Red Bull DOMINATES Again, 2023 Could Be Over Already.

Jeddah doesn't have a long history but the 2 races that we have seen have both been extremely entertaining. There was the insanity of Hamilton/Verstappen battling each other in 2021 with the drivers championship on the line, and there was a great Verstappen/ Leclerc fight for the win last season with Max taking it. A qualifying session yesterday that knocked Verstappen to 15 and a grid penalty landing Leclerc in P12 to start the race. The stage was set for a fantastic Saudi Arabian GP

Alonso got of to a great start, taking 1st place by the first turn, unfortunately, he got a 5 second penalty for improper starting position, he was too far to the left in his grid slot. Perez rebounded from his slow start and took back first place from Alonso on lap 4. Alonso had another great race and finished with his 100th Podium taking home 3rd. Piastri made contact with Gasly at the start and needed to pit at the end of the first lap to change his front wing.

Lance Stroll caused a yellow flag on lap 18 and unlike last year, Perez was able to take advantage of it, unlike last year, and pitted under the flag.

McLaren were non factors again, after Piastri's disappointing start on the first lap both McLaren stayed 15th or worse, Norris Finishing 17th and Piastri 15th. McLaren is an absolute mess. Bahrain was a distastes and Jeddah wasn't any better. They will be lucky to finish P8 in the constructors this year if things stay the same way as they are now.

Verstappen was doing Verstappen things during the race. Starting at P15 after a disappointing qualifying, he quickly moved up to 10th by lap 8. He found himself in 6th by the 15th lap and 4th two laps later as both Ferrari's hit the pits. Verstappen took advantage of the Stroll yellow flag and went into the pits. Max wasted no time getting passed Russell on the restart, taking 3rd place from George when DRS was enabled. by lap 25 Max was sitting behind his teammate after passing Alonso for 2nd. around lap 36 is when Max picked up the pace to close the gap on his teammate but immediately he noticed something wrong with the driveshaft, which is what knocked him our of qualifying. His team seemed to think it wasn't an issue. There was no epic fight with his teammate to finish the race and Max Verstappen finished 2nd

Perez was dominating the race, barely had any TV time being he was comfortably ahead with Max in 2nd, but on lap 40 he noticed something wrong with his brakes, his team assured him that there wasn't an issue. The start of the race wasn't ideal, but from lap 4 until the end of the race Perez's win wasn't really in doubt

The front of the grid didn't have much movement as the race went on. The two Red Bulls in the from, Alonso in third separating the Red Bulls and Mercedes teams. Both Ferraris were 6th and 7th behind Mercedes and both Alpines were behind the Ferraris.

Alonso Finished third, but a mistake in the pits while serving his 5 second penalty gave him a 10 second penalty dropping him to 4th place and kicking him off what would have been his 100th podium.

The finishing order was

1. Perez

2. Verstappen

3. Russell

4. Alonso

5. Hamilton

6. Sainz

7. Leclerc

8. Ocon

9. Gasly

10. Magnessun

11. Tsunoda

12. Hulkenburg

13. Zhou

14. De Vries

15. Piastri

16. Sargeant

17. Norris

18. Bottas

19. Albon DNF

20. Stroll DNF

My prediction for the race wasn't too bad

"Unlike last year, I think Perez will win from pole position. Red Bull has been the fastest car on the grid and barring any technical issues I don't think anyone will be able to catch Perez. I think Alonso will collect his second straight podium and the 100th of his amazing career. In p3, I think Max will claw hs way up from p15 and pick off both Ferrari's, both Mercedes and the rest of the field to have a battle with Alonso late in the race for 2nd place. Should be a good race tomorrow night in Saudi Arabia."

For the next race I will try to make some more predictions than just the top 3. Next race is in Australia, which will be a 1 or 2 am start here in Canada so I may not be up to watch the race live but I will be recapping the Qualifying session and the race.