Two races into the Formula One season and defending champion Max Verstappen is already going toe-to-toe with Charles Leclerc rather than veteran Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time F1 champion whose crown he took last year. (More Sports News)
Verstappen and Leclerc, both 24 and rivals since their karting days, went wheel-to-wheel on Sunday, before Verstappen made a decisive pass three laps from the end of the Sau𓃲di Arabian Grand Prix for his first win of the season and 21st🐷 of his career.
“Every battle is 🧔different,&q✃uot; Verstappen said.
"It's just smart racing and🌄 good racing. It was not easy but a lot of fun.”
The race under floo🐈dlights 𒆙was held two days after an attack on a nearby oil depot by Yemen's Houthi rebels.
Hamilton is F1's record holder with 10💟3 wins, but managed one meager point for Mercedes in 🍌10th.
“It's gutting but we'll keep working hard and keep fighting, tha🥃t's all we can 🍨do,” Hamilton said.
“Right now we're not fღighting for the top. We're so far off the guys ahead. It feels like a long, long way away.”
Leclerc was aiming for back-to-back victories after winning the season-openܫer in Bahrain from pole position last Sunday.
After comin♌g close, Leclerc congratulated his rival on the radio and then gave him a thumbs-up afterward.
“We've been pushing like I've rarely push❀ed before, we ta🐼ke risks. Of course there's respect,” Leclerc said.
“It was hard racing but fair. Every race should be like this. It was fun."ꦏ;
And intense.
After a virtual safety car came out, fo🌱llowing apparent power failures on Daniel Ricciardo's McLaren and then Fernando Alonso's Alpine, Verstappen found himself lurking behind 🎐Leclerc with eight laps to go on the sinewy 50-lap street circuit.
Verstappen ove🌃rtook on the outside at the end of Lap 42. But it was a clever dummy by Leclerc, who dived s𝓀traight back inside Verstappen on Turn 1 of the next lap.
“Charles played it very smart,” Verstappen said.
Verstappen had♒ another go on Lap 44, locking ๊his brakes trying a risky overtake on the DRS line, but overtook on Lap 47 with a clean pass.
Leclerc mಌissed out on a fourth career win, as Verstappen edged him by half a second, but remains top of the standings after two races. Leclerc has 45 points, Carlos Sainz Jr. 33 and Verstappen 25. Hamilton is fifth overall with 16.
Sainz's third place in this race made it another podium double for Ferrari after he was second in Bahrain where Leclerc had brilliantly repelled three attacks from Verstappen, who retired right near t💞he end of that race with teammate Sergio Perez.
Perez ♛bounced b🍸ack with a superb pole position but finished fourth. Sainz and Perez were later cleared by stewards for not slowing enough under double yellow flags after Alex Albon and Lance Stroll collided on Lap 49. Albon will serve a three-place grid penalty at the next race.
Hamilton's teammate George Russell fared better in fifth but Mercedes again looked way off the pace on the Jiddah circuit, about 11 k♌ilometers (seꦫven miles) from Friday's attack. F1 agreed to race on Saturday after lengthy discussions on Friday night.
Hamilton stওarted from a lowly 15th, and would have been 16th if Mick Schumacher꧑ had raced.
It was tough ⛄for Hamilt𓄧on to pass and it took him until Lap 14 to move into 10th.
Perez pitted first on Lap 16, just before a safety car came out oneꦅ lap♔ later after Williams driver Nicholas Latifi slid right into the side of a wall under no pressure.
Leclerc held off Verstappen when the race restarted on La𓃲p 21.
It was then held up a second timeไ when Ricciardo pulled over. Alonso also crawled to a halt and so did Alfa ✤Romeo's Valtteri Bottas.
Hamilton pitted again on Lap 41 to enﷺsure his chances of a points finish. He almost collided with Stroll fighting just for 10th, a sign of how badly Mercede💜s is struggling after winning eight straight constructors' titles.
“We're st♓ill really do🌠wn on speed," Hamilton said.
"It's not j༒ust one fix, it's several thi🀅ngs.”
Saturday was Hamilton's worst performance in qualifying since 2017, when he failed to make it out of the first round of qualifying — Q1 — at the Brazilian GP. But that was because of a crash. On speed alone it was t𓆏he first time since the British GP in 2009 when driving for McLaren.
F1 ꦅheads to Australia on April 10 and then into Eღurope.
