Defending world champion leads home his team-mate for the second race running at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
Max Verstappen continued his flying start to the 2024 FIA Formula One World Championship at the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix with a second consecutive race victory as team-mate Sergio Pérez was again runner-up to secure Oracle Red Bull Racing back-to-back 1–2 finishes in the perfect start to their campaign.
Starting from pole for the first time at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, Verstappen was in complete control of the race from the start, despite an early Safety Car deployment on Lap 7 that caused a flurry of unscheduled pit stops. The Dutchman dominated and cruised home to his second victory of 2024 by as sizeable 13.643s over Pérez.
The Mexican driver started the race from third and made his way past Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc on Lap 4 to comfortably hold the position to the finis, even after receiving a five-second penalty for an unsafe pit release.
QUOTES
Oracle Red Bull Racing
MAX VERSTAPPEN – 1st
“It was great to get my 100th podium today and it was another great race for us this weekend. I’m very happy to win here in Jeddah: it’s been a great start to the year and we don’t know the full potential of the car yet, so now we want to keep the momentum going. Because of the early pit stop with the Safety Car, I knew we had to work on managing the pace. Every time that I pushed I tried to extend the gap, as you don’t want to be driving on the limit constantly and be taking too many risks on this circuit. It was a very long stint on the hard tyre during the race, but the pace of the car was very good and I was good at managing my tyres. In the last stint, the tyres were getting cold and it was easy to lose the grip at the end, but we pushed through and I think we did everything well today. The ultimate goal is to fight for the championship, so we are off to a great start.”
SERGIO PÉREZ – 2nd
“I think the early Safety Car compromised our race quite a lot unfortunately. I lost quite a lot going into traffic with Lando and Lewis, around seven to eight seconds. We needed to get through that quicker than we did to challenge for the win, but other than that it was a strong drive and performance. I really feel like we have done the two steps forward that I was looking for this weekend, so we’re getting closer to where we need to be. The Ferrari has the pace and I think there are tracks where they will be a lot closer to us. They probably didn’t maximise their full potential today and we did. Max is driving at a super high level and I think he’s the only driver who has maximised qualifying and the race so far this season. It’s great, though, because I have the best possible challenge to him. I must keep evolving weekend after weekend. Now, my full focus is on Melbourne and getting on top of what we have done here in Jeddah.”
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YUKI TSUNODA – 14th
“It was a difficult race today. I made some mistakes and let some cars behind me pass when I was trying to overtake the car in front, and that’s my fault. We struggled with our pace and grip today, so it was difficult to drive. On the positive side, we had a strong qualifying and we’ll look into our race pace and figure out why we struggled as much as we did. There are things I can improve on, so we’ll look through them and apply the learnings for the future.”
DANIEL RICCIARDO – 16th
“It was a tough race and overall, a tough weekend, which is very frustrating. During the Safety Car time, when almost everyone pitted, we had a slow pit stop and a few laps from the end, I made a mistake and hit too much kerb in Turn 1, which caused a spin. I’m staying optimistic, though, as I know we have some positive signs and we just need to polish our package up. We have a week off now and there will be a big push from everyone to get it right and make sure we have a good package for the next race. I know the team wants it as badly as I do. I’m excited to go back racing in Melbourne, so let’s get ready for it.”
ALAN PERMANE – Racing Director
“With Yuki, we did a conventional race, like most others. We started him on the medium tyre, and when the Safety Car came out, pitted him for the hard compound. What then happened was a little difficult to take. Magnussen drove off the track to deliberately put himself in front of Yuki and then slowed him down by up to two seconds a lap, which allowed Hulkenberg, who hadn’t stopped yet, to create a gap and, of course, pit in front of all the cars behind. That doesn’t seem correct and is the very definition of unsportsmanlike behaviour. I’m sure we and other teams will talk to the FIA about it for future races. Regarding Daniel’s race, we had a problem with the tyres during his pitstop and it put him at the back of the field. From there it was difficult to move forward.
“Overall, we clearly made a step with our understanding of the car and qualified well, which is positive. We now look forward to a break for our team after a long three weeks away and I have no doubt we’ll come back stronger in Melbourne.”
LAURENT MEKIES – Team Principal
“It was a very disappointing result for the team today after a lot of good work during the weekend. Yuki was fighting for what could have been a P10 finish. He was then passed by Magnussen, who cut the track to do so and then slowed down the whole pack to let his team-mate open a gap to pit in front of all of us. It made the penalty imposed on Magnussen meaningless, as it destroyed Yuki’s race. It was a disappointing finish after a very good qualifying yesterday. Daniel’s race was compromised by a very long pit stop during the double stack under the Safety Car. He then drove a large part of the race in heavy traffic. In an ultra-tight midfield, you fall off very quickly as soon as you don’t get everything perfect, and the race was certainly not perfect for us. We’ll continue working hard in Faenza and Bicester, and the team is looking forward to resuming the fight in Melbourne.”
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