The 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was the 2nd round of the Formula One schedule. Taking place on March 19th, 2023, this race was a highly anticipated event. The Jeddah Corniche Circuit is the first of seven street circuits on this year’s schedule.

For this weekend’s events, the teams will be utilizing the same tyre compounds as they did in Bahrain. The soft compound was C4, the medium was C3, and the hard was C2.

Read: ‘Formula One Schedule and Exciting Locations‘ for more on the street tracks and races!

Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Free Practice

FP1

The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was a night race, so the FP1 demonstrated conditions that were contrasting to the race. However, it did give the drivers and teams valuable insight into the new track. The first free practice of the weekend was a major success for both the Red Bull and Aston Martin teams. The same, unfortunately, did not occur for the Ferrari drivers.

Red Bull driver, Max Verstappen, finished the first session in ahead of the entire grid including his teammate, Sergio ‘Checo’ Perez. Behind him was Checo and Aston Martin driver, Fernando Alonso, respectively. The Red Bull car for the 2023 season has been noted by several drivers, including seven-time World Champion Sir Lewis Hamilton, as being ‘in a league of their own.’ The only driver to significantly challenge the Red Bull drivers is two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso.

Despite being the oldest man on the track, Alonso has repeatedly posted competitive times in every aspect of the past two race weekends. He also leads his teammate, Lance Stroll, as well as both Mercedes and Ferrari drivers in the standings for this year’s championship.

FP2

Free practice 2 was set to be the most apt representation of the coming race, but several factors caused a lack of reliability. This free practice session was the only one to occur under the Saudi Arabian moonlight, but there was a significant amount of traffic between the drivers. Many know the Jeddah circuit for its dangerous blind turns and frequent wrecks, so there were several near misses between the drivers. An example of this was Fernando Alonso and Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz. Alonso nearly collided with the younger drivers’ rear end while attempting to move past him on the track.

Similar to FP1, Max Verstappen managed to set the fastest lap time of this session while Fernando Alonso placed second and Checo third. Esteban Ocon of Alpine notably took fourth in this practice round with a fantastic time. His fastest time was less than a second slower than the leader.

FP3

As in FP1, this session took place during the day when the track conditions were much warmer than during the race. Max Verstappen also led this free practice session with a time over a half second faster than the next driver. Sergio Perez finished with the second-fastest time and Fernando Alonso was in third.

Some other performances to note were from Charles Leclerc who managed to finish 6th and the McLarens in 7th and 8th. Both McLarens struggled massively in the Bahrain Grand Prix two weeks ago, so this was a stellar outcome for them.

Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Qualifying

Q1

After only two laps of qualifying, American rookie Logan Sargeant suffered from a mechanical error. Due to the premature timing of the issue, he was unable to set a time on a flying lap, so his grid position was set as P20. This was a disappointing start for the young Williams driver as he was hoping to advance to Q2 after a stand-out performance in Bahrain.

Lando Norris had similar luck. After only four laps, Norris hit a portion of the track wall resulting in an early retirement. The Jeddah track is very tight and has several unforgiving corners, so Lando had not anticipated this incident. While his lap pace did put him ahead of Sargeant, this is certainly not the start he wanted.

Max Verstappen and Checo Perez led the leaderboard at the end of Q1 with the Aston Martins and Ferraris behind them. It was clear that the Ferrari team was reserving power for the final lap in Q3 due to Leclerc’s grid penalty.

Read: ‘Charles Leclerc Massive Grid Penalty in 2023‘ for more on Leclerc’s penalty!

Q2

It appeared early on that Max Verstappen would hold pole position for the second time this season. The Red Bull is easily the fastest car on the grid, and he has won the past two World Drivers’ Championships. However, midway through Q2, Verstappen suffered from a faulty drive shaft. He was able to slowly make his way back to the pits, but acceleration was impossible. The car retired from qualifying, landing Max in P15 for the beginning of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

At the end of Q2, Checo led the grid with Alonso on his tail. Both Ferraris were able to split the Aston Martins with Charles Leclerc in front. Due to Leclerc’s 10-place penalty, it was impartive for him to achieve the highest possible finish.

Along with the top five drivers, both Mercedes and Alpine had two drivers in the top ten. The biggest spotlight of this round was McLaren rookie Oscar Piastri. He had a gearbox malfunction in Bahrain, so he was unable to finish his first ever F1 grand prix. Advancing to Q3 in his second race may have made up for the incident though as he was the only rookie to make it past Q1.

Q3

The grid mended with Sergio Perez, Charles Leclerc, and Fernando Alonso in the top three. However, due to the penalty, Charles moved to P12 for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. George Russell and Carlos Sainz were moved up to the second row, and Aston Martin was in row one for the first time in 60 years.

Oscar Piastri was able to push through to P8 right behind Lewis Hamilton and just ahead of Pierre Gasly. This is the best start for the rookie in his Formula One career so far, but we expect to see even more from him. Also with his best start, this was only Checo’s second time beginning on pole. His first was in Saudi Arabia 2022!

The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

Within the first five laps, the race was already off to an insane start. Early out of turn 1, Alonso was able to squeeze past Sergio Perez and take the lead. This, however, did not last as Fernando received a five-second penalty for improper grid position.

Also in the first lap, Oscar Piastri was nudged, and a piece of metal was flung from the McLaren. As a result, Piastri lost several positions early on and was never able to recover. Lando Norris was in the other McLaren which had a pit stop early on in lap 3. The six pit stops in Bahrain may have caused McLaren fans to panic at this action, but he returned to the track with little issue.

In order to make up position, Charles began with soft tyres while the top six competitors, including his teammate, utilized the medium sets. The idea behind this strategy was to allow Leclerc an early build up. Ferrari strategists feared a collision or potential traffic in the midfield, so they wanted to allow Charles an opportunity to gain positions early. This seemed to have served him well as he moved to 9th place by the end of lap 2.

Max Verstappen also made quick gains, as many knew that he would. The Dutchman began in P15 and moved up four positions after five laps.

On lap 17, Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll drove off the track and had to retire. A full safety car deployed, playing directly into Red Bull strategy as Max Verstappen was able to move up to 2nd place.

Similarly, during lap 24, Alex Albon of Williams began to slowly maneuver into the pits, citing a brake failure.

Finale

Soon after, the Mercedes team made the decision to switch George and Lewis in 4th and 5th place. When prompted with this request, Russell refused. He noted Alonso’s potential penalty and held his position for the rest of the race.

The final podium included Checo, Max, and Fernando, in this order. This acted as Checo’s second win in Jeddah along with his sixth win overall. Additionally, Fernando earned his 100th podium finish, making him the sixth driver to do so. Later in the evening, after the stunning light show and trophy ceremony, Fernando had his third place title removed and given to George Russell. Hours later, the trophy and title was returned after much deliberation.

Read: ‘Fernando Alonso: Astonishing Finish in Saudi Arabia 2023!‘ for more on Fernando’s podium!