“We fought hard,” Max Verstappen fends off Charles Leclerc to win Saudi Arabian GP FirstSportz

Red bulls Max Verstappen won a hard-fought battle for the 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The Dutchman started 4th on the grid behind the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlo Sainz. teammate Sergio Perez started the race from pole position for the first time in his career.

But despite starting from the second row, Verstappen kept his eyes on the top step of the podium and sped through the grid. After an early pass to Sainz, he pushed through two safety car periods for the next 30 laps to eventually overtake Leclerc in the last 3 laps and take the lead of the race.

The Dutchman crosses the line half a second ahead of Leclerc in a thrilling finish to open his 2022 account in style. He recounted his valiant effort in his post-race interview, calling it a hard-fought but deserved victory.

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Max Verstappen wins, but Charles Leclerc sets the fastest lap

Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc showed wonderful wheel-to-wheel engagement for the final 10 laps of the race. On lap 47, Verstappen crashed out on Leclerc in the second DRS zone and the Monegasse couldn’t make a quick counterattack as his tires had clearly lost grip after defending Verstappen for the last 45 laps.

Verstappen called “It was a good race, we fought hard. We just had to play the long game, the tires wore out pretty quickly. It wasn’t easy, finally managed to progress – just super happy to start the season.”