Sergio Perez Wins in Saudi Arabia, Another Podium for Fernando Alonso

Charles Leclerc was right behind Perez, but he had a grid penalty, so the Ferrari driver started from P12. Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso was again incredible, qualifying in third place. Sergio Perez showed everyone that he is not just a second driver on the Red Bull team. He drove incredibly well the whole race, controlling every aspect of it and keeping Max Verstappen at a distance. Nobody could touch the Mexican driver, who won his fifth race in his career. His teammate came in second, giving Red Bull their second one-two finish of the season.

Fernando Alonso did it again, taking another podium, the 100th of his 20-plus-year career. Well, we thought so because, after the race, the Spanish driver was given a ten-second penalty for an incorrectly-served penalty. At the start, the two-time world champion with Renault in 2005 and 2006 had a fantastic launch, overtaking the Mexican driver in the first corner. However, Alonso had an incorrect starting position and received a five-second penalty. In the third lap, Perez retook the lead from the Aston Martin driver. In the middle group of cars, a piece of McLaren's bodywork has been left behind as Piastri had little contact with Gasly. As a result, the Australian driver had to change the front wing in the pit box. At this time, Leclerc and Verstappen were making good progress in the midfield.

After overtaking Zhou from Alfa Romeo, the defending world champion entered the top ten in the eighth lap. Lewis Hamilton was under investigation due to waiving on the straight while trying to defend from Charles Leclerc. However, the Ferrari driver overtook Hamilton in the first corner in the ninth lap. Meanwhile, Lance Stroll in P4 was keeping his ground very well against Carlos Sainz.

Until Lap 17, Verstappen and Leclerc made some significant progress. In this lap, Lance Stroll, who was in fourth place, stopped the car on the track. Some smoke was coming from the back of his Aston Martin, and the Safety Car was out. Fernando Alonso came into the pits to serve his penalty and to change tires, coming on the track just ahead of George Russell in second place. Meanwhile, the Red Bull cars made a double pit stop.

At the restart, Sergio Perez had a fantastic launch on the start/finish straight, giving Alonso no chance to overtake. George Russell was in third, ahead of Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz, Lewis Hamilton, and Charles Leclerc. Lewis overtook Sainz in the first corner, and some laps later, Verstappen overtook George Russell easily. On Lap 25, Verstappen was driving as a man possessed, and on the start/finish straight; he overtook Alonso without any problems.

Meanwhile, The Alpine pair managed to pick Tsunoda to climb forward, with the Japanese driver holding onto P10 just ahead of Kevin Magnussen from Haas. A couple of laps later, Alex Albon had some problems with his Williams suffering a brake failure. Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen were sharing the fastest lap between them, with Alonso falling back consistently behind the two Red Bull cars.

The two Ferrari cars were no match for Mercedes and Alonso. Unfortunately, the Italian team has a more significant problem than just reliability ones. On Lap 38, some panic was around the Red Bull pit wall because Max Verstappen started to complain about the driveshaft and some weird noses around the car. He was told to slow down, losing a full second on Lap 39. While Max sounded highly concerned about those problems, at the same time, he was pushing very hard, like ther's no tomorrow. At the same time, Sergio Perez said that his brake pedal felt a little bit longer.

On Lap 41, Alonso was cruising in third, and Hamilton seemed like he had given up on the fight against George Russell. At that moment, the battle for the final point was between Kevin Magnussen and Yuki Tsunoda. With eight laps, Perez was told to do a 33.0 on every lap, while Max did 32.6. The Mexican driver was a little mad because he didn't want to slow down in order to be caught by Max. There were more than four seconds between them. A little tension in the Red Bull team. Maybe this is the aftermath of last year's scandal between Sergio and Max?

With six laps to go, the spirits ahead were very relaxed. Verstappen stopped pushing, Alonso was cruising on his own in third place, while the Silver Arrows and the Ferraris were keeping the same positions. Meanwhile, there were harsh battles in the midfield group and backfield. Lando Norris came very aggressive on his rookie teammate Oscar Piastri, overlooking him at the first corner. At the same time, Magnussen and Tsunoda were at war, fighting extremely hard for the last place in the points.

Nothing notably happened until the end of the race. Sergio Perez took the win, but Verstappen took the bonus point for the fastest lap of the race just before he passed the chequered flag. As a result, he is leading the championship for the first time in his career. Maybe he will lead the standings after the last race too. But until then, we have 20 races to cover. See you in two weeks at the Albert Park circuit in Australia.