This race weekend was very special for sure. We saw crashes, surprises and struggling World Champions. On top of that the whole weekend was standing under fear and uncertainty because of an explosion that happened not far away from the racetrack. With that being said let’s take a look at the race weekend in Saudi Arabia.

Important Stuff First

Let’s start with the most controversial and important stuff first that unfortunately has nothing to do with the sport itself: the explosion near the race track. Many sources have reported that this explosion was a missile fired by some rebels. Because of this incident there were many discussion in the night from Friday to Saturday on whether this race should even happen. According to sources at the paddocks everybody agreed to continue racing as the racetrack is “the safest place” to be at. While this might be true, the mental pressure for the drivers must be immense. Not only that but there are rumors going around that if this race would have been boycotted, the teams would have had problems to get out of Saudi Arabi in general. Now if this is not a clear sign of not giving countries without human rights any more exposure to the sport, than I do not know what is. These races were already very controversial but with incidents like exploding missiles, the FIA should really consider if the safety and human rights of the teams and drivers is worth the money. With this out of the way, let’s continue with the sport because that is why we are all here I guess!

The Qualifying

The qualifying by itself had again some interesting surprises for us. Mick Schumacher and Nicolas Latifi had crashes, especially Schumacher’s one looked very dangerous. Fortunately for both drivers, they are alright. What’s more is that the Ferrari dominance continues, and it looks like only Red Bull can change that throughout the season. With Perez in pole position followed by the two Ferraris and Max Verstappen the first 4 places seem to be a battle between the two teams. Of course, only if Red Bull managed to solve their engine problem. Behind them we have Ocon, Russel and Alonso, followed by Bottas, Gasly and Magnussen. Once again the Haas driver managed to get into Q3 which can be seen as great success for the team. What is a big surprise is that only Russel out of both Merc drivers managed to secure a spot in the top 10. Lewis Hamilton on the other hand did not manage get into Q2 which shows the struggle that he is having in the newly built Mercedes car. He started from P16. Last but not least we have an improved McLaren. Both drivers managed to secure P11 and P12 which is still far away from optimal but a big improvement from last race.

The Race

Now that we know how the Starting Line up was, let’s jump straight into the race! The beginning was relatively unspectacular as the front four kept their positions with the exception of Max passing Carlos Sainz. The next few laps midfield battles dominated the race. The most interesting one being the battle between the Alpine teammates Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon. The true drama started when the leader of the race, Sergio Perez, decided to make his first pit stop. I am saying drama because, straight after the pitstop the Williams pilot, Nicholas Latifi, crashed and caused a Safety Car Phase. This meant that Perez lost a lot of positions while other drivers got a free pit stop. The race continued with Leclerc as the leader followed by Verstappen and Sainz. It looked like a very comfortable win for Leclerc for the longest time but the last 15 laps had some more action in them. All of this started when Fernando Alonso and Daniel Ricciardo had failures on their cars. This lead to a virtual safety car phase with a closed pit entry. Because of that Verstappen was able to make some time to Leclerc. After that the battle was on and we were able to witness some nice and clean racing with Leclerc ahead.

One last attacking launch by Verstappen was successful though which brought him the first place as Leclerc was not able to counter it again. The last place on the podium was secured by Carlos Sainz which means that Sergio Perez only got 4th place. Lewis Hamilton was able to drive into the points as he crossed the checkered flag in tenth place. In the meanwhile George Russel managed to secure a good 5th place for Mercedes. With the ninth place Magnussen was able to score yet another few points for the Haas Team and Lando Norris was able to secure the first points of the season for the disappointed McLaren team.

Published by ga38jem on
Hive Sports Talk
On 27th March 2022