In the end, the result goes along expected lines. Though often the eventual outcome only depicts a fraction of the entire story. That was certainly the case with yesterday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Now read on…
The race was full to the gills of incident with a garnish of controversy, the only difference from most recently being that for once Max Verstappen was nowhere near it. That is not to say Red Bull weren’t moaning – they were as sure as yesterday was Sunday – but they weren’t the ones actually causing the hassle.
Being honest, the entire race weekend had a cloud over it. From bomb threats on the Friday, leading to a pondering as to whether racing should be going ahead at all, to Lewis Hamilton not qualifying in the first tranche, to Mick Schumacher’s crash during qualifying on Saturday and one of the Williams cars not even getting to start on race day.
Of all the above, of course the young German’s safety was of paramount importance, but, with all that going on the race itself was almost an after thought. Which was most unfortunate given that Sergio Perez took pole position for the first time in his career at the 215th attempt.
It was a race punctuated by carnage out on the track, messed up pit stops and several renditions of the safety car. Ironically, the biggest loser from all the chaos was the man in the box seat.
The Mexican getting caught up in traffic during the manic pitting period, before which he had been leading the race before pitting. His misfortune and the likes of Hamilton and Valteri Bottas being out of the equation cleared the stage for a match race between Verstappen and Charles LeClerc in the race’s dying embers.
The inclination that all is not 100% within the Red Bull camp has not been completely quenched but even Christian Horner might get hard to find something to complain about this week!
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