Sergio Perez, Charles Leclerc relay their mini battle in F1 Saudi Arabian GP at the start of the grand prix and their fight later on.
It was a mini fight but enough to give some show in F1 Saudi Arabian GP. The start of the race saw Red Bull’s Perez pass Ferrari’s Leclerc at Turn 1 but the Monegasque came back at him and retook the position – not for long though.
Perez eventually cleared Leclerc for second position and maintained it until the end. The two relayed the fight they had which was chaotic but it seemingly set the Mexican a bit in the fight against his Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen.
“It was quite a bit more chaotic,” said Perez. “I had a great start. Unfortunately, I couldn’t keep ahead of Charles because he kept it there and obviously I gave him the space into Turn 2 and it was his corner then in Turn 4. So that was a nice start, good start once again. And from then on, I was able to get through Charles, I think within two or three laps.
“And then it was looking good, the race. I was within three seconds from Max, and I think the degradation on that Medium stint was looking quite good. But unfortunately, then we were compromised with such an early Safety Car, and that meant that basically everyone just pitted.
“And when I was going out, it was actually my mistake, because I was told by the team to hold it back. But in hindsight, I looked on the right and there was nobody there when I looked. But in hindsight, I think the penalty was correct and that pretty much compromised our race,” summed up Perez.
Leclerc, meanwhile, praised Perez for allowing for a good fight. “I have a very bad memory when I finished the races. I remember really well exit of Turn 2, where I was like, ‘oh, I hope Checo will leave the space’,” he said. “And he did.
“So I kept my second place there. And then I cannot remember. I think it was quite a clean overtake. There wasn’t much I could do. But we were struggling a little bit to defend today and also to attack. I think we had a little bit less top speed than the others, which was wanted. But we’ll review that to see if it was the right decision or not.
“We maximized everything today. We were struggling all the time at the beginning of the stints, whether it was at the beginning of the Medium or beginning of the Hards, we struggled to switch the tyres on. Then towards the end of the stint we were pretty good. With the Medium, we didn’t really see that.
“With the Hard, we saw that towards the end, but it was too late to actually recover what we had lost at the beginning with the battles we had. All in all, it’s been a positive race. I think we are doing small steps in the right direction.
“If I look back the last six, seven months, we are the team that have improved the most and we are slowly closing the gap. So the gap is still quite big. But if we keep working like that, I’m sure it’s a matter of time before we put the Red Bull under a bit more pressure.”
Here’s fight between Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/video.2024-saudi-arabian-grand-prix-leclerc-fights-off-perez-challenge-to-keep-p2-on-the-race-start.1793069532330236735.html
Here’s how F1 Saudi Arabian GP panned out
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