The second race of the 2024 season took place in the fast city of Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia. Max Verstappen started from pole position before winning the Grand Prix, with Charles Leclerc alongside him. Sergio Perez managed to get the better of the Monegasque, taking advantage of an RB20 that was even better than anyone else.
The Ferrari SF-24 confirms itself as a second force on the grid, both with the Monegasque and, above all, with the incredible race of Ollie Bearman (P7), who is undoubtedly surprised by this, his first real approach to F1.
Behind, there was a close fight between McLaren, Aston Martin and Mercedes, with Oscar Piastri getting the better of the others. Closing the Top 10, Nico Hulkenberg.
Note on the sidelines of the Grand Prix: less than 24 hours after his appendicitis surgery, Carlos Sainz is already back on the circuit to be close to the team, which in turn is close to its driver. His place was taken by Ollie Bearman, who ran FP3, Qualifying and the race.
Important figures present in Saudi Arabia included the President of Ferrari, John Elkann and the Managing Director of Red Bull GmbH, Oliver Mintzlaff, who arrived at the circuit together with Helmut Marko. A prominent personality personally involved in all the Red Bull chaos.
Victory never in danger for Verstappen, Leclerc confirms Ferrari on the podium and Bearman amazes. First point for Haas
Pirelli has opened up the possibility of using all three compounds for the start, with different strategies during the race.
Just outside the Top 10, in eleventh position, Ollie Bearman takes advantage of the new Soft available to have a better start at the start and more feeling for the start of the Grand Prix. Like him, only Valtteri Bottas on the grid. The rest of the grid instead opts for the Medium tyre, with no one risking the choice hypothesized by Mario Isola, the Hard tyre.
Pierre Gasly immediately withdrew after complaining about gearbox problems during the formation lap. It was a clean start for the other 19 drivers on the grid, including Oliver Bearman, who, thanks to the extra grip of soft tyres, pushed to overtake Yuki Tsunoda.
Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso were very aggressive up front towards Charles Leclerc, who still managed to maintain his position but did not lead the attack on Max Verstappen.
The Dutchman manages to get ahead of the Ferrari driver, who has Sergio Perez behind him, still in the DRS area. Not far from Mexico, there is a train with compact cars, including Piastri, Alonso, Norris, Russell, and Hamilton. Lance Stroll, on the other hand, is further behind and has the rest of the cars behind him, led by Tsunoda and Bearman.
On lap 4, at the end of the starting straight, Sergio Perez takes advantage of the DRS effect. He attacked Charles Leclerc, taking second position and trying to regain ground on Max Verstappen, just over 2 seconds ahead of him. Safety Car on lap seven due to an accident by Lance Stroll.
The Canadian touches the inside of turn 22, damaging his front suspension and losing the driveability of his Aston Martin, hitting the barriers.
Pit stop for most of the riders who switch to the Hard tyre. Only Norris remained on the track, rising to first place, Hamilton to third, Hulkenberg to eighth, and Zhou to tenth.
Double pit stop for Red Bull, with Ferrari unable to take advantage of a good pit stop with Charles Leclerc due to the heavy traffic in the pit lane, but still managed not to lose position compared to its direct rivals.
Over the radio, Charles Leclerc complained to Sergio Perez about a delta not respected by the Mexican, who tried to create a greater gap with Verstappen to favour the Red Bull strategy.
However, Fernando Alonso then complained about an unsafe release of the RB20 number 11, which forced the Spaniard to stall in the pitlane to avoid the impact. After a rather long investigation, the 5-second penalty arrived.
Restart on lap 10 with Norris pulling away, taking advantage of the tyre advantage. Further back, Bearman has taken the position on Tsunoda and is behind the Chinese Stake F1 Team, who did not make his stop.
On lap 13, the battles on the track begin to flare up, with Bearman entering the points by overtaking Zhou, Russell overtaking Hulkenberg, and Leclerc overtaking his future teammate, Lewis Hamilton.
The Hard tyre has reached temperature and is starting to give advantages over those left out with the Medium. A 10-second penalty arrives for Kevin Magnussen, who, further back, pressed Albon against the wall, not leaving him the space required by the regulations.
On lap 18, Sergio Perez manages to regain second position, overtaking Lando Norris with the Englishman from McLaren Charles Leclerc behind him, about 2 seconds away, who is trying to get back on him while Lewis Hamilton and Oscar Piastri are fighting for the fifth position.
Oliver Bearman, meanwhile, is fighting with Nico Hulkenberg for the ninth position, and on lap 21, he prepares well for the exit from the last corner and overtakes the German at the end of the straight. Now, the driver closest to him is George Russell, six seconds away.
Kevin Magnussen received another 10-second penalty for leaving the track and taking advantage. Outside the points, there is a very close fight between Magnussen, Tsunoda, Ocon, Albon, and Sargeant.
In front, however, Charles Leclerc took the podium spot on lap 27, overtaking Lando Norris. Sergio Perez was about 8 seconds behind him, with a penalty still to be served.
Charles Leclerc shows once again how Ferrari is the second force, also going below the 1.33 mark and distancing Norris behind him.
At the same time, in front of him, the gap with Sergio Perez remains constant, especially since the Mexican keeps a very fast pace and more linear, also close to that of his teammate, Max Verstappen, who, with an eight-second lead, enjoys performing fast laps.
To underline the good pace of Ollie Bearman, which confirms the goodness of the SF-24 given the condition of the English rookie.
On lap 35, the opportunity finally arrives for Oscar Piastri to overtake Lewis Hamilton after several unsuccessful attempts.
However, the Australian blocks at turn one and is forced to rejoin behind the seven-time world champion, frustrating this important chance.
On lap 37 comes the pit stop for Lewis Hamilton, who makes his first and only stop, using Soft tyres, coming out about 7 seconds behind Bearman. Fast lap for Sergio Perez, who ‘steals’ it from his Dutch teammate in 1.32.273.
Pit stop also for Lando Norris, also choosing the Soft, one lap after Hamilton’s, and he too goes out behind Bearman, about 6 seconds behind the talented FDA. Lewis Hamilton sets the fastest lap in 1.31.746 and gets close to Lando Norris, while Ollie Bearman also drops below the 1.33 mark.
Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc are quite distant from each other and the Monegasque has more than 10 seconds of advantage to manage over Oscar Piastri. Behind the Australian was Alonso, who was forced to keep George Russell at bay.
Oliver Bearman received encouragement on team radio as he fended off a charging Norris and Hamilton.
Help is arriving with the fight between the two Englishmen, while Nico Hulkenberg is taking the last available point, thanks also to the Haas strategy, which put Kevin Magnussen in the fight with the rest of the group.
It was the second consecutive victory for Max Verstappen and the second 102 for Red Bull, with Sergio Perez in second. Charles Leclerc confirms Ferrari on the podium and takes third position with also a final fastest lap of 1.31.632.
Oscar Piastri finished fourth, with Fernando Alonso not far behind him. Followed by George Russell and then the MVP of the weekend, Ollie Bearman, who on his last lap also recorded 1.32.186, which is his best race time, defending himself admirably from the onslaught of Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton.
Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the Top 10 and secured a vital first point for Haas.
Author: Paolo D’Alessandro
Translation: Jaden Diaz-Ndisang
