Max Verstappen makes it two dominant wins from two firstly of F1 2024 however it’s Ferrari debutant Oliver Bearman who steals the Saudi present, with an excellent drive to seventh; Sergio Perez completes second successive Red Bull one-two forward of Charles Leclerc in repeat of Bahrain podium

Max Verstappen continued the stainless begin to his quest for a fourth consecutive F1 world title with a snug win over Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez within the Saudi Arabian GP, as Ferrari stand-in Oliver Bearman completed a surging seventh and scored factors on his sudden F1 debut.

With Verstappen cantering to his second win in a row firstly of the brand new 2024 season – and a ninth in succession total, one shy of his personal all-time F1 file – across the high-speed Jeddah road monitor, a lot of the main target within the race was once more on the fights behind him, with British debutant Bearman capturing a lot of the eye.

The 18-year-old, who had solely realized after the opening day of apply had been accomplished that he can be making his F1 debut this weekend as a substitute of racing in F2 after Carlos Sainz was recognized with appendicitis and needed to bear surgical procedure, had already certified a powerful eleventh in a automobile he had by no means pushed in a sure-footed efficiency on Friday.

The Ferrari reserve driver’s assuredness solely grew in his maiden Grand Prix beneath the floodlights in Jeddah.

Moving into the factors positions halfway by the 50-lap race after overtakes on Yuki Tsunoda and Zhou Guanyu, Bearman ultimately moved as much as seventh and stored his composure into the closing phases regardless of realizing he had fellow Britons Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton chasing him down on brisker tyres throughout the ultimate 10 laps.

By ending seventh Bearman, who grew to become the third-youngest F1 driver ever and the youngest to race for Ferrari, scored the most effective race consequence for a debutant since Brazil’s Felipe Nasr took fifth at his first race in 2015.

Perez beat the opposite Ferrari of Charles Leclerc to second place for the second week working, overtaking the front-row starter within the race’s early laps earlier than the race was neutralised by the Safety Car on lap seven when Lance Stroll crashed out in his Aston Martin.

Leclerc ultimately completed 10s behind the second Red Bull on the street, though the deficit halved within the last classification after a five-second penalty was utilized to Perez’s race time for an unsafe launch from his earlier sole pit cease.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri took a distant fourth after spending a lot of the race unable to discover a well past Hamilton, who was considered one of a number of drivers to not pit beneath the Safety Car.

Fernando Alonso capped a powerful weekend with fifth place within the remaining Aston Martin, with George Russell sixth for Mercedes forward of countrymen Bearman in seventh, Norris in eighth and Hamilton in ninth.

Norris, like Hamilton, didn’t pit beneath the Safety Car and inherited the lead of the race earlier than being overtaken within the laps after the restart by the Red Bulls and Leclerc.

Nico Hulkenberg, in the meantime, opened Haas’ account for 2024 with the ultimate level after a powerful drive to tenth.

Early Safety Car cannot disrupt Verstappen’s relentless dominance

Verstappen had comfortably led away from his newest pole place however misplaced the result in McLaren’s Norris when the Safety Car got here out for Stroll’s accident.

Although a lot of the main runners used this as an early alternative to pit and change to the hard-compound tyres in an try and take all of them the best way to the chequered flag with out the necessity to cease once more, Norris inherited the lead after staying out.

Norris had been the second McLaren on the street on the time of the Safety Car behind Piastri and would have misplaced floor ready to pit had the staff opted to double stack their vehicles. Mercedes additionally solely pitted their lead automobile on the time, Russell, with Hamilton following Norris in staying out and gaining momentary monitor place.

But, after quickly overtaking the McLaren when the race resumed, Verstappen raced away on the entrance with attribute dominance and was hardly ever seen on the TV world feed thereafter.

Perez’s run to second was not fairly as simple, though such was the tempo of the Red Bull RB20 that when he had overtaken the front-row beginning Leclerc after which picked off the longer-running Norris, he loved a transparent tempo edge over the lead Ferrari to not have to fret about his looming five-second penalty.

Nineteen seconds behind Verstappen in a race that spent a number of laps behind a Safety Car, Leclerc’s solely actual solace was taking the quickest lap bonus level away from his Dutch rival within the closing laps.

Has Bearman’s debut put him within the store window for F1 2025?

To what extent Bearman’s spectacular debut weekend on the high degree opens up probabilities for a full-time drive someplace on the 2025 grid, the place there are at present not less than 13 vacancies, won’t grow to be clear for a number of extra months but, however the teenager actually may have carried out little extra to place himself within the store window over the previous 48 hours.

Bearman was congratulated by Hamilton – who himself is becoming a member of Ferrari subsequent 12 months – and Russell in parc ferme – and acquired heat phrases of reward from a number of established drivers, together with his team-mate.

“He’s been incredible,” mentioned Leclerc. “Seventh in your first race in F1 having only done FP3 in a new car is hugely impressive and I’m sure he’s extremely proud.

“Everybody has observed how proficient he’s and I’m positive it is only a matter of time earlier than he is in F1.”

Sky F1’s Naomi Schiff mentioned: “Incredible job from him. He didn’t set a foot wrong and was really punchy from the beginning.

“He confirmed race tempo, aggression and desirous to get probably the most out of at the present time. A unbelievable job.”

What the top three said

Max Verstappen, Red Bull – 1st: “Overall, a unbelievable weekend for the entire staff and myself. I felt actually good with the automobile and it was the identical within the race.

“The last stint was a bit longer than we would have liked but with the Safety Car you had to go for it.”

Sergio Perez, Red Bull – 2nd: “We definitely made some good progress. I just think it was a shame we qualified out of the front row because we had a great start. Unfortunately, Charles really kept it together and we couldn’t get through. It was a nice fight.

“And afterward it was fairly a compromised race with the Safety Car there so early, it was a really lengthy stint on the exhausting tyres.

“It was a shame that we got that penalty. Luckily, it didn’t hurt our race, but in this scenario I was quite close to Max and everyone was coming in at the same time, we just didn’t have a wide enough pit lane.”

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari – third: “We had quite good pace because we had the fastest lap at the end and I got helped by DRS.

“Overall, the sensation was fairly good. It was a little bit of a boring race as a result of Red Bull have been a bit too fast and behind we had a niche.

“But we took the maximum points we could today and that was the target, so that’s great.”

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