
Perez's remarkable Red Bull run and Alonso enters illustrious club - Every vital Saudi GP stat
Perez's remarkable Red Bull run and Alonso enters illustrious club - Every vital Saudi GP stat

Sergio Perez secured his fifth F1 victory with a stunning drive at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The Mexican beat Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso home at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
As ever, GPFans brings you the best stats and facts with the help of Sundaram Ramaswami [@F1statsguru].
Street track maestro

Sergio Perez took his fifth career win and fourth since joining Red Bull in 2021. If he wins six more races with the team, it’ll make him Red Bull’s third-most successful driver after Sebastian Vettel and Verstappen.
All of Perez’s wins with Red Bull have come on street circuits - Azerbaijan, Monaco, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia.
With his two pole positions in Jeddah, Sergio Perez now has more poles than Max Verstappen at street venues. The Dutchman’s only pole on a street track came in Montreal last year.
SPEED
Starting from 15th, Verstappen powered his way through the field, eventually finishing P2. It’s the fourth time the reigning champion has started a race from 15th or lower and converted it to a podium finish [China 2017, USA 2018, Russia 2021, Saudi Arabia 2023].
It’s only the second time in the hybrid era a driver has finished on the podium of a street race when starting from lower than tenth. Sebastian Vettel is the only other driver to do so at the 2021 Azerbaijan GP, another race that was won by Perez.
Saudi Arabian success
Verstappen is the only driver to have stood on the rostrum in all of Saudi Arabian GPs so far. No other driver has featured on the Jeddah podium more than once.
Merc x Red Bull
The last time both drivers from a team won the opening two rounds of the season was in 2020 [Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton for Mercedes].
Street fighters
Red Bull has now won eight of the last 10 street races in Formula 1.
One-two, one-two

It’s only the second time that the Milton-Keynes-based team has taken consecutive one-two finishes in Formula 1. The last came in 2009.
It’s the fifth instance of a team taking successive one-twos in the opening two rounds of the year. On every previous occasion, the constructor to do so went on to win the championship later that season.
Domination
Red Bull has now claimed their fifth successive win under lights, a new record on its own.
The team now holds a 49-point lead over Aston Martin and Mercedes in the Constructors’ championship. That’s the second-biggest margin after the first two races since this points system was introduced in 2010. Mercedes had one point more after round two in 2016.
Ferrari's Saudi nightmare

Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc finished sixth and seventh respectively. It’s the first time both drivers failed to finish in the top-five since the 2021 Saudi Arabian GP where they came in seventh and eighth.
Ferrari has not made it to the podium in the first two races of the season for the third time in the hybrid era [2014, 2021 and 2023].
After two races, Leclerc is currently placed eighth in the championship with six points against his name. That’s his worst start to a season since joining Ferrari in 2019.
Russell's incredible run
With a P4 finish, George Russell has brought home a top-five result in 20 of the last 24 races.
Alonso's podium heaven
Fernando Alonso registered his 100th podium in F1, becoming the sixth driver to do so after Lewis Hamilton [191], Michael Schumacher [155], Sebastian Vettel [122], Alain Prost [106], and Kimi Raikkonen [103].
It took him 118 race starts to accumulate his first 50 podiums and a further 239 for his next 50.
Alonso’s 50th podium was also in a night race on a street circuit, the 2008 Singapore GP.
It’s the first time the Spaniard has taken back-to-back podiums in Formula 1 since Italy-Singapore 2013.
Good omens?

With his P3 finish, the team and Alonso both claimed their first points on Saudi Arabian soil. Lance Stroll, however, has yet to get off the mark in Jeddah.
The last time the two-time champion led the opening lap of a race was at the 2012 German GP.
Whenever Alonso has taken a podium in the first two races of the season, he’s always finished in the top-three of the championship [2005, 2006, and 2007].
Alonso currently sits third in the standings with 30 points after two rounds. That’s his best start to a season since 2012.
Nostalgia
It’s the first time the Silverstone-based squad has taken consecutive podiums since 1999 when it was still racing under the Jordan banner.
Consistency
Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly reached Q3 and scored points for the third straight time in Saudi Arabia.
McLaren pain

McLaren is facing a troubled start to the season having not scored in the opening two rounds for the first time since 2017.
Bad for Bottas
Valtteri Bottas was the last of the finishers in 18th . That’s his lowest-ever race finish in his decade-long F1 career.
Trouble at the big teams
This is the first time in a decade that neither Ferrari nor Mercedes have failed to feature on the podium in successive races.
The team to take pole has always won the Saudi Arabian GP [Mercedes in 2021, Red Bull in 2022 and 2023].
The championship leader before the Saudi Arabian GP has never gone on to win the race.
No change
The same trio of drivers [Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez, and Fernando Alonso] has graced the podium in the last two races, a first since the 2022 Dutch and Italian GPs.
For the first time since the Dutch and Italian Grands Prix last year, the same drivers stood on the podium in two successive races.
The safety car has made an appearance in every race at Jeddah.
READ MORE: F1 Twitter's best Saudi Arabian GP memes
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F1 Standings

Drivers
- Charles Leclerc
- Carlos Sainz
- Lando Norris
- Oscar Piastri
- Pierre Gasly
- Esteban Ocon
- Sergio Pérez
- Max Verstappen
- Alexander Albon
- Logan Sargeant
- Lewis Hamilton
- George Russell
- Nico Hülkenberg
- Kevin Magnussen
- Fernando Alonso
- Lance Stroll
- Valtteri Bottas
- Zhou Guanyu
- Nyck De Vries
- Liam Lawson
- Daniel Ricciardo
- Yuki Tsunoda
Races
-
Gulf Air Grand Prix of Bahrain 2023
-
Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2023
-
Grand Prix of Australia 2023
-
Grand Prix of China 2023
-
Grand Prix of Azerbaijan 2023
-
Miami Grand Prix 2023
-
Qatar Airways Gran Premio Del Made In Italy E Dell'emilia Romagna 2023
-
Grand Prix of Monaco 2023
-
AWS Gran Premio de España 2023
-
Grand Prix du Canada 2023
-
Grand Prix of Austria 2023
-
Aramco Grand Prix of Great Britain 2023
-
Grand Prix of Hungary 2023
-
Grand Prix of Belgium 2023
-
Heineken Dutch Grand Prix 2023
-
Grand Prix of Italy 2023
-
Grand Prix of Singapore 2023
-
Grand Prix of Japan 2023
-
Qatar Grand Prix 2023
-
Grand Prix of the United States 2023
-
Gran Premio de la Ciudad de Mexico 2023
-
Rolex Grande Prêmio de São Paulo 2023
-
Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix 2023
-
Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi 2023
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