Red Bull took another step forward this weekend in terms of their already dominant form, according to the team's drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez after they finished 1-2 in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Verstappen started from pole position and easily held on to the lead at the start of the race, only dropping to second during an early round of pit stops triggered by Lance Stroll crashing out.
Perez lined up in third place on the grid but had little trouble dispatching Charles Leclerc before the safety car came out. He was hit by a penalty for an unsafe release during the pit stops but it was easily overcome in the race.
Such was the dominance of the pair that they were soon lost in the nighttime darkness, barely featuring in the television coverage of the race, and their cruise to the finish line had the feeling or a procession.
The winner of last year's race here, Perez said that the result was “a great day for the team”, and added: “It’s a very different track to Bahrain and we’re keeping strong, so we just have to keep this momentum going.
"I think we’ve taken a step forward from Bahrain," he continued, words that will strike fear in their rivals. "We’ve done good improvements from yesterday, so we have some things to tidy up and our time will come.
"It was a shame that we just qualified out of the front row, because we had a great start. Unfortunately Charles really kept it together and we couldn’t get through - it was a nice fight.
“We definitely made some good progress,” he continued. “It was quite a compromised race: with the safety car so early, it was a very long stint on the hard."
While Verstappen and Perez both pitted under the safety car, Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton both stayed out to avoid hold-ups on piot lane due to 'double staking', and Norris inherited the lead for a spell after the restart.
"It took us a long time to get through Lewis and Lando," Perez acknowledged. “It was tricky at times, especially in the beginning, and we had no warm-up at all. We were sliding a lot."
Verstappen seemed to have little difficulty re-passing Norris to retake the lead, and indeed his race had a sense of serenity to it as the reigning champion extended his run of race wins with a sense of inexorable inevitability.
"Overall it was a fantastic weekend for the whole team, but also for myself,” he told the media after the chequered flag. “I felt really good with the car, and basically it was the same in the race.
“Of course the last stint was a bit longer than we would have liked, but with the safety car you had to go for it," he noted.
"The last two laps with those backmarkers with the cold tyres was a little bit slippery, but we had good pace all around. We could manage it quite well with the gap, so overall I’m very pleased.”
It's a perfect start for Verstappen and for Red Bull, although for once he was unable to secure to secure the bonus point for fastest lap which went to Leclerc.
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