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Formula 1 Saudi Arabian GP
F1 race results: Sergio Perez wins 2023 Saudi Arabian GP
Sergio Perez won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, leading home a Red Bull 1-2 ahead of a charging Max Verstappen.
Charles Bradley
Edited: Mar 20, 2023, 1:53 PM
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After Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin outdragged him off the startline, Perez hit the front by Lap 4 and pulled clear, as team-mate Verstappen battled back from starting 15th after a driveshaft failure in qualifying.
Verstappen charged up to fourth before benefitting from a safety car when Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin ground to a halt. He quickly picked off those in front to sit behind Perez by half distance.
The Red Bulls were a second a lap faster than the opposition in the closing stages, but Verstappen reported a problem with his driveshaft at high speed and wasn’t able to do anything about his team-mate over the second half of the race.
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2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix results
Cla Driver Laps Gap Interval Points 1 Sergio Perez
50 25 2 Max Verstappen
50 5.355 5.355 19 3 Fernando Alonso
50 20.728 15.373 15 4 George Russell
50 25.866 5.138 12 5 Lewis Hamilton
50 31.065 5.199 10 6 Carlos Sainz
50 35.876 4.811 8 7 Charles Leclerc
50 43.162 7.286 6 8 Esteban Ocon
50 52.832 9.670 4 9 Pierre Gasly
50 54.747 1.915 2 10 Kevin Magnussen
50 1'04.826 10.079 1 11 Yuki Tsunoda
50 1'07.494 2.668 12 Nico Hulkenberg
50 1'10.588 3.094 13 Zhou Guanyu
50 1'16.060 5.472 14 Nyck de Vries
50 1'17.478 1.418 15 Oscar Piastri
50 1'25.021 7.543 16 Logan Sargeant
50 1'26.293 1.272 17 Lando Norris
50 1'26.445 0.152 18 Valtteri Bottas
49 1 Lap 1 Lap Alex Albon
27 23 Laps 22 Laps Lance Stroll
16 34 Laps 11 Laps View full results
How the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix unfolded
Perez was unable to hold his pole position advantage off the startline, as Alonso – who was given a 5s penalty for lining up too far left in his grid slot – streaked past him into the first corner. George Russell ran third for Mercedes, ahead of Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and Stroll, with the latter pulling a great move around the outside of the Ferrari at Turn 13.
Lewis Hamilton, the only driver in the top 10 to start on hard tyres, dropped to seventh in his Mercedes. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc started 12th after taking a 10-place grid penalty for changing his engine control electronics, and used soft tyres to gain three places on the first tour. Verstappen gained two spots on the opening lap, aided by Oscar Piastri needing a new front wing on his McLaren after a first corner clash with an Alpine.
Alonso led until Perez passed him at Turn 1 at the start of lap four, and the Mexican pulled clear by over 3s. Leclerc and Verstappen were up to seventh and ninth respectively by Lap 10.
Verstappen DRS-ed past Hamilton on Lap 12 to take eighth, two seconds behind Leclerc, who then put Esteban Ocon’s Alpine between them a tour later. Verstappen jumped to sixth as he DRS-ed past Ocon and Stroll pitted on Lap 14. Sainz pitted two laps later, also taking hards but overcutting Stroll.
Leclerc pitted on Lap 17, allowing Verstappen free passage to fourth, and rejoined ahead of Stroll too, who’d struggled to get back up to speed. Stroll was then told to stop out on track, causing a safety car on Lap 18 – even though his car had pulled into a gap in the barrier that the FIA managed not to spot.
Perez led those who hadn’t yet stopped into the pits, with Alonso taking his 5s penalty but rejoining ahead of Russell.
At the rolling restart on Lap 21, Perez led Alonso, Russell, Verstappen, Sainz, Hamilton (who switched to mediums with almost everyone else on hards) and Leclerc, who was the big loser in the shuffle. Hamilton used his fresh mediums to outdrag Sainz from the exit of Turn 1 to pick up fifth.
Verstappen breezed past Russell into the final corner, so had just Alonso between him and Perez, who was 5s up the road. Verstappen DRS-ed past Alonso as the race ticked into its second half, with Perez 5.6s clear – and they began to trade fastest laps. But having closed the gap to 4.5s, Verstappen began to complain about a driveshaft problem, while Perez reported a long brake pedal.
Despite those complaints, the Red Bulls kept up their pace with Perez holding Verstappen at bay. Alonso finished 15s behind, ahead of the Mercedes duo.
Russell wasn’t in the mood to give up fourth to Hamilton, despite their tyre difference, and the Ferraris didn’t have much pace on the hards and proved to be no threat from behind.
Ocon finished eighth ahead of team-mate Pierre Gasly, as Kevin Magnussen (Haas) and Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) fought out a brilliant duel over the final point, with the Dane prevailing with a couple of laps to go.
Verstappen set fastest lap on the final tour of the race.
UPDATE: After the race, Alonso was given a further 10-seconds on his race time for not serving his time penalty correctly during his only pitstop, which drops him to fourth behind Russell.
UPDATE 2: Aston appealed the decision and successfully argued that the stewards were wrong, so the FIA issued a final race classification with the penalty dropped and Alonso restored to third.
2023 Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix fastest laps
Cla Driver Laps Time Gap Interval km/h 1 Max Verstappen
50 1'31.906 241.838 2 Sergio Perez
38 1'32.188 0.282 0.282 241.098 3 Fernando Alonso
50 1'32.240 0.334 0.052 240.962 4 George Russell
50 1'32.433 0.527 0.193 240.459 5 Carlos Sainz
50 1'32.822 0.916 0.389 239.451 6 Lewis Hamilton
47 1'32.941 1.035 0.119 239.145 7 Charles Leclerc
47 1'33.056 1.150 0.115 238.849 8 Esteban Ocon
49 1'33.222 1.316 0.166 238.424 9 Kevin Magnussen
44 1'33.374 1.468 0.152 238.036 10 Pierre Gasly
50 1'33.392 1.486 0.018 237.990 11 Nyck de Vries
49 1'33.609 1.703 0.217 237.438 12 Nico Hulkenberg
50 1'33.780 1.874 0.171 237.005 13 Zhou Guanyu
49 1'33.894 1.988 0.114 236.718 14 Yuki Tsunoda
50 1'33.931 2.025 0.037 236.624 15 Lando Norris
49 1'34.122 2.216 0.191 236.144 16 Oscar Piastri
48 1'34.287 2.381 0.165 235.731 17 Valtteri Bottas
37 1'34.384 2.478 0.097 235.489 18 Logan Sargeant
49 1'34.469 2.563 0.085 235.277 19 Lance Stroll
7 1'35.140 3.234 0.671 233.617 20 Alex Albon
24 1'35.567 3.661 0.427 232.574 View full results
2023 Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix pitstops
Cla Driver 1 2 3 4 1 Sergio Perez M 18 H 32 2
Max Verstappen M 18 H 32 3
Fernando Alonso M 18 H 33 4
George Russell M 18 H 32 5
Lewis Hamilton H 18 M 32 6
Carlos Sainz M 15 H 35 7
Charles Leclerc S 16 H 34 8
Esteban Ocon M 16 H 34 9
Pierre Gasly M 14 H 36 10
Kevin Magnussen M 8 H 42 11
Yuki Tsunoda M 17 H 33 12
Nico Hulkenberg M 11 H 39 13
Zhou Guanyu M 11 H 7 M 32 14
Nyck de Vries M 17 H 33 15
Oscar Piastri M 1 H 49 16
Logan Sargeant H 18 M 32 17
Lando Norris S 2 H 17 M 31 18
Valtteri Bottas M 9 H 8 M 18 S 14
Alex Albon M 17 H 10
Lance Stroll M 13 H 4 View full results
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