In the twilight of a long, hard Wednesday filled with briefings and countless media questions about his team, his father and his future with Red Bull, Max Verstappen retired to his Jeddah hotel for some rest and relaxation.
As it was past 10pm at night, the Formula 1 world champion decided he would wind down for the evening by sitting at the desk of his hotel room, grabbing his controller and joining his Team Redline buddies for some online malarkey, testing out iRacing’s new rain feature.
Streaming live on Twitch, as he often does, Verstappen was in his element wrestling a virtual Porsche GT3 around a wet damp Algarve circuit. Although it might have been past his pre-race bedtime, it was hard to blame the Red Bull driver: This was likely to be the closest racing he enjoyed all week.
After he and Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez showed no one had caught the world champions over the winter in Bahrain, Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren and Aston Martin could at least hope that the RB20 may be easier to keep up with around the fast, flowing corners of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
It was not.
Verstappen’s pole margin was larger in Saudi Arabia than it had been in Bahrain – three tenths of a second. But at least the car alongside him on the front row wasn’t the second Red Bull but the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc who pipped Perez with his final effort.
Leclerc was caught between both RB20s on the grid with no back-up. Team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr was looking on from the garage, one day removed from emergency appendix surgery.
Instead, 18-year-old Ferrari junior Oliver Bearman occupied Sainz’s SF-24, eyes wide and heart racing as he faced the prospect of his first grand prix start with minimal preparation around one of the championship’s toughest circuits from 11th position.
To boost Bearman’s confidence, Ferrari gifted their youngest-ever F1 driver a brand new set of soft tyres for his first grand prix stint. Only Valtteri Bottas joined in eschewing mediums for the more fragile compound.
At the front, Leclerc was eager to become the latest driver to leap from second on the grid to the lead at turn one in Jeddah. But when the lights went out, Verstappen denied him, covering off the inside line to turn one.
That allowed Perez to sweep around the outside and claim the apex of turn two. But despite being ahead, he was out-muscled by Leclerc on the run to turn four to ensure second stayed his. “I was like,…
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