We are only at the second race weekend of the 2022 F1 season, but if a good beginning bodes well, we can say that this is going to be a tremendous one.

Charles Leclerc was fastest during all three free practice sessions, on Friday and Saturday, and during yesterday's qualifying he finished behind Sergio Perez by just 25 thousandths.

After a heart-pounding race finale, that saw a lot of overtaking and counter-overtaking with Max Verstappen, on lap 47, the Dutchman managed to overtake the Monegasque and to maintain his position, taking home the first win of the season for Red Bull.

Mega racing today! We’ll be looking to get you in Australia 😉 @RedBullRacing#essereFerrari 🔴 #SaudiArabianGP pic.twitter.com/AH6SfPaRde

— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) March 27, 2022

However, Charles Leclerc managed to take home a splendid second place, crowned by the additional point of the fastest lap, thus reaching 45 points and remaining at the top of the drivers' standings.

Immediately at the end of the race, in a team radio, Leclerc congratulated Verstappen “Congratulations to Max, it was a nice duel. We were missing something today,” he said.

After the race he added: "It wasn't enough today, but I really enjoyed that race.

“It's hard racing, but fair. We were pushing like a I have rarely pushed before, right to the limit."

“I gave everything I had, but it wasn't enough,” he commented, disappointed, to the microphones of Sky Sport F1 Italy.

“In the end we were good, it was a tough but a very fun duel, of course I would have liked to win, we were faster in the corners, but slower on the straight and this made the difference in the end.

“Verstappen did a great job, congratulations to him. There is mutual respect between us, we pushed to the end and I'm a bit disappointed," Leclerc added.

“The Virtual Safety Car certainly didn't help us, but it's part of the race. We had a different approach, with a more charged car (in terms of aerodynamics) than the Red Bull and it was difficult for me to keep Max behind. We will take this into account in the next races to do better."

CHARLES: "It wasn't enough today, but oh my god, I really enjoyed that race! It's hard racing but it's fair, every race should be like this. It was fun, I'm obviously disappointed, I wanted to win today"#SaudiArabianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/TeahMuxPjs

— Formula 1 (@F1) March 27, 2022