In Jeddah the second GP of the season: Perez starts from pole, just behind the two Ferraris of Leclerc and Sainz, with Verstappen fourth
Ore 19.15 – Round 7/50 Alonso overtook Ocon at the end of the starting straight, the Spaniard from Alpine sixth
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Ore 19.13 – Round 6/50 Perez is running away, Leclerc at 2 ” 33 but does not seem to have the pace to go and take him back. Verstappen also took off on Sainz. Alonso tries to pass Ocon again but the other closes it again
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Ore 19.11 – Round 5/50 Alonso to the attack of his teammate Ocon on the straight, the Frenchman closes it with the hard way
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Ore 19.09 – Round 4/50 Russell also enjoyed a good race, the youngster in the Mercedes fifth. He passed Ocon with a nice maneuver
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Ore 19.08 – The latest driver to convert his first pole position into a state victory Pastor Maldonado in 2012. Afterwards, they failed the appointment with the successful Daniel Ricciardo (Monaco 2016), Charles Leclerc (Bahrain 2019), Lance Stroll (Turkey 2020) and Lando Norris (Sochi 2021).
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Ore 19.07 – Round 3/50 Perez is pushing to stretch, Leclerc still at 1 ” 3. Verstappen took a good lead over Sainz
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Ore 19.06 – Round 2/50 top 5 Perez, Leclerc, Verstappen, Sainz and Ocon. Hamilton climbed to 14 from behind.
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Ore 19.05 – The world champion now third. Perez has a 1 ” advantage over Leclerc.
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Ore 19.03 – Green light, go. Sainz takes a bad shot, Verstappen passes. Perez in command.
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Ore 19.02 – At the end of the formation lap, the drivers will line up on the starting squares. Perez, Leclerc, Sainz and Verstappen in the first two rows.
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Ore 19.00 – Mick Schumacher in the Haas garage after the great fear of yesterday’s accident. Off to the training lap
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Ore 18.58 – Temperature of 25C, the asphalt 29C. Tire degradation should not be excessive.
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Ore 18.54 – Two victories for the poleman, Sergio Perez: one with the Racing Point (Bahrain 2020) and the other with the Red Bull (Baku 2021).
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Ore 18.51 – The final preparations on the grid are being completed, soon the cars will leave for the formation lap. Second race of the World Championship, the next will be Melbourne, in Australia.
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Ore 18.47 — Leclerc won three F1 races, Sainz still none. But the Spaniard ended the season in front of his team mate last year
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Ore 18.43 – The start will be important for the Ferrari fans: Leclerc and Sainz’s goal is to overtake Perez immediately to avoid letting him take advantage of the superior speed on the Red Bull forehand. And in the second row watch out for Verstappen, always aggressive at the start.
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Ore 18.38 – The tension for theFriday’s Houthis attack on an Aramco oil depot he did not turn away the VIPs: among these there is also Alessandro Del Piero with his family. In addition to Fabio Capello, and chef Gordon Ramsay.
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Ore 18.36 – The problem on Sainz’s car was about a cable, the mechanics fixed it and now the car on the grid. Ready for departure.
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Ore 18.34 – Behind the big surprises, watch out for Bottas on the Alfa and Magnussen on the Haas: with the Ferrari engine they can make the difference in the event of a crazy race.
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Ore 18.30 – Ferrari aims to win, but it can also think from a World Cup perspective without taking risks on an unforgiving track. Leclerc has 26 points in the standings, Sainz 18. Verstappen and Perez are at zero for the withdrawal of Bahrain.
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Ore 18.26 — Tsunoda stopped on the track, engine problems. The Japanese from AlphaTauri had missed the qualifications due to a power unit failure, yet another. Because he had fitted a new engine, his race is already over.
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Ore 18.23 – Hamilton only fifteenth, the Mercedes driver paid a sensational delay from the top. Arrangements had been tried that did not work. Three months ago in the first edition of the Jeddah GP he had won.
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Ore 18.21 – Good news from the Ferrari garage: electronics problems on Sainz’s car solved. It will be at the start regularly.
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Ore 18.18 – There will be 50 laps around the 6 km of the fastest road circuit in F1. The challenge between Red Bull and Ferrari will be played on the wire: with the Reds stronger on the curves and the fastest rivals on the straights.
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Ore 18.14 – The Ferrari mechanics are working on Sainz’s car, it will be a race against time to settle on the grid on schedule. If he did not make it he would be forced to sprint from the pit lane.
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Ore 18.08 – We remember the starting grid in the top 10: Perez, Leclerc, Sainz, Verstappen, Ocon, Russell, Alonso, Bottas, Gasly and Magnussen. Nineteen cars on the track, Mick Schumacher will not be there after yesterday’s accident in qualifying. The German is well and here in the paddock watching the race.
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Ore 18.04 – Less than an hour at the Saudi Arabian GP in Jeddah. Apprehension in the Ferrari garage: a problem has been discovered on Carlos Sainz’s car, the mechanics are working on it. The Spaniard third on the grid.
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Great expectation for the Gp d’Arabia Saudita a Jeddah, the second appointment of the season (scheduled at 7pm and visible live on Sky or streaming on Now, or delayed at 9.30pm on Tv8). After the Ferrari double in Bahrain the attention is mainly focused on the Reds who have definitely appeared on the ball for all free practicebut that at the moment of the decisive lap of qualifying they were mocked by Sergio Perez on Red Bull, author of a pole which was a half masterpiece. Charles Leclerc therefore starts from second position and Carlos Sainz from third, with the other Red Bull of Max Verstappen fourth. Pole was within reach, but the important thing is that on a track very different from that of Barhain we obtained the confirmations we were looking for, the comment of Mattia Binotti, Ferrari team principal.
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But the qualifying – within a weekend in which concern also held sway the explosion at 20 km of the track of an Aramco depot, a consequence of the Yemeni war for which some drivers did not want to race – were characterized by two other themes: the first, brought to light by terrifying accident suffered by Mick Schumacherson of Michael (the boy in hospital for tests but he is fine e after the bang he immediately phoned mother Corinna), that of the Jeddah runway safety, in its second year on the calendar: a very fast track but with very close walls, blind spots and a lot of escape routes, which appears really too extreme and which according to the drivers is the most dangerous in the World Championship. One mistake is enough to crash, so even for the easy race we will see many safety cars in action. The other theme sees the center the figure of Lewis Hamilton who did not pass the Q1 cut on Saturday and it hadn’t happened to him for five years: the Englishman in extreme difficulty with a Mercedes that seemed undriveable, but which in any case his team-mate led to seventh place on the grid. There is enough to have fun today in the race.
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March 27, 2022 (change March 27, 2022 | 19:15)
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