Amid turmoil at Red Bull, the double world champion continued where he left off a week ago in Bahrain to lead another 1-2 ahead of Sergio Perez.
Charles Leclerc led the charge for Ferrari, finishing third on a weekend where his regular team-mate Carlos Sainz was replaced by Oliver Bearman, who made his F1 debut and finished in seventh place as one of the stars of the race.
Our writers give their verdict on the second round of the 2024 season.
Better… but that’s not saying much: 4/10 – Matt Kew
Better than the spectacularly unspectacular benchmark set in the Bahrain opener – at this rate of improvement, we’ll be due a proper blockbuster come the European rounds. To truly be thrilled by Formula 1 in its current state, it feels like we must simply make our peace with the fact that Verstappen will very probably lead from the front and drawn-out battles for the lead will be in short supply. Only then can lower-stake fights in the midfield stand a chance of getting pulses racing.
Saudi was very far from being a great contest. But there were elements to latch onto. Watching Bearman’s day unfold was a major one. Given he started 11th and then didn’t fluff his launch, seventh was nigh on the best he could have hoped for. His dummy on Yuki Tsunoda into Turn 1 was masterfully done. Lewis Hamilton’s defensive manoeuvres were similarly satisfying.
Perhaps picking out those aspects is to clutch at straws. Ultimately, although a shunt for Lance Stroll created that teasing early safety car, Jeddah ran largely without jeopardy.
How dull would it have been if Stroll hadn’t crashed? 3/10 – Alex Kalinauckas
Utterly predictable once Verstappen had escaped after the start and restart, although for him to be passing Norris for the lead obviously wasn’t expected.
Other than that, F1 barely saw Verstappen, who reckoned his tyres losing temperature as he held back from normal pace while lapping traffic late on was his biggest peril. It’s all relative after all…
Much was expected of Ferrari’s challenge, but here it actually struggled to get its tyres warm, which meant Leclerc had the opposite problem to its historical weakness. In the other SF-24, Oliver Bearman’s fine debut was the most compelling narrative.
Stroll’s crash meant Norris and Hamilton were boosted into the story of the race, which would’ve been even duller had that not happened.
Anti-racing Magnussen gives life to a race that sparked out early: 3/10 – Haydn Cobb
It isn’t often…
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