In Pictures: Saudi Arabia 2022
The Lions unleashed!
111 days after the 2021 race, the F1 Circus was back at the fastest street circuit in the calendar, the Jeddah Corniche Circuit for the 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
During this weekend, Sir Lewis Hamilton became the driver with the most races for a single constructor (Mercedes) after breaking Michael Schumacher’s record 179 starts for Ferrari.
Friday practices went on fairly problem-less, even though during FP2, a huge plume of smoke was visible in the distance. It was a major oil refinery that caught fire after a supposedly a missile attack near the track by Yemen's Houthi rebels. After many hours of meetings between the FIA, F1, the team directors and the drivers, they all decided to continue the weekend as originally planned.
On Saturday, most people in the paddock were thinking about the racing and got to the day work with the usual enthusiasm. Few problems for some of the teams, particularly Mercedes and AlphaTauri.
A few minutes into Qualifying, Nicholas Latifi crashed his Williams in turn 13, bringing out a red flag. Q1 resumed and at the end the big shock was Lewis Hamilton not getting his W13 into the next round. In Q2, Mick Schumacher crashed heavily in a very fast section of the track, finally stopping at turn 12, bringing out another red flag.
Then what a fantastic qualifying we’ve had! Amazing laps from the Ferrari boys with Leclerc edging out Sainz. But the star of the show was Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, becoming the first ever Mexican to be on Pole in F1 history!
Thankfully Mick is ok, although, after qualifying, the team elected to withdraw Mick Schumacher from the race.
On Sunday, we also lost Yuki Tsunoda as his AlphaTauri failed on the way to the grid.
The race started with Leclerc trying to overtake Perez but ended up blocking Sainz, and Verstappen taken advantage of the open door, taking 3rd place. From the next few laps, the race stabilized. But on lap 16, Nicholas Latifi crashed his Williams, bringing out the safety car. A couple of laps earlier, Ferrari bluffed Red Bull into the pits. Perez did come in for hards, Leclerc stayed out, then came Latifi’s crash and Leclerc pitted for hards. The order after the pitstops was Leclerc, Verstappen, Perez and Sainz.
Safety car ended on lap 20 and the race re-started.
Meanwhile, Hamilton, having started on hard tires, came up the order from 15th to 6th, behind teammate Russell by lap 26.
The on lap 36, Alonso reported engine problems and limped to the pits. A lap later, Daniel Ricciardo stopped right in the pit entrance, just behind Alonso’s Alpine, bringing out a VSC. In the meantime, Bottas’ Alfa Romeo retired from the race.
VSC ended on lap 41 and what a fantastic ending we’ve had. Several laps of pure, exciting racing all over the track, especially up front between Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc with the Red Bull edging out the Ferrari by a few meters. Carlos Sainz finished third and pole-sitter fourth.
QUOTES FROM THE PODIUM:
““It was a tough and crazy race today. I had a lot of fun battling with Charles again, I really enjoyed it and it’s not easy to get past him, patience is always key, especially if you want to fight for the Championship. In the beginning it was pretty difficult to follow but I think once we swapped to the hard tire, we were able to push more and the pace was better. We played the long game on the tires which seemed to pay off. Towards the end of the race it felt like we were doing lots of quali laps, which was intense but really cool. Ultimately, we were able to win and we can be very proud of that as a Team. It wasn’t easy out there, but I think we maximized all that we could today. It was really unlucky for Checo with the timing of the safety car, but we have plenty of races ahead of us where we can make up for it.””
““Although I’m disappointed to lose the victory so late in the race, it feels good to be fighting for wins again. Whenever I had a bit of margin to Max (Verstappen), I could manage the race well. But after the Virtual Safety Car, as soon as he got in the DRS range, it became difficult. He was fast in the straights, and I was fast in the corners. You have to play on your strengths as much as possible when it’s this tight. I regained my position twice but the third time it did not work out. I could have possibly had another opportunity if it weren’t for the yellow flag at the end of the race, but that’s part of the game. It was a really fun battle! I hope it stays this close for the coming races. It’s exciting to watch and to drive like this. Development will be key, and we have to push hard.””
““I had a very good launch at the start, but I ran out of space on the right and Max got better traction on the inside line. From then on, the race was quite straightforward, even though I would have expected to have been given back the position ahead of Checo (Perez), as I came out of pit lane ahead of him, while the Safety Car was still out. Having to wait for the restart to get back to third meant I could not try and fight for second place... P3 is a good result and overall, this has been a fairly positive weekend, definitely better than one week ago in Bahrain. I feel we are going in the right direction with this car and I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before we are fighting a bit further up the order. We have a clearer picture of where and what we need to improve, and we have a direction to follow. I can’t wait to go to Australia after two years without racing there.””
HERE'S A SELECTION OF PHOTOS FROM THE WEEKEND:
