The starting problem is still unresolved, the ultra-short lane illegal overtaking was fined, and the team's mistakes in the maintenance area, Alfa Romeo's Chinese driver Zhou Guanyu failed to rank in the top ten in the main race of F1 Saudi Arabia in the early morning Beijing time, and finally ranked 11th among the 12 finished drivers.
As McLaren driver Cado, who finished 12th in qualifying, was sent off for the bottom three starts, Zhou Guanyu, who was originally 13th, rose one place to start in 12th place.
However, Zhou Guanyu suffered the same poor start problem as the previous stop, and was overtaken by the cars behind him. Especially after a small bump with Ricciardo in the first corner, he, like Bahrain, fell back to the last place at the beginning.
Relying on the very good performance of the car, Zhou Guanyu once again entered continuous overtaking mode. By the time Williams' Latifi hit the wall on lap 16 and caused the safety car to move, Zhou Guanyu had returned to 12th place, chasing seven-time individual champion Mercedes Team Hamilton.
But Zhou Guanyu's Team of Alfa Romeo has made one mistake after another at the juncture. First, Zhou Guanyu had a violation of the ultra-short track when he overtook Williams driver Albon before, and the team did not notify Zhou Guanyu in time to return the position to the other party, and his car was fined for 5 seconds in the maintenance area.
Originally, there was an accident on the track and the physical safety car was dispatched, and Zhou Guanyu could take the opportunity to change the tire at the station to complete this punishment, and would not be delayed too much time and ranking. But what I didn't expect was that the team made a series of low-level mistakes in the maintenance area.
One is that there is a problem lifting the body during the tire change, which takes at least four or five seconds more. What's more serious is that the team actually committed a 5-second penalty that was not enforced. This led to the restart of the game, and Zhou Guanyu received a penalty of passing through the maintenance zone, causing him to lose a precious 15 seconds again.
After completing the penalty through the maintenance area, not counting the drivers who withdrew due to crashes and vehicle failures, Zhou Guanyu fell directly to the last place on the track, and was more than 10 seconds behind the penultimate place.
Fortunately, Zhou Guanyu did not drive too aggressively on the track, or chased the car in front of him at his own pace. With multiple cars malfunctioning and accidents withdrawing in the final stages of the race, Zhou Guanyu finished in 11th place, just one position away from taking another F1 point. If there is no second penalty, perhaps Zhou Guanyu will have a great chance to surpass Hamilton, who finished 10th.
Of course, being able to run safely and smoothly in the accident-prone and fastest street race of the season is already a very remarkable achievement for Zhou Guanyu, who has just played his second F1 race.
You know, of the 20 cars involved, only 12 of them finished in the end, and a total of 8 cars had to retire due to crashes and mechanical failures, including Zhou Guanyu's teammate Bottas.
In the championship competition, although the last race winner, Ferrari's Leclerc, cheated the first place in qualifying, red bull driver Perez, who has been leading since the start of the race, entered the station early to change tires, successfully surpassing the opponent.
But last season's individual champion, Red Bull Racing' Verstappen, still relied on the car's higher tail speed and almost watertight driving skills, and laughed to the end in the first place battle with Leclerc.
Red Bull, who retired in the first leg of the season a week ago due to powertrain problems, finally played a beautiful comeback battle at Jeddah. But Ferrari still showed great strength, with Leclerc and Sainz finishing second and third. Qualifying pole winner and Red Bull driver Perez finished fourth.
After the first two races of the year, judging by the performance of the car, it is clear that the competition between Ferrari and Red Bull will be the main tone on the F1 circuit this season.