The 2024 Formula 1 World Championship is on its way to becoming an ‘ode’ to Max Verstappen y Red Bull. Two races, Bahrain and Arabia, were enough for the Dutchman to escape to the front of the classification, prematurely underpinning his candidacy for the fourth consecutive title. Adrian Newey has once again surprised the competition with the powerful RB20, a car even more dominant than its predecessor and which has already scored two doubles, with Czech Perez resigned to the role of luxury secondary to the ‘untouchable’ Max.
This Saturday, on the challenging urban circuit of Jeddah Corniche, the Mexican had no option to repeat the victory achieved here last year. Verstappen has exercised absolute control and not even the strategies of his rivals have altered the foreseeable outcome. Two victories out of two possible for the current three-time champion, who has climbed to the podium escorted by his teammate Pérez and Charles Leclerc. The same script that we saw a week ago in Bahrain, although with a different Ferrari protagonist, before the absence of Carlos Sainz.
Fernando Alonso He has offered a true exhibition and has ‘removed oil’ from an Aston Martin that is not yet ready to aspire to podiums. The Spaniard made an intelligent race to finish in the ‘top five’ and managed to keep Russell at bay with the Mercedes.
Max doesn’t fail
Verstappen had carefully calculated his strategy to escape from the start and take advantage of the advantage that the initial section grants here before the DRS. The Red Bull driver, for the second time on pole this season, has fulfilled his objective and has quickly put himself in the way.
Just like in Bahrain, a week ago, Red Bull have gone for the double. Checo Pérez needed four laps to overtake Leclerc and get in the wake of his teammate, who was still at fast lap pace, no longer seeing anyone in the rearview mirror.
Fernando Alonso, who on Friday achieved a privileged position on the second row of the grid after an impressive performance, defended himself very well at the start, under pressure from the two McLarens, although after the first laps he was unable to prevent Piastri from chasing him, relegating him to fifth place, with the threat of Norris.
Stroller accidents
Fernando’s teammate, Lance Stroll, crashed in the third sector of the circuit, breaking the direction of the AMR24 to impact at high speed against the protection barriers. The Canadian has escaped well from the very serious accident, which caused the first safety car in the race. All the favorites, except Norristhey have passed through garages and the Briton has started to lead the race with a different strategy from that of his teammate Piastri, as Hamilton has also done in Mercedes.
Alonso has avoided Checo ‘in extremis’ at the exit of the pit lane and the FIA has announced an investigation into the risky maneuver of the Mexican, who has conceded a 5 second penalty. At the same time they have rejected another irregular action, due to Norris’s position at the start of the race.
Red Bull, for another double
Verstappen was still ‘flying’ on the track and it didn’t take him long to regain control. In just five laps the gap with Norris was already 3 seconds. And the sanction to Czech, who was running third, forced him to force the pace to open the gap with Leclerc. The Mexican has accounted for Norris and the Red Bull tandem has gone straight for the second double of the year.
Meanwhile, already in another ‘league’, Alonso gave up more and more with Plates and the Australian, very aggressive, tried to surprise Hamilton without success. The Asturian has once again remained in no man’s land, leaving Russell at more than 1.5, without the possibility of attacking him with the DRS. Leclercfor its part, has reached Norris to move up to third place, although the Monegasque was too far away (+8”) in his pursuit of Checo.
With no more incidents or safety cars to give them a chance in their strategy, Hamilton y Norris They have completed their scheduled stop with eleven laps remaining. The Briton, on soft tires, returned to the track with a fast lap. Both have tried to put pressure on the rivals ahead of them with hard rubber and no window to change.
For Alonso The last ten laps have been a personal battle, in qualifying mode, trying to keep fifth place against Russell, avoiding DRS, aware that Norris and Hamilton, with much more pace behind, promised a ‘heart attack’ finish. The two Britons did not have the time or power to achieve their goal and Fernando completed the race in a top five that tastes like glory to those from Silverstone and even more so after Stroll’s accident.
Brilliant premiere of Bearman
Missing from the Arabian race was one of the main actors of the ‘great circus’, Carlos Sainz, who underwent surgery yesterday for appendicitis and this afternoon returned to the circuit to follow the action from the Ferrari box. His substitute, the very young Ollie Bearman, 18 years old, has calmly assumed the challenge of the improvised debut on one of the fastest and most technical circuits on the calendar.
On Friday only 36 thousandths separated him from Q3 and today he managed to complete his first race in seventh position, while his father was nervous in the box, very close to the president of Ferrari John Elkann. Outstanding debut for the British.
2024-03-09 17:33:38
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