Red Bull dominated the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Formula 1 in 2024. Max Verstappen, the reigning world champion, finished first with a comfortable lead of 13.6 seconds over Sergio Perez, his teammate, who came in second place.
Perez’s performance in the race is a good indicator of the overall performance of Red Bull’s 2024 F1 car. He managed to overtake Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes, and Lando Norris’s McLaren using the DRS system. His overtakes seemed effortless.
At that point in the race, Verstappen had already established a lead of about five seconds over Perez. Whenever Perez tried to increase his pace and catch up, Verstappen always had a slight advantage.
During the middle of the race, the Red Bull cars were significantly faster than the Ferraris, McLarens, Mercedes, and Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin. They were able to maintain a lead of one second per lap.
Most of the cars made pitstops under a safety car period caused by Lance Stroll’s crash. However, Norris’s McLaren and Hamilton’s Mercedes chose not to pit, avoiding the risk of a double-stack pitstop.
Perez received a five-second penalty for Red Bull’s release of him into Alonso’s path during this phase. However, he remained comfortably ahead of Leclerc, making the penalty insignificant. Leclerc did manage to set the fastest lap of the race towards the end but fell short by less than five seconds.
Norris took advantage of the different pitstop strategies to lead the race for a while. Hamilton acted as a roadblock to Oscar Piastri’s McLaren, creating a deadlock between the two cars.
Eventually, both Norris and Hamilton made pitstops and fitted soft tires. However, their stops under racing conditions turned their race into a private battle for eighth place. Norris won the battle due to McLaren’s advantage in high-speed corners.
Piastri finished fourth after being freed from the slipstream and robust defending of Hamilton’s Mercedes. Alonso managed to hold off George Russell’s Mercedes to secure fifth place.
Alonso’s qualifying performance seemed better than Aston Martin’s actual performance, but he had a stronger race this time.
Ollie Bearman made his Formula 1 debut for Ferrari and finished seventh. Despite starting 11th, Bearman made decisive overtakes on Yuki Tsunoda’s RB and Zhou Guanyu’s Sauber. He also managed to overtake Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas and match the pace of the cars ahead.
Stroll’s crash provided an opportunity for one of the tier-three 2024 cars to score a point, and Hulkenberg’s Haas took that chance. Hulkenberg was able to maintain his track position despite having to make a pitstop under racing conditions, thanks to Magnussen sacrificing his own race to block the midfield.
Magnussen received two penalties for his controversial driving but was able to delay the consequences until the end of the race, as it was a comfortable one-stop race.
Albon benefited from Magnussen’s penalties and finished 11th.