While the Mexican did momentarily overtake Sainz, he had to give back the position at the restart as the Ferrari was ahead on the safety car line 1 while exiting form the pits. Safety car came in on lap 21 as racing got underway.

By lap 25 Hamilton passed Magnussen for P6, both running on hard tyres still yet to make a pitstop. At the front Leclerc managed to keep Verstappen out of DRS range as the Ferrari was faster in sector 1 with all the high-speed corners while Red Bull used its straight-line speed advantage in sectors 2 and 3.

Alonso in P7 reported loss of power as his car slowed down on lap 35. As Alonso slowed down, so did McLaren’s Ricciardo as he halted on the pit lane entrance. A VSC was deployed as Magnussen and Hulkenberg pitted to change their hard tyres and onto the mediums. Hamilton running in P6, just missed the pitlane and after it was closed for 3 laps to clear the cars halted on the pit entrance. Hamilton finally pitted on lap 40 for medium tyres and emerged in P12.

The VSC ended on lap 41, with Verstappen closing the gap within a 1s to Leclerc as the Dutchman’s tyres were up to temperature. At the end of lap 41 Verstappen got past Leclerc before the final corner. Leclerc employing the same technique he did in Bahrain of letting Verstappen through then overtaking him on the next straight. On lap 43 both locked up going into the final corner vying for DRS onto the start finish straight. Leclerc was still able to maintain the lead.

Verstappen continued his hunt for the lead as he closed up to Leclerc at the end of lap 46. Using DRS he overtook the Monegasque into turn 1. Leclerc did not lose touch as he was still within 1s of Verstappen, but the Red Bull was able to keep in front owing to better straight line speed.

At the chequered flag Verstappen took his first victory of the season finishing just 0.549s ahead of Leclerc. Sainz achieved another podium with Perez finishing in P4. Mercedes’ Russell maximised his race by finishing in P5, ahead of Alpine’s Ocon who beat McLaren’s Lando Norris by 0.107s at the finish line. P8 was Pierre Gasly for AlphaTauri and P9 was Magnussen for Haas. Hamilton could only finish P10 as safety car ruined his race strategy.

Zhou Guanyu finished in P11 for Alfa Romeo ahead of the Aston Martin duo of Nico Hulkenberg and Lance Stroll in P12 and P13 respectively. Retirees from the race were Williams duo Alex Albon and Latifi, Valtteri Bottas of Alfa Romeo and Alonso and Ricciardo. Yuki Tsunoda was unable to start his race due to an electrical issue with his AlphaTauri while Mick Schumacher’s car was not built by Haas after suffering a heavy crash in Saturday qualifying.

Red Bull and Ferrari were closely matched on both race and qualifying pace. Both exhibited their advantage in different areas, Red bull were faster in the speed traps while Ferrari gained their time in the corners. Red Bull are still on the backfoot with their double DNF in the first round, but this championship has a long way to go. Mercedes were again third best, in no man’s land as described by Toto Wolff. Hamilton’s set up tweak meant the car became undrivable in qualifying, hence, the Britain’s exit in Q1. Russell maximised their performance in P5, while Mercedes still believes that porpoising is 99% responsible for their problems.

Alpine showcased good pace as they headed the midfield in qualifying and the race. Reliability issues hampered them from achieving a double points finish. Alfa Romeo had question marks over how their car would perform in high speed corners and Jeddah gave encouraging answers. Bottas qualified in the top 10 and was running in the same before having to retire the car. Haas struggled compared to Bahrain but still showed positive signs with Q3 appearance and points in the race. They went into the race on a backfoot as Schumacher crashed his car on Saturday hence, not starting the race on Sunday.

McLaren had an encouraging race weekend after having a dismal time in Bahrain. Although they were unable to make it to Q2, Norris finished P7 and possible they could have had a double points finish had it not for Ricciardo’s retirement from the race. The McLaren car lacks downforce compared to rivals but that weakness was not evident at a low-drag high speed circuit like Jeddah. It remains to be seen how they perform over the coming races. AlphaTauri were on a similar footing to Haas as one car made it to Q3 and points finish. Though the team admitted they need to fix their reliability issues if they want to maximise their results. They have had two retirements in two races now. Aston Martin struggled with porpoising and Williams struggled with balance issues throughout the weekend as both drivers struggled to get the car in its optimum window.

Saturday Qualifying Results were:

Note – Ricciardo penalised 3 grid places for impeding another car during qualifying. Tsunoda failed to set a time within the Q1 107% requirement – races at stewards’ discretion. Schumacher withdrawn from the race following a qualifying accident.