Verstappen beats Leclerc to win the Saudi Formula 1 Grand Prix

Dutch world champion Max Verstappen returned to victory for Red Bull, by winning the Saudi Grand Prix, the second round of the Formula One World Championship, on Sunday.

Mad Max compensated for the disappointment of his withdrawal from the first round of the new season at the Bahraini Sakhir circuit with a narrow victory in the last laps, 0.549 seconds ahead of the first winner this year, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc of Monaco, who added to the points of second place (18) points, the fastest lap For the second race in a row.

Leclerc's teammate, Carlos Sainz, finished third, 8.097 seconds behind, while Red Bull's Mexican Sergio "Checo" Perez, who started in the lead, slipped to fourth.

This is the twenty-first victory in Verstappen's career, to advance to third place in the drivers' standings with 25 points, after returning without a point from Bahrain, while Leclerc consolidated his lead by 45 points in front of Science II (33).

"We were fighting really hard at the top," said Verstappen, who had a hot fight with Leclerc throughout the race, especially in the last eight laps.

It was hard.

I am happy to finally launch our season.”

Leclerc replied, "It wasn't enough today, but I enjoyed running this race.

It's a tough but fair race, every race has to be like this, it was fun, obviously frustrated because I wanted to win today."

After Bahrain's double and the second and third places in Jeddah, Ferrari raised its score in the constructors' standings to 78 points, ahead of Mercedes (38) and Red Bull (37).

The Mercedes team, the constructors' champion last season, was satisfied with only 11 points after the problems of the British pit continued, specifically with the British seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who started from 15th in his worst result since 2017, to finish the race tenth, while his young compatriot, the newcomer George Russell is in fifth place.

The top ten were completed by France's Esteban Ocon (Albin), Britain's Lando Norris (McLaren), France's Pierre Gasly (Alvatore) and Denmark's Kevin Magnussen.

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