2024 F1 Saudi Arabian GP results: Max Verstappen wins

Verstappen beat his team-mate Sergio Perez, who incurred a penalty during the pitstops that didn’t impact the finishing order, and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

2024 F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix results

2024 F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix report

Polesitter Verstappen led the charge to Turn 1, while Perez briefly grabbed nosed ahead of Leclerc for second but had to concede the spot to the Ferrari driver.

Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) just held on to fourth, ahead of the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris – whose car leapt forward on the start line just before the red lights went out – and the Mercedes pairing of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.

Piastri passed Alonso for fourth at Turn 1 at the start of lap two, as Ferrari’s substitute driver Oliver Bearman (who started on soft tyres) banged wheels with Yuki Tsunoda’s RB over tenth place.

Perez snatched second from Leclerc at the start of lap four to make it a Red Bull 1-2, with Verstappen already 2.4s up the road.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll plunged into the barriers at Turn 22 on lap seven, having clipped the apex wall of the previous corner at 140mph, causing a safety car and sent the majority of the field into the pits.

Lance Stroll, Aston Martin AMR24, checks out his car after crashing out of the race

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Red Bull had to double stack Verstappen and Perez, but with 4.6s between them it just managed to achieve their pitstops without major delay, but Perez caused Alonso to brake to avoid the Mexican as he rejoined from his pit box.

Norris stayed out to lead from Verstappen and Hamilton, who also didn’t pit. Perez retained his track position over Leclerc, who ran ahead of Piastri and Alonso. Nico Hulkenberg (Haas) and Zhou Guanyu (Sauber) also stayed out.

The race resumed on lap 10, with Norris leading Verstappen, Hamilton and Perez. Alex Albon (Williams) and Kevin Magnussen (Haas) clashed just after the restart, with Magnussen later receiving a 10s penalty for the incident.

Norris retained his lead, but was under investigation for his potential start infringement, with Verstappen initially happy to sit behind him on his fresh hard tyres. But Verstappen passed Norris three laps later, to retake the lead, as Perez did likewise to Hamilton for third at Turn 1.

Leclerc passed his future team-mate Hamilton for fourth at Turn 1 on lap 15.

Piastri and Hamilton then clashed wheels at Turn 1 two laps later in the battle for fifth. Perez received a 5s time penalty for an unsafe release but eased past Norris for second on lap 18.

At half distance, Verstappen led the yet-to-be-penalised Perez by almost 7s. Norris, who was cleared of any penalty for his odd start, ran third from Leclerc and the battling Hamilton and Piastri.

Leclerc passed Norris for third on lap 27, while Piastri made harder work of getting past Hamilton – outbraking him at Turn 1 on lap 35 but overshooting and having to let him past again.

Hamilton pitted two laps later, switching to softs for the sprint to the finish, rejoining in ninth. Norris stopped a tour later, also for softs, and exited the pits just ahead of Hamilton.

Bearman made some nice moves on his debut as he drove into the points, running seventh but with Norris and Hamilton on fresher tyres behind him.

Verstappen won by 8s over Perez, whose 5s penalty was inconsequential as Leclerc (who set fastest lap on the final tour) was way behind him in third. Piastri finished fourth, ahead of Alonso and Russell.

Bearman held on to seventh with a fine drive on his F1 debut, ahead of Norris and Hamilton. Hulkenberg finished 10^th for Haas, after his penalised team-mate Magnussen did a heroic job of keep those behind at bay to allow him to make his pitstop and rejoin ahead of them.

2024 F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix fastest laps