A final-gasp transfer on the ultimate nook, a dash to the chequered flag, a photograph end: It will be nice to see extra grands prix end that manner.
That did occur on Sunday, however because it determined who occupied the ultimate two locations within the ending order as a substitute of the winner, it was broadly missed.
Jack Doohan caught Seventeenth-placed Gabriel Bortoleto as the ultimate laps counted down. Each drivers had modified tyres on the primary lap of the race, however Doohan made a second pit cease whereas Bortoleto plugged away on his previous rubber.
Doohan took 14 seconds out of Bortoleto in 4 laps to reach on his tail on the ultimate nook. The Sauber was powerless to withstand, and Doohan beat him to the road by 0.042 seconds.
That is the closest hole between the 2 drivers categorized within the final two locations for the reason that 2018 Bahrain Grand Prix. On that event Sergio Perez pipped Brendon Hartley to the road by 0.027s. The pair completed twelfth and thirteenth respectively within the authentic classification however both received 30-second time penalties which dropped them to the rear of the field.
Up on the sharp finish, Oscar Piastri beat Max Verstappen to the road by 2.8 seconds for his third grand prix victory of the season. It means he now has as many profession wins as his group mate Lando Norris – this time final yr each have been but to win their first grand prix.
Piastri’s win additionally propels him to the highest of the championship desk, overtaking Norris. He’s the primary driver to take the factors lead off his group mate since Lewis Hamilton handed Valtteri Bottas on the 2020 Hungarian Grand Prix.
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The Melburnian is the primary Australian driver to guide the world championship since Mark Webber after the 2010 Japanese Grand Prix. Webber is now Piastri’s supervisor.
McLaren have now gained 4 of the primary 5 rounds this yr. It took them till the Seventeenth grand prix of final season to attain their fourth victory. This was their first victory within the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen claimed pole place with a record-breaking lap of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, and continued Crimson Bull’s run of 4 consecutive poles at this observe. He has a superb document of changing pole positions to victories, with 33 wins from 42 poles. Nevertheless he has discovered it more and more troublesome to maintain up that fee: his final eight pole positions have yielded 4 wins.
Charles Leclerc joined them on the rostrum, giving Ferrari their first rostrum look this yr. Norris chased him to the road for fourth and picked up his fifteenth quickest lap as he did. He now has as many as Jackie Stewart, Clay Regazzoni and Felipe Massa.
Aston Martin had little to cheer about of their one hundredth grand prix. Fernando Alonso’s point-less begin to the season continued and Lance Stroll dropped out in Q1 for the third time this yr. That was Stroll’s seventy fifth Q1 elimination, which is probably the most of any F1 driver, surpassing the document held by Kevin Magnussen.
Stroll can also be one in every of solely two drivers to have entered all 5 races at this observe however by no means scored some extent. The opposite is Yuki Tsunoda, who crashed on the primary lap on Sunday. That was a minimum of higher than his 2022 look when his AlphaTauri broke down earlier than the beginning.
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