Saudi Arabia GP: Sergio Perez holds off Max Verstappen as Red Bull dominate

And Mercedes, in turn, move into second alone in the constructor standings. In fairness, if you want to be philosophical about it, Alonso cost himself five seconds by being out of place on the grid and his team cost him five seconds with the pit-lane snafu.

Anyway, well done George. An excellent weekend.

That drops him down to fourth. He’s only just got off the podium. That’s harsh and not his fault.

It seems it was the rear jack was in place under the car, touching it, before the five-second penalty was served. Ouch. Here is exactly why, from Sky Sports:

That is for not serving the five-second penalty in the pit lane correctly, in other words, touching the car before the five second penalty time had elapsed. If it’s five seconds he will keep third, if it’s a 10-second penalty he will slip down to fourth.

A pretty chastening race for Ferrari who were nowhere, really. Leclerc made a good charge through the field in the first stint but the car did not work very well on the hard tyres. 4.8s the gap between Sainz and Hamilton. A kind-of okay race for Mercedes, who are now second in the standings, level with Aston Martin.

It wasn’t very easy to get through the field, through the first sector. Very happy to be on the podium.

[On the driveshaft issue]

I was in second, we had a big gap behind so at one point we decided to call it a day and settle for second, which anyway was a very good recovery.

[On the fastest lap at the end]

I gave it a go at the end so luckily it worked out.

What a start to the season, probably unthinkable one month ago when we launched the car. These guys made a fantastic car… good strategy and two podiums. I need to review, I made a mistake. When they told me five seconds penalty I said I need to drive faster. It is a hard grand prix but those guys give me power and I push all the way through like qualifying laps. Red Bulls a bit out of reach but the rest, they were behind, so happy for that.

“It turned out to be tougher than expected, the Safety Car tried to take the victory from us in Jeddah. The team did a fantastic job. The job they’ve done, they worked so hard in the weekend, we had a lot of mechanical issues and the guys have been on top of that.

“We will keep pushing, we will keep pushing hard. The important thing, I think, we were the fastest car today.”

…is at least a bit smaller this time. 20 seconds. Another exemplary race in another exemplary weekend from Fernando Alonso.

1. PER – 25pts
2. VER – 19pts
3. RUS – 15pts
4. ALO – 12pts
5. HAM – 10pts
6. SAI – 8pts
7. LEC – 6pts
8. OCO – 4pts
9. GAS – 2pts
10. MAG – 1pt
11. TSU
12. HUL
13. ZHO
14. DEV
15. PIA
16. SAR
17. NOR
18. BOT

OUT: ALB, STR

A superb performance from the Mexican. I thought Verstappen had it when he took second after the SC period, but Perez drove superbly to keep his team-mate at arm’s length. Probably his best win in F1.

Verstappen sneaks the fastest lap bonus point on the final lap which means he will lead the championship.

Alonso crosses the line in third and, you know what, even if he has a five-second penalty he will still be in third as Russell finished 5.1s behind him.

Verstappen is attempting the fastest lap here, goes fastest in sector one… Fair enough, really. Unless he bins it.

“Currently Russell is 4.3s behind. It would be nice to have five seconds just in case but we think we’re okay,” he is told.

Russell is “pushing like a madman at the moment” he says.

It’s for 16th place admittedly, but Norris was told to let Piastri through and he does…

Perez leads Verstappen by 6.5s and the Dutchman has seemingly given up hope of winning this race. But not the fastest lap point, apparently.

The gap between Alonso and Russell for third is 4.4s. Not sure what that’s about… he already served a five second penalty.

“We are not concerned about that at the moment, Max,” comes the reply. “Yeah, but I am,” is the Dutchman’s response. Ha. I reckon he’ll go for it on the final couple of laps. Save his battery charge.

Tsunoda has driven a good race to run in the points but loses that final points-paying position to Kevin Magnussen of Haas.

Six tenths of a second the Mexican extended his lead by last time. This looks like Perez has it, as it stands.

1. PER
2. VER +4.6
3. ALO +21.8
4. RUS +26.5
5. HAM +29.7
6. SAI +34.4
7. LEC +36.7
8. OCO +46.9
9. GAS +49.6
10. TSU +56.2

Singapore last year was good but Verstappen wasn’t really a factor in that. Verstappen did start down the grid here, as he did in Marina Bay, but was up to second by the half-way point and only five seconds behind. So maybe this would trump it.

Perez sounds a bit confused about the lap time target he is being told. He wonders if they are supposed to be pushing or not? He is told he can push.

They had an improved showing in qualifying with one of their cars, but they are currently last but one and last but two on the road…

I wonder if Verstappen is settling for second here with his issue? No, I doubt it. He sets the fastest final sector to reduce the gap to 4.2s.

The gap has been pretty stable, really, since Verstappen got into second. Perez has lost a second over the last 15 or 16 laps. So incremental losses.

Perez now complaining about a “long” brake pedal.

1. PER
2. VER
3. ALO
4. RUS
5. HAM
6. SAI
7. LEC
8. OCO
9. GAS
10. TSU
11. MAG
12. HUL
13. ZHO
14. SAR
15. DEV
16. NOR
17. PIA
18. BOT

OUT: ALB, STR

But Verstappen brings the gap down to 4.6s, so nothing too worrying regarding his overall pace at the moment.

They both ran wide at turn one/two, though, so maybe it came through that.

Perez did put in a fast first sector. Verstappen can hear a weird noise at high speed and you can almost hear it (perhaps) in the team radio. Or something like it. He is told it’s okay, but he is clearly worried.

“It sounds like the driveshaft sounds a bit rough,” he says. Hmmmm.

Verstappen currently holds the fastest lap bonus point.

This race is far from done yet. It did feel like a formality that Verstappen would win when he charged through to second after the SC in no time… but Perez has done brilliantly here. He needs to continue that.

He poste the fastest final sector and gets the gap down to 4.3s. Hulkenberg brushes the wall as he tries to defend from Sargeant at turn one.

Russell has pulled out nearly three seconds from Hamilton in fifth.

Is he keeping his powder dry? Plenty of time left in this race.

The top 10 has a two-by-two look about it. Red Bull, Red Bull, Aston Martin, Mercedes, Mercedes, Ferrari, Ferrari, Alpine, Alpine and then AlphaTauri…

The Red Bulls lapping roughly a second faster than their closest rivals per lap… ouch.

…but the Red Bulls. Verstappen doing a fine job, but Perez is just about his match at the moment.

1. PER
2. VER +5.3
3. ALO +11.9
4. RUS +14.2
5. HAM +15.6
6. SAI +18.9
7. LEC +20.3
8. OCO +23.9
9. GAS +26.1
10. TSU +29.0

But Perez was within a tenth of that and is driving very well.

Verstappen is closing down the gap, bit by bit.

Russell has been told to let Hamilton pass, we believe, but isn’t that keen. He’s trying pretty hard to keep his team-mate behind him, though. Hamilton now out of DRS range.

Albon continues round, which is strange for a man who claimed to have brake failure. He is now slowing and crawling around track. All a bit odd, especially as he was going at near full-speed after his “brake failure” comments.

Hamilton is now within DRS range of Russell. This could be interesting.

Perez is putting in some good laps here, keeping Verstappen at bay. Less than a tenth between them the last time around, in terms of lap time.

1. PER
2. VER
3. ALO
4. RUS
5. HAM
6. SAI
7. LEC
8. OCO
9. GAS
10. TSU
11. MAG
12. HUL
13. ALB
14. SAR
15. ZHO
16. DEV
17. NOR
18. PIA
19. BOT

OUT: STR

Albon says he has brake failure. Not what you want on this track, or any…

Alonso does not fight it and that is fair enough. It’s a Red Bull 1-2 and… well, we need another SC or a crash at the front to make this race anything like interesting when it comes to the win. Surely.

1. PER
2. ALO +5.1
3. VER +5.5
4. RUS +7.0
5. HAM +7.9
6. SAI +9.3
7. LEC +10.6
8. OCO +12.3
9. TSU +13.9
10. GAS +14.2

Oh, my mistake. DRS has not been enabled. It will be a sure thing the next time around, I reckon…

Alonso says he likes the tyres. Perez leads him by 3.8s. Russell is a further 1.1s behind the Spaniard but has Verstappen right on his rear wing.

The Red Bull breezes through before the final turn and takes third.

He’s only 5.6 behind leader Perez now and the only car between the two is Alonso.

Verstappen fails to get ahead of Russell and Hamilton fails to get ahead of Sainz… at turn one, anyway. Hamilton gets him on the run down to turn four. Nice move. Hamilton on the better tyres.

Verstappen much closer at the end of the lap, surely he’ll get him with the aid of DRS now…

The SC peels in and Perez pulls out a massive lead by turn one, getting the jump on Alonso who is challenged by Russell.

Right lap 21 here, I think Verstappen will be in the lead by lap 31. Russell his first target.

Perez leads Alonso by two seconds.

1. PER
2. ALO
3. RUS
4. VER
5. SAI
6. HAM
7. LEC
8. TSU
9. OCO
10. GAS
11. MAG
12. ALB
13. HUL
14. DEV
15. SAR
16. PIA
17. ZHO
18. BOT
19. NOR

OUT: STR

Everyone else has gone onto the hard compound tyres whilst Hamilton is the only driver in the top 14 who is on the medium tyres. That will be handy when they restart after the SC comes in, which will be very soon indeed.

Leclerc getting annoyed with his team about a message on the radio, delayed information, again…

Having looked at where Stroll’s car is, I am not sure a SC is necessary. He’s quite out of the way and it only needs to be moved about two metres to be entirely out of the way. Perez and Alonso choose to stop under the SC the second time around, Verstappen does, too…

How will this work out?

The upshot is that the field will be a lot more bunched up. And that Verstappen is now a nailed on favourite for this race. He has benefitted massively from this. He was previously about a pit stop behind the leader and now he will be a matter of seconds behind.

That’s worked out very well for Ferrari.

Yellow flags... it’s Lance Stroll who has been told to stop the car at turn 13. Why?

Alonso goes past the start/finish line so cannot take advantage of a cheap pit stop if there is a SC. Which there might well be…

Yes, there is. This will work out well for Verstappen.

About a third of the way through.

1. PER
2. ALO
3. RUS
4. VER
5. LEC
6. HAM
7. OCO
8. TSU
9. SAI
10. STR
11. ALB
12. DEV
13. SAR
14. GAS
15. MAG
16. ZHO
17. HUL
18. PIA
19. BOT
20. NOR

Pit stops coming thick and fast now, though.

Decent. Verstappen almost within a second of Leclerc for fifth. Sainz does finally come into the pits. Sainz goes onto the hard tyres.

Sainz comes out behind Tsunoda, who has not pitted, but ahead of Lance Stroll, who has and who he was in a fight with.

Perez leads Alonso, Russell, Leclerc, Verstappen, Ocon, Hamilton and Tsunoda.

The gap is growing but Alonso’s fight is not with the Red Bull.

Okay, that seems like a two-stop strategy then? Well, he might go onto the hards… wonder if medium/soft/soft might work for some.

Verstappen then gets Ocon at turn one. Stroll also into the pits from fourth. Now it turns out that Sainz did not stop. Did they sell Aston Martin a dummy?

He’s only 4.1s behind team-mate Sainz, despite starting a good chunk of places behind him. He is on the softs, though, and you would expect the pace on them to drop off fairly soon, I guess.

Alonso says his tyres feel good and wants to keep going.

DRS enabled, up the inside of turn one. Hamilton not really fighting that one…

Leclerc is the next man up the road for the No 1 car, but Leclerc has Ocon in his sights for sixth.

Aston Martin looking at extending their strategy. Medium to soft, then?

Verstappen now 19.5s behind leader Perez. Alonso has dropped to 2.2s behind Perez so is probably managing his tyres now that he has got the five seconds to Russell behind.

He dispatches Gasly and then will set about Charles Leclerc who is barely a second ahead.

Fernando Alonso has gapped Russell by five seconds, so is a net second after his penalty is applied. Superb pace from the double world champion.

Up the inside of turn one, the usual place. Easily done. Different tyre strategies and different strategies for those two.

1. PER
2. ALO +0.8
3. RUS +4.8
4. STR +5.9
5. SAI +6.7
6. OCO +10.4
7. HAM +12.9
8. LEC +13.5
9. GAS +14.9
10. VER +16.1

Hamilton has been noted for weaving on the straights… he is under immense pressure from Leclerc now. He gets a driving standards warning, a black and white flag, for it.

He gets Gasly at the start of the lap with a tidy move around the outside. The Mercedes of Hamilton ahead nearly got involved there…

Leclerc, remember, is on the soft tyre and Hamilton, the next man ahead, is on the hard tyre.

Alonso doing a very good job still of remaining on the rear wing of Perez.

He keeps it together and out of the wall but loses a but of time.

Alonso keeping within a second of Perez, who has just set the fastest lap. A bit of a gap then back to Russell in third, with Stroll and Sainz in close company behind.

Guanyu Zhou is the next man with a target on his back. The gap from Perez to Verstappen is 12.6s.

Up the inside at turn one with DRS enabled… Alonso tries to fight it after Perez locks up but to no avail…

Replays show that Alonso was a foot or two out of his pit box on the left-hand side so can have no real arguments. Piastri had a coming together with Gasly at turn three and lost his right end-plate on his front wing.

Perez leads Alonso, Russell, Stroll, Sainz and Ocon.

1. ALO
2. PER
3. RUS
4. STR
5. SAI
6. OCO
7. HAM
8. GAS
9. LEC
10. ZHO

Alonso has been told about his penalty. DRS has been enabled. Norris coming into the pits and changing his front wing. Another difficult start for the boys in orange: 19th and 20th on track now.

Verstappen up to 13th and Leclerc in ninth.

But not by much. Piastri comes into the pits to change his front wing after that incident, a replay of which we have yet to see.

Ahhh, it’s a five-second time penalty to Alonso for an incorrect starting position…

Perez is within a second but DRS has not yet been activated.

If I were Aston Martin I am not sure I would tell Alonso until the lap or two before he comes into the pits.

A lot of smoke coming from Lance Stroll’s tyres…

They’re away and Alonso is away the best of all of them! He gets the better start and gets his elbows out and keeps the lead, taking the inside line! Lovely stuff!

Russell keeps third and then Stroll makes it two Aston Martins in the top four with a move around the outside of turn 13 ahead of Sainz…

Oh no, Alonso has been noted for incorrect starting position. Esteban Ocon got a penalty last week for the same thing and it was a five-second penalty…

Piastri has damage, not sure where he picked that up from.

Alonso leads Perez, Russell, Stroll, Sainz and then Ocon.

It’s a long formation lap and Perez has strung the field out a bit, so he may be waiting in his grid slot for a while.

Will we see an aggressive start from Alonso, who has the inside line at the start?

Everyone gets away cleanly from Perez at the front to Sargeant at the back.

Everyone on fresh mediums apart from Hamilton in seventh (hards), Leclerc in 12th (softs), Norris in 19th (softs) and Sargeant in 20th (hards). The hard runners are probably hoping to go long and have a bigger safety car window where they can benefit from a cheap pit stop.

And understandably so. Yet moments like Verstappen’s driveshift failure yesterday (i.e. jeopardy, unpredictability) are what keeps people coming back and keeps the sport interesting. I am optimistic of a decent race, however it finishes.

Predictions? Well, I think it’ll be a Red Bull 1-2. Will go with 1st Perez, 2nd Verstappen, 3rd Alonso. Leclerc to finish fifth. Stroll fourth. Hamilton to have a bad race, perhaps.

We have a quick car but I still need to be careful. It’s a long championship… so I need to try and score as many points as I can. I also know it’s not entirely realistic to try and fight for the win but I will try and do what I can. I just need to be a bit careful.

He never really looked in it. Fernando Alonso is getting nearly everything from that Aston Martin, though.

He is third favourite for the race. Stranger things have happened…

“It’s always fun around here – a fast track. Going to be hard to fight with the Red Bulls,” he says he is, however, hopeful of a fight with the Aston Martins and the Ferraris.

How they line up for today’s race:

2. ALO 1. PER
4. SAI 3. RUS
6. OCO 5. STR
8. PIA 7. HAM
10. HUL 9. GAS
12. LEC 11. ZHO
14. BOT 13. MAG
16. TSU 15. VER
18. DEV 17. ALB
20. SAR 19.NOR

It includes the overall score, the average gap expressed as a percentage and a driver’s current run.

Any nerves about the driveshaft after Verstappen’s failure yesterday, he is asked.

You’re always nervous with these cars, they are so on the edge. I think we understood the failure… I think we have a remedy for it. We checked Checo’s and it’s fine… but it’s a long race. If he [Verstappen] got anywhere near the podium, that’d be one hell of a drive.

I think, given the likelihood of safety cars and VSC we will see a fair few two-stop strategies.

Just about 30 minutes until the race begins.

He starts in 12th after taking a 10-place grid penalty, so three places ahead of Verstappen. He failed to finish in the opening race of the year, so will be keen for some points. I am not sure at this point he holds any serious hopes of challenging for the championship.

A pretty good qualifying for Ferrari yesterday, though as I said earlier the gap would probably have been bigger had Verstappen been there.

I think a Red Bull 1-2 in Jeddah is probably the most likely result, just about… so would expect them to extend their lead over Aston Martin today. Let’s hope for something a bit more interesting today…

Perez has a good chance to move top, for what it’s worth.

You always have to look at the gaps between team-mates as evidence so, on that basis: Alonso, Russell and Piastri. Piastri into Q3 in his second race and after a very difficult debut.

That’s impressive and should fill him with confidence. Norris, meanwhile, ended his session after tagging the wall and will start on the back row. An uncharacteristic error.

1. Sergio Perez (Mex) Red Bull 1min 28.265secs
2. Charles Leclerc (Mon) Ferrari 1:28.420
3. Fernando Alonso (Spa) Aston Martin 1:28.730
4. George Russell (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:28.857
5. Carlos Sainz Jr. (Spa) Ferrari 1:28.931
6. Lance Stroll (Can) Aston Martin 1:28.945
7. Esteban Ocon (Fra) Alpine 1:29.078
8. Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:29.223
9. Oscar Piastri (Aus) McLaren 1:29.243
10. Pierre Gasly (Fra) Alpine 1:29.357
11. Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) MoneyGram Haas F1 1:29.451
12. Guanyu Zhou (Chn) Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake 1:29.461
13. Kevin Magnussen (Den) MoneyGram Haas F1 1:29.517
14. Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake 1:29.668
15. Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull 1:49.953
16. Yuki Tsunoda (Jpn) Scuderia AlphaTauri 1:29.939
17. Alexander Albon (Tha) Williams 1:29.994
18. Nyck de Vries (Ned) Scuderia AlphaTauri 1:30.244
19. Lando Norris (Gbr) McLaren 1:30.447
20. Logan Sargeant (USA) Williams 2:08.510

Welcome to our live coverage for the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix from the Jeddah Corniche Circuit. After romping home to victory in the opening round, Max Verstappen will have a more difficult task to take victory in the second race of the new season, after suffering a mechanical issue in qualifying.

Verstappen, who had led every session up to that point and was miles ahead in Q1, had a driveshaft failure in the second part of qualifying yesterday without a lap on the board. That means he will start 15th in today’s race. In fairness, it is probably just as well as the dominance he was showing meant a repeat of his easy Bahrain win a fortnight ago looked very likely. As an example: the gap between Verstappen and second-placed Sergio Perez in Q1 was larger than the gap between Perez and 12th place Esteban Ocon…

In the final reckoning it was Perez who found the time in Q3 to take his second career pole position – his last came at this track a year ago, although he could not convert that to victory. Charles Leclerc put in a fairly encouraging lap for Ferrari, just a tenth and a half off Perez’s time. The worry is that the gap might have been closer to a second had Verstappen made it into Q3. However, Leclerc takes a 10-place grid drop for an unscheduled power unit change so will start 12th.

Fernando Alonso’s new lease of life continues, and the Spaniard was third for Aston Martin with George Russell fourth for Mercedes. Alonso, though, will start on the front row alongside Perez after Leclerc’s penalty is applied. It should make an interesting start, though the pace of the Red Bull even in the hands of Perez might be too much if he gets ahead at the start. In fact, it might be too much even if he doesn’t stay ahead.

That said, Jeddah is a very quick street circuit and there is a high likelihood that there will be a Safety Car or even a red flag period. That throws some unpredictability into the equation. Very few drivers out there are ruling out a Verstappen win, and Russell cited his charge through the field in Spa last year as an example. You certainly cannot rule it out, though it should be at least be marginally harder than his win two weeks ago.

Anyway, the race begins at 5pm GMT and we will be here for all of the build-up, latest updates and reaction from the race.