Perez wins the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as Mercedes beat Ferrari

Sergio Perez has won the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Despite losing the lead at turn one, Perez cruised to victory as Red Bull proved they are comfortably ahead of everyone else in the field. Verstappen will not win all 23 Grands Prix this year as Perez showed he has the ability and fight to keep Verstappen behind. The Mexican made a statement showing Verstappen will not have it easy. Fernando Alonso survived a five-second penalty to take third place. 

The likes of Aston Martin and Ferrari might've carried a glimmer of hope from Bahrain to Saudi Arabia based on single-circuit performance. But the Red Bull car has proven versatile with sublime straight-line speed on a low degradation circuit completely different to the venue two weeks ago. They continued to lap at around 1.5-2 seconds faster than their closest rivals towards the end of the race. Verstappen took the fastest lap at the end of the Grand Prix to retain the lead in the World Championship. 

There were some minor question marks around Red Bull's reliability this weekend. Both drivers changed a gearbox, Verstappen had a driveshaft issue in Q2 and suspected another problem in the race. Perez also reported some brake pedal problems but neither case was serious enough for retirement. 

The Ferrari drivers struggled on the hard compound tyre and lost out in a battle with Mercedes. Both Alpine drivers finished inside the points. Kevin Magnussen took 10th place for AlphaTauri. It was a nightmare weekend for McLaren, who looked closer to being slowest than challenging for points. Alex Albon and Lance Stroll were the only two retirements. 

The safety car continued its 100% appearance record in Jeddah. Lance Stroll was told to stop on the circuit by his team and the race director decided to bring out the safety car despite Stroll's car appearing to be in a safe place. The FIA said it was due to GPS data that showed a part of the car still on the circuit. 

Lights out

Perez repeated his 2022 feat in Saudi Arabia by securing pole position. The Mexican driver started alongside Alonso despite Leclerc being second fastest in qualifying. The man from Monaco picked up a ten-place penalty for another set of control electronics. Sainz started from 4th, one place behind Russell. Verstappen started from 15th on the grid because his driveshaft failed in Q2 on Saturday. All the main runners opted for the medium tyres, apart from Leclerc. The out-of-place driver did something different by starting on the softs, as did Lando Norris in P19. Lewis Hamilton and Logan Sargeant opted for hards. 

Alonso got the better of Perez off the line and led into turn one, but the Spaniard was soon under investigation because he was in the incorrect starting location. He picked up a five-second penalty. Stroll managed to overtake Sainz and Verstappen accelerated to P13 within two laps. Via a lock-up, Perez regained the lead on lap four at turn one. Verstappen breached the top ten on lap eight. 

With Leclerc advancing to P7, Hamilton and Verstappen had a chance to renew their rivalry in the streets of Jeddah. On the home straight, the Dutchman glided through to claim P8 on lap 12. He was then one place behind Leclerc. At this point, Perez had a near four-second lead. 

Into the pits

Ferrari pitted Sainz on lap 15 and the extension meant that he came out ahead of Stroll who pitted a few laps earlier. Leclerc came in a lap later and also came out ahead of Stroll. The Canadian was then told to stop on the circuit by his team to deploy the safety car on lap 18. Those who hadn't pitted took the chance. This included Perez, Verstappen and Alonso. It brought the current world champion into the race. 

The order remained the same initially, but Verstappen's straight-line speed didn't allow for any delay. On lap 25, Verstappen got through on Alonso and took second place. He then started to hunt down the five-second gap to Perez. The two Mercedes drivers found themselves ahead of Ferrari. With Hamilton on tyres a step softer and right up behind Rusell, there were signs of a driver swap ordered by Mercedes to hunt the podium places. But no overtake, or swap was ordered and Russell upped his pace.  

Verstappen started to hunt down Perez, but the Mexican kept the gap and won his first race of the season.