Ten things we learned at the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

For the second race in a row, Formula 1 witnessed a Red Bull domination, as Sergio Perez led home Max Verstappen in the third Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

But, it was a somewhat different story from Bahrain, as – for the first time in their time as team-mate’s – Perez took the top spot with Verstappen just one step down. That was in large part down to the Dutchman’s qualifying driveshaft failure, which meant he started down in 15th and had to put in another charging race to score big points.

But that he didn’t overhaul Perez too has raised faint hopes of a title fight between the two, particularly interesting given their Brazil team orders saga last year and the confusing radio messages with Red Bull as they chased the fastest lap.

That, and plenty more, is what we learned from another blast around the Jeddah streets…

1. Perez’s late Jeddah pace raises hopes of title fight with Verstappen

Christian Horner described Perez’s win as the Mexican’s “best grand prix” drive, which rather forgets his sublime 2020 Sakhir GP recovery after being turned around there by Charles Leclerc.

In this one, Perez continued what has rather becoming a bad habit of slower cars getting ahead with a poor start. He re-passed Alonso relatively easily on lap four of 50 given Red Bull’s mighty top speed allied with DRS, but it was an error nevertheless.

Thereafter, however, Perez was excellent and deserves considerable praise. He dropped a driver as canny as Alonso at the safety car restart and then delivered excellent pace to stop Verstappen from eating into his late advantage once the Dutchman was up to second. That alone is brilliant and has raised the prospect of the pair possibly engaging in an intra-team title fight.

To do that, Perez will need to be consistently excellent, which is second nature to Verstappen. And he, let’s not forget, was only on a recovery drive after his qualifying driveshaft problem. But in a season of Red Bull domination, many F1 fans surely need something to hope for to keep interest levels up.

2. Red Bull has maintained its straight-line prowess against Ferrari

Red Bull’s top speed remained unmatched in Jeddah

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

One of the big talking points heading to Jeddah was how Ferrari might perform compared to Red Bull given it had adapted the…