F1 | Saudi Arabian GP | Verstappen on his first win of 2022: "It wasn't easy playing smart tricks, but eventually I managed to get ahead"
Max Verstappen opened up on his first 2022 victory, by saying that it was a good but a tough race and that he's really happy that Red Bull finally "kickstarted the season".
As happened last week, in Bahrain, Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen today, on the circuit of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, served us a beautiful duel that made the end of the race truly special.
Why we love motor racing 🤝 Another epic duel 👏 #F1 pic.twitter.com/AeCrAvVjqj
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) March 27, 2022
Red Bull immediately showed a slightly faster pace than Ferrari, but the opportunity for Max Verstappen to overtake the Monegasque came only thanks to the Virtual Safety Car due to a failure of Daniel Ricciardo's McLaren.
A weekend of balance, which reminds us that it is still early to give sentences, but the duel between Verstappen and Leclerc seems as fiery as last year's one, between the Dutchman and the 7 times world champion Lewis Hamilton and promises an exciting 2022.
Verstappen only managed to overtake Leclerc after a series of overtakes and counter-overtakes, on lap 47, where he managed to hold the position and to take his first win of the season.
"It seems like once you get quite close, when you get within half a second, you actually can have a good exit," - Verstappen explained - "And I think that makes it a lot more tricky to actually do the pass, let's say in the last corner compared to last year, so it's a lot harder to plan your pass."
"It wasn't easy playing smart tricks in the last corner but eventually I managed to get ahead.
"But then even after that he was constantly in the DRS and then with the yellow flags in the last lap, just knowing how much you should lift, whether it's allowed or not."
"It was a really tough but a good race. We're battling hard in the front and we just started to play the long game."
He then explained what were the strengths of both cars, that in the end changed the fate of the race by a matter of tenths.
"They were really quick through corners; we were quick on the straight, but the tyres were wearing out quite quick around here.
"You could see the end I think, we had a little bit more pace, so I just tried to get by. It was tough, but really happy that we finally kickstarted the season."
MAX: “We were battling hard at the front. It was tough. I’m really happy we’ve finally kick-started the season”#SaudiArabianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/DAQVv5wD4j
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 27, 2022
