Aussie Rules

Oscar Piastri won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, his third win from the five Grands Prix this year. He now also leads the Drivers’ championship, the first time an Australian has done so since the 2010 Japanese Grand Prix, when that honour fell to Mark Webber, Piastri’s manager.

Four teams have now won this race, with Red Bull having three victories to its name, while McLaren joins Mercedes with one. This was the Woking squad’s fourth win of the year, its 193^rd in total.

Max Verstappen claimed his third podium finish of the season with today’s second place finish, meaning he has always been a top three finisher in Jeddah with two wins and three second places. Charles Leclerc was third for Ferrari, his third podium here, with one second place and two thirds in the past two years.

THE DAY ON TRACK

There were few surprises on the grid, with just four drivers (Norris, Stroll, Hadjar and Hulkenberg) choosing to run the Hard for the first stint with the other 16 all going for the Medium. Three of these (Doohan, Ocon and Bortoleto) then immediately made the most of the first lap Safety Car following the collision between Gasly and Tsunoda, to switch to the Hard.

The strategies chosen matched our pre-race expectations, both in terms of the number of stops and the timing of the pit stop windows. Of the top teams, the only ones that tried something different were Leclerc, who went as long as possible on his first stint on Mediums (lap 29), and Norris who started on the Hard, pitting on lap 34. In fact, the longest stint of 49 laps was completed by Ocon (Haas), who having stopped at the very beginning, then went all the way to the chequered flag.

MARIO ISOLA – PIRELLI DIRECTOR OF MOTORSPORT

“This Grand Prix matched our pre-race expectations in terms of tyre performance and the way the strategies worked. Despite bringing a softer trio of compounds compared to last year, and with track temperatures on average 7 °C higher, degradation on the C3 and C4 was very minimal. It meant that, given how evenly matched are the teams, the way the race played out was the natural outcome.

“We only saw a few cases of blistering on the left front, but not enough to impact tyre performance in a significant way. As for overheating, some cars struggled a bit, but it was to be expected with these temperatures and on a track where the tyres never get a chance to “breathe”.

“Now we have the first chance to catch our breath before heading for another continent, as we prepare to race in the USA for the first time this season, in Miami. At a track with very different characteristics to this one, we will have the same selection of dry tyre compounds as were used here in Jeddah, and yet again that will be a step softer than last year’s race. It will be interesting to see how the teams deal with that, especially as it will be the second Sprint weekend of the year.”

A great win for Richard Verschoor (MP Motorsport) in the Feature Race. The Dutchman started on the Medium and extended his first stint as much as possible, pitting after 23 laps. Once on the Supersoft, he made the most of the extra grip and on the final lap he managed to pass Jak Crawford (DAMS Lucas Oil), who had opted to start on the softest compound before switching to the harder one on lap 7, once the pit stop window was open. The American was therefore the quickest of those who had gone for the classic strategy but they were wrongfooted by Verschoor, who thus made up for losing the Sprint win because of a penalty, as he secured his fifth Formula 2 victory. Coming home third was Victor Martins (ART Grand Prix) who fought Crawford for much of the race.

The Medium performed as it had done yesterday in the Sprint, in other words, with very limited degradation allowing the drivers to push as hard as they wanted. As expected, the Supersoft meanwhile showed high degradation and drivers opted to minimise its use.

Verschoor now leads the Drivers’ championship on 53 points followed by Spain’s Martì (Campos Racing) 12 points behind and Italy’s Fornaroli (Invicta Racing) third, 13 points off the leader.

A first win of the season for Maya Weug (Ferrari operated by MP), who crossed the line in second place, but was promoted to first because pole-sitter and first past the chequered flag, Chloe Chambers (Red Bull Ford operated by Campos) was given a five second penalty for a collision between the two drivers in the early part of the race. However, the American limited the damage with a great final lap in which she clinched the additional point for the race fastest lap, as well as just finishing second by 65 thousandths of a second ahead of Doriane Pin (Mercedes operated by Prema), who was classified third. The three girls also head the championship standings after the opening two rounds: Weug moves into the lead on 59 points, with Pin second on 52 and Chambers third with 47.

The third round takes place from 2 to 4 May as part of the Miami Grand Prix programme.

Automobile Magazine