Red Bull’s Sergio Perez led from his first F1 career pole position start but his race came undone after making his pitstop just before a safety car, which promoted Leclerc to the lead ahead of Verstappen and Sainz.
Verstappen passed Leclerc after an intense battle where, like in Bahrain, they swapped the lead between them. Verstappen made the decisive move with four laps to go following a wild game of chicken over who reached the DRS line first.
2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix race results
How the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix unfolded
Perez held his pole advantage on the run to Turn 1, ahead of Leclerc. Verstappen passed Sainz around the outside of Turn 2, with Esteban Ocon (Alpine) holding fifth from George Russell (Mercedes), Fernando Alonso (Alpine), Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo), Kevin Magnussen (Haas) and Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri). Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton gained a spot to run 14th at the end of the opening lap after his troubled qualifying.
Russell grabbed fifth from Ocon at the end of Lap 3. Alonso then got DRS on Ocon, but his teammate defending his sixth position hard for two laps before Alonso made it stick on Lap 7. Ocon re-attacked and regained the position using the run-off at Turn 1.
Ocon let Alonso past, while ensuring he got DRS, and their fight allowed Bottas and Magnussen (the first car to start on hard tyres) on to their tail.
Perez opened up a 2.3s lead over Leclerc by Lap 10, with Verstappen a further 2s back. Hamilton, who started on hards, worked himself up to 12th and then passed Lando Norris’s McLaren and Gasly to rise into the top 10 by Lap 15.
Ocon and Alonso had another turf war on Lap 12, after which Ocon was then told to “hold position”. That didn’t work out, as Bottas passed Ocon for seventh at Turn 1.
Perez pitted for hard tyres on Lap 16, after Ferrari had pretended to call in Leclerc. Just after his stop, Nicholas Latifi put his Williams into the fence, causing a virtual safety car and then a full safety car. Leclerc, Verstappen and Sainz all pitted for hards, with Perez feeding back into the field in third – coming very close to Sainz on the pit exit.
Sainz was ahead of Perez at the safety car line, but the positions weren’t swapped before the restart on Lap 20, but he let him through soon after. Russell passed the non-stopping Magnussen for fifth at Turn 1. Hamilton also gained spots having not pitted yet, and now ran seventh behind Magnussen.
Hamilton passed Magnussen on Lap 23 but the Dane repassed him into Turn 1. Lewis got wise to this and waited until Turn 1 on the following tour to make his move to gain sixth by half distance.
Alonso DRS-ed past Magnussen on Lap 35 for seventh but Magnussen repassed him as Fernando slowed a tour later. McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo then ground to a halt at the pit entry, just as Bottas was retired from a points-paying position. Magnussen pitted for mediums, but Hamilton missed the chance as the pits were closed and a virtual safety car was called.
The race went green again on Lap 41, with Verstappen right on Leclerc’s tail and passed him into the final corner on Lap 42 but Leclerc DRS-ed past into Turn 1. On the following lap, both locked up to try and make the other lose DRS, with Leclerc blinking first and Verstappen almost spinning as he too got back on the power.
Verstappen didn’t fall for Leclerc backing off at the end of Lap 46 and DRS-ed past him into Turn 1 with four laps to go.
Alex Albon and Lance Stroll collided at Turn 1 on Lap 48, just as the lead looked poised to change again. Leclerc got DRS starting the final lap but couldn’t find a way past, and Verstappen just clung on to claim a superb victory by 0.549s.
Sainz finished third, ahead of the luckless Perez, Russell, Ocon, Norris, Gasly, Magnussen and Hamilton. Several of those are under investigation for going too quickly under yellows at the end.
There were two non-starters: Mick Schumacher after his qualifying crash and Yuki Tsunoda, whose AlphaTauri suffered a loss of oil pressure on his installation lap to the grid.
2022 Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix fastest laps
2022 Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix pitstops
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism