Max Verstappen won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix by patiently working himself into a position to take advantage of his Drag Reduction System on the start-finish straight.
Until that decisive move was made on the 46th lap of the race, the Red Bull driver had spent the best part of 80 minutes staring at the F1-75’s rear wing.
That gave him plenty of opportunity to observe what Leclerc was up to. He tried to turn that to his advantage as well, highlighting any possible infringement by the Ferrari driver which the stewards might pick up on: The lights on his car, his line on the main straight, his observance of yellow flags.
Eventually Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase urged him to “calm down” and “let us do our work.” But Verstappen always seemed to have his driving under control, and eventually teed Leclerc up for a race-winning pass.
Before that, the pair of them had to get into position to win the race. Pole-winner Sergio Perez led the opening laps, but behind…