Maybe George Russell had it right.
Almost as soon as Russell climbed out of his car early this month after the first race of the Formula 1 season, he declared the chase for the season championship over. Red Bull’s cars, he said, were simply too fast. “They have got this championship sewn up,” Russell said at the time. Red Bull, he said, might just win every race.
So far, that is just what it is doing. Sergio Pérez breezed to Red Bull’s second victory in two races on Sunday, capturing the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix with a performance nearly as dominant as the one turned in by his teammate Max Verstappen the last time out.
That Verstappen did not win himself was only the result of a bit of bad luck: He broke the drive shaft on his car during qualifying Saturday, forcing him into a repair that left him starting 15th. It hardly mattered.
Pérez, who had started in pole position, lost the lead to Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin before the first turn, won it back by the fourth lap and slowly and methodically pulled away for his fifth career victory.
Verstappen, meanwhile, was picking his way through the pack behind him with ease. Told before the race of a prediction by a rival that his car was so fast that he would be “P2 by Lap 25,” Verstappen shrugged and said he would do his best.
But when the 25th lap arrived, that was right where he was: P2, or second place, with only his teammate Pérez ahead. By then the Red Bulls were picking up about a second a lap on the field, and the sense of resignation about the unmatched speed of Verstappen and Pérez — a feeling that was palpable all week in Jeddah — was sure to spread.
“Red Bull is in another league,” Alonso said before the race. No, the Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc corrected. Red Bull, he said, “is on another planet.”
Max Verstappen’s Wild Ride
Verstappen had played down his chances of victory from the moment a broken drive shaft ended his qualifying early Saturday and left him in 15th place. But that did not mean he had any intention of staying in the back of the field.
It took him only eight laps to move into 10th place, and only eight more to rise to fifth. By the halfway point of the race, and helped by the fortuitous arrival of a safety car that allowed him to make up even more ground, Verstappen was in second.
Some radio traffic between Verstappen and his garage suggested his mechanical issues may not have been over, but that was forgotten after he closed the race with the fastest lap of the day. That earned a bonus point, which was just enough to nudge Pérez out of the top spot in the season standings.
“I gave it a go at the end,” he said, “so luckily it worked out.”
He remains, without question, the car to beat this season.
Sunday’s Race in Photos
Where the Race Turned
Alonso, who started second, sprinted past Pérez and beat him to the first turn. But despite being perhaps the most experienced driver in the field, Alonso had made a regrettable — and eminently preventable — mistake: He had lined up incorrectly on the starting grid, outside the left edge of his box. The race stewards spotted the infraction and assessed a five-second penalty, which Alonso appeared to serve on his first pit stop.
By then, Pérez was long gone, and the race was effectively over. Alonso’s problems, though, were not.
A close look at that pit stop revealed the team had served the five-second penalty improperly, as a race mechanic’s jack appeared to be touching Alonso’s car while the clock ticked. So the stewards assessed another penalty after the race, this time for 10 seconds. That was enough to knock Alonso, who had already taken part in the ceremony for what he thought was the 100th podium finish of his career, into fourth place.
Russell would have to settle for the third-place points as a consolation prize, though they did come with a lovely Champagne-soaked trophy.
What They’re Saying
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“We will keep pushing. The important thing is we were the fastest car out there today.” — Pérez after posting the fifth win of his career but failing to take the season points lead from Verstappen.
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“When they told me I had a five-second penalty, I said, ‘OK, I need to drive a little bit faster.’” — Alonso, whose third-place finish would have been his second in two races this season. Instead, he was bumped to fourth by another penalty.
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“We are not where we want to be but we will get there.” — Lewis Hamilton, acknowledging that fifth place is better but still not good enough for him or Mercedes.
Next Race
April 2: Australian Grand Prix, Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit.