Max Verstappen makes up 13 places to finish second in the Saudi Arabia GP; Sergio Perez wins the race

Max Verstappen finished second in the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix in Jeddah despite starting the race in 15th. Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Pérez won the race to give Red Bull their second 1-2 in two races. Nyck de Vries finished in 14th.

Max Verstappen started in 15th after mechanical problems in qualifying. Sergio Pérez had no such issues beginning the race in the pole position. Nyck de Vries started in 18th in his Alpha Tauri car.

Verstappen made a solid start to the race as he climbed four spots to 11th in the first lap. The 25-year-old kept overtaking as he rose to the fifth position after only driving 16 out of the 50 laps in the race. De Vries was also steadily climbing at this point to 12th position.

The ideal situation occurred for Verstappen after 20 laps when a safety car was deployed due to Lance Stroll’s brakes burning up. The reigning champion took advantage of the situation at the restart, passing George Russell and Fernando Alonso to make it a 1-2 for Red Bull with Perez still in the first spot.

There was a disagreement between Verstappen and his team with ten laps left. Verstappen complained about his driveshaft with the Red Bull team, saying they saw no issues with the data. The driveshaft was also a problem for Verstappen in qualifying.

The Red Bull car was way too fast for the competition, with Verstappen ending the race with a 10-second gap to Fernando Alonso, who finished in third with his Aston Martin.

The next F1 race is the Australian Grand Prix in two weeks on the 2nd of April.