THE SAUDI ARABIAN GP IN 5 KEY MOMENTS
1 Verstappen hits back with first win of 2022
Max Verstappen was angry after Bahrain – angry with Red Bull for giving away 18 easy points to unreliability and a possible victory to poor strategy. One week later he was much happier, having “kickstarted” his world championship defence with victory in the Saudi Arabian GP.
Red Bull was again locked in a tight battle with Ferrari, only this time the RB18’s brakes worked fine, the suspension survived the pits and no vacuum found its way into the fuel pump. Charles Leclerc topped the practice sessions, Carlos Sainz was fastest in Q1, Q2 and after the first Q3 runs, but it was Red Bull that took pole, only not the one we all expected. Sergio Pérez produced the lap of his life when it mattered, while Max languished in fourth.
Rather like in Bahrain, Verstappen was puzzled as to why his tyre-preparation tactics – two slow laps – hadn’t worked for the crucial final part of the session. “It was working really well in Q1 and Q2,” he said. “Just in Q3 [it] didn’t work at all. I
