After a close dispute, the Dutchman Max Verstappen, of Red Bull, won the GP of Saudi Arabia, taking the lead in the last laps. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took second place.
It was the defending champion’s first victory this season. At the Bahrain GP, the first stage of the 2022 World Cup, Verstappen had battery problems and was forced to abandon the race. His Red Bull teammate, Mexican Sergio Pérez, spun.
By taking the lead in the final moments of the race, Verstappen echoed the victory of his first F1 title, at the Abu Dhabi GP, in December last year, when on the last lap he overtook Lewis Hamilton, from Mercedes, until then his great rival.
Verstappen’s performance at the 2022 Saudi Arabian GP was very different from his last stint at the circuit, when Hamilton got the better of him. On that occasion, it was the Englishman who, in the last few laps, managed to gain the lead.
The Jeddah circuit is considered one of the most dangerous in the World; it’s the second longest in length and the most twisty — no other track has so many turns. On lap 15, Williams’ Nicholas Latifi crashed into the concrete wall. He raised the yellow flag and the safety car was put into action.
With that, Perez, who had been leading the race with ease since the start, dropped to third position. Ferrari’s Leclerc took the lead.
On Saturday (26), the second training session was marked by the accident of Mick Schumacher, from the North American team Haas. The 23-year-old German, son of Ferrari legend and seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, crashed his car into the GP’s concrete wall.
The force of the impact tore the car apart. Schumacher escaped unharmed, but the team chose to withdraw him from this Sunday’s GP (27).
The Saudi Arabian GP was crossed by geopolitical and human rights issues. On Friday (25), an oil refinery owned by Saudi Aramco, the main sponsor of the F1 GP in the country, was the target of an attack. Yemen’s Houthi rebels, allied with Iran, claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Smoke from the fire at the Aramco facility, which is 12km from the Jeddah circuit, was seen spreading across the city during F1’s first free practice session and GP activities were suspended. Before the start of the second training session, pilots and teams met to discuss the attack.
Due to the contestants’ meeting, all post-workout interviews were cancelled. Hours earlier, FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem said members of the Houthis “are targeting infrastructure, not civilians and of course not the track”. He further stated that “this is a safe place. Let’s keep running.”
The 2022 F1 World Cup, which began with the Bahrain GP on Sunday (18), was also affected by the war started by Russia against Ukraine. Pressure from drivers, teams and, mainly, sponsors, led to the termination of the contract with the promoter of the Sochi stage of the season, previously scheduled for September. “Which means Russia will not count on any stages in the future,” F1 reported.
However, dictatorships such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain did not receive the same treatment from F1 as Russia. And while GPs in these countries are often marred by protests from drivers such as Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, there is no indication that circuits in these countries will be excluded from F1.
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