Red Bull dominate in Saudi GP with Verstappen win, Perez second

Max Verstappen dominated the second race of the Formula One season in Saudi Arabia as his Red Bull team secured a second one-two finish in as many races in 2024.

Despite ongoing turmoil behind the scenes at Red Bull, Verstappen looked untouchable as he won his ninth consecutive race and the 56th of his career.

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An early safety car when Lance Stroll slammed into the barriers at Turn 23 forced Verstappen to sacrifice the lead for six laps when he pitted and McLaren's Lando Norris stayed out, but it only served as a mild inconvenience on his way to a comfortable victory.

"I think overall it was a fantastic weekend, for the whole team but also for me," Verstappen said after the race. "I felt really good with the car in qualifying and it was basically the same in the race."

Verstappen's teammate Sergio Perez was up to second place by lap four, briefly dropped to fourth under the safety car but was back up to second place by lap 18.

Stroll clipped the inside of Turn 22 on lap six while travelling in 160mph, which broke his front left suspension and sent him deep into the barriers on the inside of Turn 23.

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The Aston Martin driver walked away from the accident unharmed, but threw away a potential points finish with the mistake.

Charles Leclerc secured third for Ferrari and secured the fastest lap but never looked like a genuine threat to the Red Bulls.

Perez was carrying a five-second penalty for an unsafe release from his pit stop, but held an 18.6s margin over the Ferrari at the finish meaning he easily retained second place.

"We had quite a good pace because we had the fastest lap at the end and I got a bit helped by having DRS," Leclerc said. "But overall the feeling was pretty good, it was a bit of a boring race because Red Bull were a bit too quick and behind we had a bit of a gap, but we took the maximum points we could today and that is the target."

Much of the focus during the race was on Leclerc's substitute teammate Oliver Bearman, who made his F1 debut after Ferrari regular Carlos Sainz was sidelined with appendicitis following Thursday practice.

Bearman, 18, finished in seventh place from 11th on the grid after holding off fellow Britons Norris and Hamilton in the final ten laps of the race.

Norris and Hamilton found themselves locked in a battle towards the end after both their teams opted against pitting them under the early safety car.

The fight, which saw Norris warned for weaving under braking ahead of Hamilton, gave Bearman extra breathing room and helped him hang on to six points on his F1 debut.

Oscar Piastri secured fourth place for McLaren after overtaking Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso on lap two of the race. Alonso went on to secure fifth ahead of Russell, who had a quiet race to sixth.

Nico Hulkenberg secured the final point on offer for Haas, emphasising the surprising start the American team had made to the season.

Like Norris and Hamilton, Hulkenberg opted not to pit under the early safety car and was then helped by teammate Kevin Magnussen, who was able to delay a gaggle of Hulkenberg's potential rivals for tenth place by holding them up on track.

Magnussen finished 11th on the road but was carrying 20 seconds of penalties for on-track misdemeanours earlier in the race.