2 winners and 2 losers at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix provided an exciting finish as Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc pushed one another to the very final corner of the race, with the Dutchman emerging victorious.

It was the second race of the season and Verstappen would have been keen to respond after having to retire last weekend in Bahrain.

That’s what he did, then, in a thrilling climax and now it’s time to run through the winners and losers in Saudi…

Winner – Max Verstappen

Max needed to bounce back and that is exactly what he did.

P4 in qualifying perhaps wasn’t what he wanted on Saturday but the prizes are given out on Sunday and he took the top one, with a fine overtake completed on Charles Leclerc in the closing laps.

As he put it after the chequered flag, his title defence is now kick-started.

Loser – Sergio Perez

Whilst there was joy on one side of the Red Bull garage, there was disappointment on the other.

Sergio Perez led the field away from pole position and looked in control of the race before the timing of a Safety Car, just after he had pitted, took victory away from him.

In the end, he could only finish fourth and it was clear the luck just wasn’t with him on Sunday.

Winner – Lando Norris

McLaren are still working on a number of things but they got their first points on the board as Lando Norris battled to 7th place over the course of the Grand Prix.

Daniel Ricciardo had to retire, unfortunately, but Norris at least finished inside the top ten to give the Woking-based team something to focus on heading to the Australian Grand Prix.

Loser – Lewis Hamilton

A weekend to forget for Lewis.

It’s clear he is not happy with where the car is and after rising as high as sixth from P16, he needed to pit and that dropped him back outside