QUALIFYING
A first pole for Sergio Perez wasn’t on the cards. Partly because he’d never managed that feat in 216 previous Formula 1 weekends (he started 214 grands prix, but he had qualified for the 2011 Monaco and 2014 Malaysian GPS that he didn’t start), and because it would necessitate eclipsing Max Verstappen, who was only a few hundred metres away from setting one of the all-time great qualifying laps at the venue last year before tagging the wall. The surprise last weekend also came on account of Red Bull sacrificing its one-lap pace to focus on race performance, and yet still the lead RB18 trumped the Ferraris.
Despite Charles Leclerc’s practice clean sweep, it was Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr who more successfully turned up the wick to top Q1 and Q2. The Bahrain runner-up then delivered the Q3 yardstick after the first round of flying laps to sit on provisional pole by four hundredths over Leclerc. But the top 10 shootout would then go awry for the team when neither driver satisfactorily switched on a brand-new set of soft tyres. That hesitation most hurt Sainz, who failed to improve. Meanwhile, Leclerc did his heavy lifting in the first sector as he found a tenth on his final flier to pip Sainz with a 1m28.225s.
That seemed a surefire pole-winner, until Perez stole the show. His first Q3 run was stymied by glancing the kerbs at
Turn 10, his second initially blunted by dropping 0.3s over the first half of the lap. Then the Red Bull-badged Honda engine stretched its legs on the run to the final corner. Perez buzzed the timing line at 1m28.200s to nail pole by 0.025s.
“If I can get pole here, I can get pole anywhere,” he said.
“This is definitely the most demanding place to get the perfect lap – the level of risk, the level of precision is just tremendous.”
Verstappen’s evening of oversteer returned fourth ahead of Esteban Ocon. Nine tenths off the pace, George Russell led what Toto Wolff labelled the “totally unacceptable” Mercedes front. Worse, Lewis Hamilton was 1.5s adrift in Q1 and knocked out in the opening part of qualifying for the first time since Brazil 2017. Only, unlike his Interlagos crash, this elimination was on merit or lack thereof as the W13 was “undriveable” and “so nervous” at the rear.
The timetable was delayed by 57 minutes after Mick Schumacher lost his Haas over an exit kerb and rammed the Turn 12 wall in Q2. The gearbox falling out of the back of the car (as per the safety design brief) when it was craned, plus steam-cleaning of the track extended the stoppage. Schumacher was assessed and released from hospital; Haas elected not to rush repairs ahead of Australia so withdrew the car.
“THIS IS THE MOST DEMANDING PLACE TO GET THE PERFECT LAP – THE LEVEL OF RISK IS JUST TREMENDOUS”
As Charles Leclerc will later demonstrate when he clonks the inside wall to knock the tracking out on his Ferrari in second practice, there’s no room for error through Turns 4 and 5 on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit. That’s where Autosport is based for FP1 – in the shadow of a half-built high-rise – to observe the medium-speed direction change.
The blind entry into a tight left-hander that then opens into a more sweeping and very dusty right is not a sequence where drivers can diverge and take multiple lines. Concrete barriers are too close for that. The knack here is instead to keep it tight to the painted lines and minimise the distance travelled, while avoiding the inside kerb that might unsettle the car.
It’s not long before Autosport is asking itself a small-scale ‘chicken and egg’ question. Does the Alfa Romeo look so strong because the C42 has the shortest wheelbase and is the lightest? Or does just knowing these traits lull us into thinking it’s a lithe racer? The eventual timings would indicate the former, thanks to Valtteri Bottas running to third in the session and sitting only three tenths off pacesetter Leclerc.
It’s not just visually stimulating to watch the Alfa. The outer edge of the floor is audibly kissing the asphalt – the car has some body roll. But this reflects the C42’s early form. The engineers have sussed out how to switch off porpoising, so needn’t run the car super-stiff to lock it into place. Instead, it can lean in the bends.
Unsurprisingly, it’s only the energy with which the Red Bull RB18 changes direction that identifiably supersedes the Alfa’s agility. The Alphatauri is in the ballpark, too. As for Ferrari, there’s no reference point. Neither Leclerc nor Carlos Sainz Jr has emerged from the pits in the first 17 minutes before a loose 50-metre board at Turn 1 needs to be retrieved and the red flag is waved.
Autosport’s observations then move away from the asphalt and above the small grandstand, for there’s a growing cloud of dark smoke that’s being carried by a southerly wind. The handful of fans – the grandstand is at maybe 5% capacity – are totally unmoved.
And the marshals are busy attending the inside kerb to clear tyre debris that has settled between each ridge of the painted green and white sections.
While the track action is on hold, word is spreading across messaging services that this might be something more than a bonfire. Pinching thumb and index finger together to zoom out of the map on Autosport’s phone and plotting the straight line, the smoke would appear to be coming from broadly the same location as the Aramco plant on the edge of town…
“THE EDGE OF THE FLOOR IS AUDIBLY KISSING THE ASPHALT – THE CAR HAS SOME BODY ROLL”
When the Ferrari again broke free on entry to the final corner to compromise Leclerc’s exit, he was almost a sitting duck in a race where the DRS effect had been exaggerated. Verstappen thumbed for the rear-wing flap and tore past his rival down the main straight at the start of lap 47 to take a lead he wouldn’t relinquish. Leclerc was then forced to abort Turn 2 because of a half-baked sniff around the outside in retaliation. He was able to stay in touch, the Ferrari snatching the point for fastest lap on the 48th tour.
That meant Leclerc might have had one last trick up his sleeve as he approached the end of the lap just over half a second behind, only for yellow flags to emerge, and remain, at Turn 1 to indicate that Williams driver Alex Albon had tagged with the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll as they battled down the field. The passing opportunity was gone, Verstappen sealing the glory by 0.549s.
“It wasn’t easy, playing tricks in the last corner, but eventually I managed to get ahead,”said the victor.“i had a few good opportunities, but Charles really played it smart. It was not easy for me to actually get by. And of course, then I had to line myself up again to have another go at it. Eventually I had the go and I got ahead but then once I was ahead, it was really four laps flat-out trying to stay ahead because Charles was consistently in my DRS.”
Sainz was again tough on himself in third, saying he felt more at home on this track in the subpar 2021 Ferrari than the new machine capable of wins. But an experimental set-up direction on Friday has moved him closer to the two main protagonists.
A“hurt”perez sealed fourth over Russell’s“lonely”run to fifth. Ahead, though, this was an amicable top two. Leclerc had pulled alongside Verstappen on the cool down lap to stick his thumb up, and then congratulated his sparring partner over the radio.“oh my God, I really enjoyed that race,”said Leclerc.“again, it’s hard racing, but fair. Every race should be like this.”
It was an undeniably exciting contest, but Leclerc’s final sentiment might come with a health warning in that the elongated, back-to-back DRS zones made passing closer to a formality in many cases rather than the culmination of an epic scrap. It was the overtaking aid, not the new-for-2022 technical regulations, that should take most of the credit for creating the spectacle.
Ultimately, it was a race that entertained. But as the drivers now desire talks over the place of Saudi Arabia on future F1 calendars given events earlier in the weekend, the on-track excitement – authentic or otherwise – might not be used as a credible way to argue for Jeddah to stay.
“IT WASN’T EASY, PLAYING TRICKS IN THE LAST CORNER, BUT EVENTUALLY I MANAGED TO GET AHEAD”
For the second race in a row, the Alpine drivers were involved in a close fight. But in the early stages of their Saudi Arabian Grand Prix duel, Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso vied for position so often that they cost each other crucial time to Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas and forced Alpine to impose team orders.
Ocon chopped across Alonso’s nose during the Spaniard’s first overtaking move on lap five, with Alonso then making Ocon’s Turn 2 exit hard when he got past with DRS to Turn 1 two tours later. They continued to scrap, with Alonso weaving and Ocon cutting Turn 2, before Alpine told Ocon to “hold position”. By then Bottas had caught up a second time and soon demoted Ocon to eighth, three places back from his starting spot after George Russell and Alonso had battled past.
The trio ran in that order – after passing Nico Hulkenberg’s longrunning Aston Martin post-safety car – when Bottas and Alonso were forced out. A cooling issue stopped Bottas, with Alonso’s dash reading “cool the car” as he lost drive.
Ocon, who held off Lando Norris’s late charge when the Mclaren showed stronger pace on the hard tyres, felt his fight with Alonso was “like a go-kart” contest. Alonso stressed “you need to give extra margin” with a team-mate involved.
Alfa Romeo looked competitive again: Valtteri Bottas made Q3 and started eighth, with Zhou Guanyu lining up 12th. But the race turned out disappointingly.
Both Bottas and Zhou were slow off the line as the C42’s continued clutch fault meant they were steady away. Then Zhou got pinched on the Turn 1 kerbs and collided with Daniel Ricciardo, after which his car went into anti-stall again because “it’s related to the clutch [problem]”. He recovered from last to fight through the
Williamses and Aston Martins, but sliding off at Turn 1 ahead of Alex Albon meant he was penalised for gaining an advantage. Then, when Alfa lifted his car during the five-second penalty period he should have been held for before being serviced, Zhou was given a drivethrough penalty, which dropped him from points contention.
Bottas battled Kevin Magnussen and the Alpines early on and seemed set for points before a cooling issue forced him out going into the final third of the race.