The Saudi Arabia GP was a historic race that reinforced the F1 circus regular visited the Middle East and the impact the region has on the f1 standings. The race was held at the Riyadh Street Circuit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on March 19th, 2023.
The race was the second round of the 2023 F1 World Championship. In this blog post, we will summarize the results of the race, the drivers’ performances, and the f1 standings Saudi Arabia.
2023 Saudi Arabia GP – 17th to 19th March 2023
Max Verstappen drove a solid race with a 2nd place finish behind Sergio Perez after he started in 15th position. Sergio drove a magnificently solid race and Max simply couldn’t catch up.
Having said that Max was imperious as he overtook the slower cars from 15th place. The slower cars are of course the entire pack other than Red Bull. In an unsporting move, Max stole the fastest lap from Sergio Perez in the last lap – even though the team had advised Sergio that it was not up for grabs.
Sergio was understandably unhappy.
The surprise of the 2023 F1 Standingsn is the Aston Martin in the hands of Fernando Alonso. He has been in the podium in each of the first three races.
The FIA did not cover themselves in glory after they tried to penalize Fernado Alonso for being out of position on the grid. The penalty was only announced in the penultimate laps.
In a comedy of errors the third place was given to George Russel after Fernando had accepted it on the podium. It was then taken back from George and re-awarded to Fernando.
Talking about Mercedes, they seem to be having a reversal of their fortunes and appear to be a little quicker than they were in the first race.
Lewis Hamilton is still complaining that he doesn’t feel connected to the car. George and Lewis managed to finish the race in 4th and 5th place respectively.
I wonder what is going on in Oscar Piastre‘s mind. He walked away from Alpine to McLaren and the Mclaren is proving to be a great disappointment. The two Mclaren drivers (Piastri and Norris) only managed 15th and 17th places respectively.
The team Oscar left (Alpine) achieved 8th and 9th respectively.
The Final Saudi Arabia GP Race Results Are Listed Below
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time/ Retired | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 50 | 1:21:14.894 | 25 |
| 2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 50 | +5.355s | 19 |
| 3 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 50 | +20.728s | 15 |
| 4 | George Russell | Mercedes | 50 | +25.866s | 12 |
| 5 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 50 | +31.065s | 10 |
| 6 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 50 | +35.876s | 8 |
| 7 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 50 | +43.162s | 6 |
| 8 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 50 | +52.832s | 4 |
| 9 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 50 | +54.747s | 2 |
| 10 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 50 | +64.826s | 1 |
| 11 | Yuki Tsunoda | Alphatauri | 50 | +67.494s | 0 |
| 12 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | 50 | +70.588s | 0 |
| 13 | Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo | 50 | +76.060s | 0 |
| 14 | Nyck De Vries | Alphatauri | 50 | +77.478s | 0 |
| 15 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 50 | +85.021s | 0 |
| 16 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | 50 | +86.293s | 0 |
| 17 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 50 | +86.445s | 0 |
| 18 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | 49 | +1 lap | 0 |
| NC | Alexander Albon | Williams | 27 | DNF | 0 |
| NC | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 16 | DNF | 0 |
