Verstappen beat his team-mate Sergio Perez, who incurred a penalty during the pitstops that didn’t impact the finishing order, and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
2024 F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix results
2024 F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix report
Polesitter Verstappen led the charge to Turn 1, while Perez briefly grabbed nosed ahead of Leclerc for second but had to concede the spot to the Ferrari driver.
Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) just held on to fourth, ahead of the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris – whose car leapt forward on the start line just before the red lights went out – and the Mercedes pairing of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
Piastri passed Alonso for fourth at Turn 1 at the start of lap two, as Ferrari’s substitute driver Oliver Bearman (who started on soft tyres) banged wheels with Yuki Tsunoda’s RB over tenth place.
Perez snatched second from Leclerc at the start of lap four to make it a Red Bull 1-2, with Verstappen already 2.4s up the road.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll plunged into the barriers at Turn 22 on lap seven, having clipped the apex wall of the previous corner at 140mph, causing a safety car and sent the majority of the field into the pits.
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin AMR24, checks out his car after crashing out of the race
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Red Bull had to double stack Verstappen and Perez, but with 4.6s between them it just managed to achieve their pitstops without major delay, but Perez caused Alonso to brake to avoid the Mexican as he rejoined from his pit box.
Norris stayed out to lead from Verstappen and Hamilton, who also didn’t pit. Perez retained his track position over Leclerc, who ran ahead of Piastri and Alonso. Nico Hulkenberg (Haas) and Zhou Guanyu (Sauber) also stayed out.
The race resumed on lap 10, with Norris leading Verstappen, Hamilton and Perez. Alex Albon (Williams) and Kevin Magnussen (Haas) clashed just after the restart, with Magnussen later receiving a 10s penalty for the incident.
Norris retained his lead, but was under investigation for his potential start infringement, with Verstappen initially happy to sit behind him on his fresh hard tyres. But Verstappen passed Norris three laps later, to retake the lead, as Perez did likewise to Hamilton for third at Turn 1.
Leclerc passed his future team-mate Hamilton for fourth at Turn 1 on lap 15.
Piastri and Hamilton then clashed wheels at Turn 1 two laps later in the…
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