Red Bull once again claimed the one-two positions at the Saudia Arabian Grand Prix on Sunday. There is no doubt that RB19 is the best car at the moment. But in Jeddah, Mercedes seemed faster than Ferrari. Lewis Hamilton finished at P5 again. But there was confusion with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso as he got a penalty of 10 seconds. As a result, George Russell of Mercedes got the P3. But the most interesting part is Max Verstappen did not win the race. Albeit, he is still leading the championship standings.
But there could have been a change in the standings. Red Bull driver Sergio ‘Checo’ Perez won the Jeddah Grand Prix. In the Bahrain Grand Prix, Checo finished second. After winning the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix, Perez should have been leading the standings. But on the basis of the rule on the fastest lap, Max Verstappen was awarded with an extra point, eventually getting ahead of Checo. Now, this case created a bigger confusion, especially in the Red Bull camp.
Sergio Perez Asks For A Review Of The Fastest Lap Rule
The winner of the Jeddah Grand Prix has asked for a review of the whole matter. According to Perez, his team told him to hold on to a certain pace when Max was way behind. Verstappen was running in the 15th position for a long time, but later he picked up the pace and reached P2. But Perez is not sure how Verstappen secured the fastest lap. Sergio Perez said that his team told him he had the quickest lap, and he thought they said Max Verstappen the same. But it turns out Perez was wrong. After the race, in an interview, Perez said he could not ask the team too much on the track, but he wanted to know why there was a difference in the information.
Everybody heard Verstappen asking about the fastest lap during the fag end of the race. Later when asked about this, Verstappen replied, “we always set a target lap time, and when we came close to the end of the race, I just asked about the fastest lap time. I even asked them in Bahrain.” According to the Dutchman, if there are two drivers from the same team, it is natural to ask about the fastest lap. Sergio Perez, in the end, won the race as he was 5 seconds faster than his teammate. But Max still leads the chart due to the advantage of the fastest lap.
No Matter What Happens, Red Bull Is Still At The Top
However, Checo must be proud to win a GP after a long time. But the question remains why was Sergio Perez asked to maintain a certain pace during the final lap of the race? As it turns out, that made a big difference in the standings. Hence, Checo is right to ask for a review of the fastest lap rules and what exactly happened in the Red Bull camp.
Whatever happened in Jeddah at the end of the day, it is still Red Bull, with Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez leading a long way ahead of the current F1 season. The two drivers of Red Bull also seemed worried about the extra vibrations that slowed Verstappen down. The Dutchman did complain about that on the radio.
