© Getty ImagesThe Highs and Lows of JeddahYou’ll have good days and bad days at the track – time to look at both, this time from the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
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The first race at the Jeddah Corniche was an incident-packed event and unfortunately for Sergio Pérez, he came off worse than most.
On lap 10 Mick Schumacher crashed into the wall causing first the Safety Car to come out and then the red flags.
On the restart, Checo was on the charge and as he left the turn, he found himself stuck between George Russell in his Williams and Nikita Mazepin in his Haas, Checo had pulled in front of both of them but as they tried to take the space he left, Checo was clipped and spun into the wall causing too much damage for him to continue and for him to receive a DNF at the first race in Saudi.
In 2022, Max Verstappen started the race in in P4, but was able to battle his way to P2 behind Charles Leclerc with seven laps to go. A fight then ensued between the two drivers.
Max went for the overtake on the final turn heading into lap 44, but locked up and had to concede.
Max took the lead on the start of lap 47, but Leclerc wasn’t giving up on the win. He went on the attack looking to force Max into a mistake. Max resisted well and even when Leclerc opened up his DRS in the final lap, he wasn’t able to catch Max.
Checo claimed pole position at the 2022 race, and was well in the lead when he pitted at the end of lap 15. Unfortunately for the Mexican Bull it was terrible timing. As he emerged in P5 the VSC was deployed due to Williams’ Nicholas Latifi crashing and was then replaced by the physical Safety Car.
As the leaders pitted under the Safety Car, all Checo could do was watch as his chance of a race win faded away, and he had to settle for P4.
After the disappointment of 2022, it was a tour de force for Checo at last year’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. He took pole position on the Saturday and followed that up with an epic win ahead of his teammate on the Sunday. His victory in Saudi garnered him the reputation as the street circuit specialist.
At last year’s race Max gave a warning that he was going to be hard to beat in 2023. In qualifying his RB19 suffered a driveshaft issue, that saw him qualify in P15.
Whatever the problem was it was clearly fixed in time for the race, because Max drove that car expertly from P15 to cross the finish line in P2. It actually only took him only 25 laps to climb to P2 where he finished 10 seconds ahead n Fernando Alonso in P3.
A Look Back At Jeddah In 2023
Old Rivals Under The Lights© Getty Images
It Can Be Tense In The Garage© Getty Images
On The Edge© Getty Images
It Was Quite The Spectacle© Getty Images
Time To Celebrate© Getty Images
Two Bulls On The Charge© Getty Images
No Humps In The Road© Getty Images
And We’re Off…© Getty Images
Spray The Red Bull© Getty Images
