
UPDATE: Qualifying got started at 11:36 a.m. The ten fastest that advance to the second round are as follows: BJ McLeod spun out on his qualifying lap and will start at the back of the pack.
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The top ten in the starting lineup will be as follows, with the full starting lineup at the bottom of the page.įirst round update: Every driver got their opportunity and all but one finished their qualifying lap. Christopher Bell spun out on his second round qualifying lap. Austin Cindric joins him on the front row. Never more than two seconds behind, and often within DRS range, it took Magnussen until Lap 47 of 50 to finally take the final points-paying position.Įven though he wasn’t rewarded with a championship point, Tsunoda drove with ever-increasing maturity to resist that kind of pressure for that long.Final qualifying update: Joey Logano finished with the fastest lap in the second round of qualifying and claimed pole position. The two vastly superior Alpines made quick work of Tsunoda, but it was then Kevin Magnussen’s Haas that spent the next 21 laps hounding the AlphaTauri. SAY WHAT?! Russell’s confusion, traffic chaos and joy for Perez all feature in the best team radio from Saudi Arabia The Safety Car worked to his advantage, seeing him emerge from the stops in eighth. Looking for him to perform in a car that’s fallen well short of pre-season performance goals, he pulled off an impressive drive from P16 on the grid.Īt the start, he made up spots on track and ran as high as sixth, as most of his immediate competition dived into the pit lane to switch to the hards. There is a lot of pressure on Tsunoda this year, as he starts his third season in Formula 1. It could not have been easy for Hamilton, but he pulled it off and brought home a fifth place, only one spot behind Russell, who had started three places further up the grid. That meant having to manage the mediums well enough to last 30 laps. He did exceptionally well at the start to maintain position despite being on the hard tyres in a sea of mediums, and was forced to stop earlier than planned when the Safety Car was deployed to retrieve Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin. READ MORE: Hamilton points out the ‘biggest issue’ he faced on the way to P5 in Saudi Arabia These can all be confidence-crushing factors for a driver, especially at a track like Jeddah, with its incredibly high speeds and zero room for error. He failed to find the set-up sweet spot (and subsequent lap time) of his team mate, George Russell, and was behind Russell in every on-track segment but one. It was a seemingly quiet race from Sir Lewis, but it was an impressive run considering how Hamilton spoke throughout the weekend about feeling disconnected from the car. The midfield battle behind was predictably tight though, so let’s take a look at some of the standout performances… It wasn’t to be, as it was all Red Bull, all the time – save for Fernando Alonso’s spirited start and three laps out front – as the team brought home a second successive one-two.

Red Bull’s Bahrain performance still top of mind, it was thought – hoped may be more appropriate – that the unique characteristics of the Sakhir track highlighted their strengths, and that the fast, flowing nature of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit might bring the field closer together. WINNERS AND LOSERS: Who thrived under the lights at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix? Next up, it’s his selection from a dramatic weekend in Saudi Arabia…Īfter what was likely a welcome weekend off coming from two weeks of pre-season testing and racing in Bahrain, the Formula 1 paddock reassembled in Saudi Arabia for the second round of the 2023 campaign. In his new-for-2023 column, former Ind圜ar star James Hinchcliffe takes stock after every Grand Prix and presents his ‘heroes’ from the weekend.
