Race Changing Moments – 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

The jaw-dropping moments from round two of the Formula One World Championship.

Well,

isn’t

this

proving

one

the

best

starts

the

season?

OK,

might

being

little

biased,

but

it’s

back-to-back

one-two

finishes

for

the

Team

and

win

each

for

the

drivers.

Here’s

our

round

the

moments

that

made

the

race…

Re-live the action

Strongest

Start

Practice

The weekend got off to a fantastic start in the Free Practice sessions. Out of the three sessions the Bulls finished P1 and P2 in two of them and the lowest place was P3 for Checo in FP2, he missed out on a perfect sweep of Free Practice by just 0.091s.

Max Jumps Out Of His RB19

Qualifying

Woes

For

Max

It wasn’t all highs for the Team at the weekend. After both Max and Checo looking unbeatable in Q1 it all changed in the second sector of qualifying when Max’s car slowed on his first flying lap.

Max was putting down a quick time, but then his RB19 suddenly started slowing. He was able to coast back to the pits, but had to have his car pushed back into the garage. There was still seven minutes left in the session, but Max’s qualifying was over. It turned out to be an issue with the driveshaft, but the Team were able to get his car race ready for Sunday.

Two

For

Two

For

Checo

There’s been a lot of talk about Sergio being the man when it comes to street circuits and he proved that right once again with a blistering lap in Q3 to claim the second pole position of his career, and his second in Jeddah. His time was 0.065s slower than last year, but it was enough to claim that P1 spot on the grid.

Mexican Glory At Jeddah

Dropping

Back

Doesn’t

Matter,

exhibit

Last year in Spa Max started in P14 and was able to take the win. Could he go one better in Jeddah starting in P15? At lights out Max found it quite difficult to make headway and didn’t move for a couple of laps, but he started to move up the leaderboard soon after.

By lap five he’d moved up to P11. Lap 14 saw him in P6 and by the halfway point in the 50-lap race he was up to P2 and the only car ahead of him was his teammate Checo. Sergio had built a five second lead by that point and was uncatchable, but Max wasn’t done. On the final lap he took the fastest lap of the race which kept him on the top spot in the drivers’ championship standings.

Dropping

Back

Doesn’t

Matter,

exhibit

Max isn’t the only Bull who can climb back up the rankings. At the start of the race Fernando Alonso, who was second on the grid, was able to get in front of Checo. The Mexican held his nerve though and stayed within one second of the Aston Martin. On lap four of the race, with DRS, Checo made his move and was able to get in front of Alonso. From there he didn’t look back and eight laps later Checo had managed to pull away by more than three seconds refrom P2.

For a brief moment on lap 18, we all held our breaths, having flashbacks to last year when the Safety Car ruined Checo’s chances of winning. But really we had no doubts that he would be able to get in and out of the pits without losing a single spot. When the Safety Car ended Checo got away perfectly, and by the time DRS was active again, he was up the road and uncatchable, collecting his fifth career win.

Maximum

Points

With the second one-two finish of the season and Max collecting the Fastest Lap point it’s been a near-perfect start to the season for the Bulls. The only point dropped so far has been the fact that the Team was unable to collect the Fastest Lap point in Bahrain. It’s the best start in the Team’s history and they lead the constructors’ championship by 49 points. However, there’s still 21 races to go – we can’t wait for Australia!

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