Hello to all my readers, welcome to another GP week!
It´s March and we have our second race of this season – Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Saudi Arabia is the only country with a coastline along both the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. This GP will take place at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit. Saudi Arabia is quite new addition to the calendars,first GP was held in 2021.
Before some facts let´s look onto latest news that happened in last few days:
Charles Leclerc will start with a 10-grid penalty, so it is important for Ferrari and Charles to do well on Quali day. Another news that hit all Mercedes fans, especially Lewis Hamilton and Angela Cullen. Angela and Lewis informed us on Friday about Angela´s decision to move on with her career and persuade her own dreams now. It is really sad news; I think not just for us but also for Lewis.
Let´s look into some interesting facts about the country itself:
Saudi Arabia shares borders with three other countries which host F1 races in the Middle East: Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Women were forbidden from driving in Saudi Arabia until June 2018 - in 2002, salaries of chauffeurs driving women in the country accounted for 1 % of the national income.
Formula 1’s links to Saudi Arabia go all the way back to the 1970s, when the Saudia national airline sponsored the Williams team.
Prior to the inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the Saudi Automobile & Motorcycle Federation promoted the race by building the world’s biggest Lego F1 car. It was made up of over 500,000 bricks.
Little bit about the Jeddah Corniche Circuit:
Top speeds at Jeddah Street Circuit reach 322 km/h.
The length of the track is 6.174 km and has about 27 turns.
The race distance is 50 laps which is probably 308.450 km
The hairpin at Turn 13 of Jeddah Corniche Circuit features twelve degrees of banking. It’s seven degrees less steep than the banking at Zandvoort.
Saudi Arabia has a total land area of 2,150,000 km2, but there are no rivers in the country! It is the largest country in the world without a river.
Fastest pit stop: 2.22 by Ferrari
Lewis Hamilton holds the lap record (1:30.734, Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes, 2021).
Little virtual look: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/petronasmotorsports_outraceyourself-petronasmotorsports-mercedesamgf1-activity-7042115676043374592-yJyG?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios
And now onto the action itself:
On Friday 17/03/2023 we had P1 and P2 on Saturday we had P3 and of course Qualifying, here are the results:
Verstappen had an engine problem, and he will start 15th (maybe the Bahrain Curse is real, ehh?), Leclerc did quite well, he ended up second, but with his 10-grid penalty he will start 12th. Checo will lead this race with Alonso right behind him. Hamilton and Russell did well – Lewis will start in 7th and George 3rd. Sainz in in 4th thanks to Leclerc´s falling into 12th. It is also important to mention, that Piastri from McLaren did well (for a rookie) and got himself for the first time of this season into Q3 and will be starting 8th.
Now let´s dive into my notes from the Sunday race:
Sunday 19th March 2023
6:00 - Formation Lap
6:04 - Lights out and of we gooo. ALO takes the lead, right behind PER. ALO - incorrect starting possition, RUS in 3rd.
6:05 - LEC up by 3 places, VER up by 2 and SAI going one position down, PIA on his tirst pit lane
6:06 - LAP 2 - ALO gets penalty for incorrect starting possition
6:08 - LAP 3 - NOR in a pit - McLaren is not looking good today, right now in the 19th and 20th
6:09 - LAP 4 - PER taking the lead
6:11 - LAP 5 - LEC - GAS - HAM racing for 7th place, VER 11th
6:13 - PER -1:34.621 fastest lap
6:14 - LAP 7- LEC overtaking GAS, now 8th runing after HAM, VER overtaking ZHO, VER now 10th
6:16 - LAP 8 - HAM and LEC battle for 7th and ovetaking at 6:17, LEC now 7th, LEC really having a grip with the soft tyres and car
6:18 - LAP 9 - SAI and STR battle for 4th - not hapenning, VER overtaking GAS, now 9th
6:20 - LAP 10 - VER battling for 8th with HAM, VER having better results, HAM strugling
6:22 - VER overtaking HAM, VER now 8th
6:23 - LAP 12 - LEC hunting OCO for 6th -> and nicely and easily overtaking ; SAI and STR battling over 4th place
6:24 - LAP 13/14 - SAI ask to boxi and STR boxing, LEC now 5th, VER 6th
6:26 - LAP 15 - LEC and VER really close, GAS in pit; PER still leader of the race
6:28 - LAP 16 . SAI in the pit, LEC now 4th and VER 5th; SAI out of pit in 9th, VER breathing down LEC´s neck
6:29 - LEC is told to box, coming in and going out 8th, VER 4th, SAI 7th
6:31 - yellow flag in sector 2 - STR told to stop the car - safety car, 10th OCO, TSU 9th, SAR 8th, LEC 7th, SAI 6th, HAM 5th, VER 4th, RUS 3rd, ALO 2nd and PER still leading
6:33 - LAP 19 - box RedBull - PER, VER - PER still leading, VER still in 4th, HAM pitting, moving SAI in 5th; STR - DNF
6:36 - Safety can ending - LAP 20 - TOP 10 -> PER - ALO - RUS - VER- SAI - HAM - LEC- TSU - OCO - GAS
6:39 - Green Flag - LAP 21- HAM, LEC, SAI, VER, RUS battling for 3rd place
6:41 - HAM overtaking SAI, HAM now 5th behind him Ferraris, RUS and VER battling for 3rd
6:44 - Lap 23 - DRS Enabled - TOP 10 standing - PER - ALO - VER - RUS - HAM - SAI - LEC - OCO - TSU - GAS
6:45 - Lap 25 - ALO and VER fighting for 2nd and PER setting best time 1:33.426, VER overtaking PER, VER 2nd
6:48 - Lap 26 ALB - break failure? letting everyone past him, not going into the pit, really slowing down
6:50 - LAP 28 - VER setting the best time 1:32.838
6:51 - ALB going into the pit and it is DNF
6:53 - LAP 30 - HUL and SAR battling for 12th, HUL overtaking SAR
6:59/7pm - LAP 33 - LEC not happy about being so far behind, TOP 10 -> 1st PER - VER- ALO - RUS - HAM - SAI - LEC - OCO - GAS - 10th TSU; RedBull dominating this race
7:01 - LAP 35 - Battle TSU and MAG for 10th
7:05 - LAP 38 - VER problem with the driveshaft - it is making weird sounds
7:09 - LAP 40 - VER still the problem with car, PER having a long brake pedal, TSU and MAG fight over 10th
7:10 - 10 laps to go!; SAR, DEV, NOR, PIA battle for 14th - DEV overtaking and now in 14th; 8 laps to go
7:16 - LAP 45 - BOT having troble with car
7:18 - 5 LAPS to go!, VER still having problem with the weird noise
7:20 - 4 LAPS to go, PER still leading this race
7:21 - 3 LAPS to go - RUS told that ALO might have 5 second penalty, gap between ALO and RUS is 4.5 sec
7:22 - 2 LAPS to go - PIA overtaking NOR and is now 16th
7:24 - 1 LAP to go! -> RedBull in 1st and 2nd, ALO in 3rd with possible penalty, RUS - HAM - SAI - LEC - OCO - GAS - MAG - TSU - HUL - ZHO - DEV - SAR - PIA - NOR - BOT; ALB and STR DNF
7:25 - PER winning this race, VER 2nd with the best time, ALO 3rd!
And that is the end of the Saudi Arabia GP!
This race was very thrilling and full of wild moments. Now we have the week of and in the week of 31st and 2nd we have the Australian GP! Oh I can not wait, what I really wanna know is: Will there be Danny Ricciardo and will he be driving as a reserve driver? We will see.
Until the next time, remember just LIGHTS OUT AND AWAY WE GO!
See ya,
Natalie Kika
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