However, given the treacherous nature of the Jeddah circuit, this achievement was especially impressive. The reigning champion has demonstrated form in scything through the field in the past, coming from 20th to second at Russia in 2021 and notably last year from 14th to win at Spa. Verstappen, in turn, had a mountain to climb and duly scaled it with alacrity. There was also redemption for the 33-year-old Mexican given he had taken pole for this race last year and was in a solid position to claim a win only to be unluckily undone with the timing of a safety car. Pérez badly wanted this victory as he seeks to make his case as a championship contender this season, rather than being relegated to playing second fiddle to Verstappen. The mood was understandably different at the sharp end. “There’s lots of work to do but there are positives to take away from it.” “I went forward, which is always the hope, but the strategy didn’t work out and the setup was a bit off,” said the seven-times world champion. Struggling all weekend, Hamilton was left clutching at straws flying in dirty air and looking hopefully into what seems to be the distant future. Max came past me with some serious speed.” “When we were fast we weren’t that fast – that is the fastest car I have seen, especially compared to the rest. “I’ve definitely not seen a car so fast,” he said. Hamilton’s assessment of the Red Bull was brutally honest and potentially worrying for F1. As the Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, observed when told he was P2 in the championship: “Yeah, the first loser.” Photograph: Florent Gooden/DPPI/REX/Shutterstockįighting for the scraps Red Bull are leaving in their wake can only be demoralising for their opponents so early in the season as they look for positives and hope for improvements. “He picked the cars off and then progressed through the field, so a phenomenal recovery for him.”Ī series of cars tackle a bend at the Jeddah Corniche circuit during Sunday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Horner hailed Pérez as having driven probably his best ever race and also Verstappen in executing a precision comeback drive. “The team, all credit to them, they’ve built an incredible car,” he said. The Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, acknowledged the job his team had done. Red Bull look in every position to hit some positively prog-rock levels of indulgence. No one likes a drum solo and absolutely no one likes an overly long drum solo. Quite how entertaining this proves when the championship enters its long mid-period in what is a long old season is questionable. Last season they took 17 wins from 22 races this time they already look even more dominant. This was brutal stuff from Red Bull, a fighter at peak fitness, a lowering presence looming over their opponents and delivering blow after blow with effortless ease. “I am fighting for a championship and, even if it is just between two cars, we have to make sure the cars are reliable.” “I am not here to be second, so I am not happy,” he said. Verstappen’s reaction was telling in acknowledging that it is almost certainly now a two-horse race. Some drivers have already posited the notion that Red Bull could take a clean sweep of the 23 races this season, a seemingly impossible target that remains an awfully long way off but which, on this form, they have the machinery at the very least to make a possibility. It was far from a thriller under the floodlights at the Jeddah Corniche circuit rather more a showcase of what increasingly looks to be the indisputable advantage Red Bull hold.
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