Which Formula 1 driver made the most of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend?
It’s time to give your verdict on which driver did the best with the equipment at their disposal over the last three days.
Review how each driver got on below and vote for who impressed you the most at Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
Driver performance summary
| Driver | Q stage | Q position | Q gap to team mate | GP grid position | GP result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Max Verstappen | Q2 | 15 | 15 | 2 | |
| Sergio Perez | Q3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Charles Leclerc | Q3 | 2 | -0.511s | 12 | 7 |
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | Q3 | 5 | +0.511s | 4 | 6 |
| Lewis Hamilton | Q3 | 8 | +0.366s | 7 | 5 |
| George Russell | Q3 | 4 | -0.366s | 3 | 4 |
| Esteban Ocon | Q3 | 7 | -0.279s | 6 | 8 |
| Pierre Gasly | Q3 | 10 | +0.279s | 9 | 9 |
| Lando Norris | Q1 | 19 | +0.741s | 19 | 17 |
| Oscar Piastri | Q3 | 9 | -0.741s | 8 | 15 |
| Valtteri Bottas | Q2 | 14 | +0.207s | 14 | 18 |
| Zhou Guanyu | Q2 | 12 | -0.207s | 11 | 13 |
| Lance Stroll | Q3 | 6 | +0.215s | 5 | Not classified |
| Fernando Alonso | Q3 | 3 | -0.215s | 2 | 3 |
| Kevin Magnussen | Q2 | 13 | +0.066s | 13 | 10 |
| Nico Hulkenberg | Q2 | 11 | -0.066s | 10 | 12 |
| Nyck de Vries | Q1 | 18 | +0.305s | 18 | 14 |
| Yuki Tsunoda | Q1 | 16 | -0.305s | 16 | 11 |
| Alexander Albon | Q1 | 17 | 17 | Not classified | |
| Logan Sargeant | Q1 | 20 | 20 | 16 |
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Vote for your driver of the weekend
Which driver do you think did the best job throughout the race weekend?
Who got the most out of their car in qualifying and the race? Who put their team mate in the shade?
Cast your vote below and explain why you chose the driver you picked in the comments.
Who was the best driver of the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend?
- No opinion (2%)
- Logan Sargeant (3%)
- Alexander Albon (0%)
- Yuki Tsunoda (3%)
- Nyck de Vries (1%)
- Kevin Magnussen (4%)
- Nico Hulkenberg (0%)
- Fernando Alonso (31%)
- Lance Stroll (0%)
- Guanyu Zhou (0%)
- Valtteri Bottas (1%)
- Oscar Piastri (5%)
- Lando Norris (0%)
- Pierre Gasly (0%)
- Esteban Ocon (1%)
- George Russell (4%)
- Lewis Hamilton (2%)
- Carlos Sainz Jnr (0%)
- Charles Leclerc (1%)
- Sergio Perez (21%)
- Max Verstappen (20%)
Total Voters: 142
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When this poll is closed the result will be displayed instead of the voting form.
2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
- “Total transparency” needed over Ben Sulayem allegations – Russell
- FIA president Ben Sulayem under investigation for interfering in F1 race – report
- Two races, no points: How 2023 compares to McLaren’s worst starts to a season
- Don’t complain about Red Bull dominating F1, they deserve it – Sainz
- Alfa Romeo identify “massive debris” which ruined Bottas’ race
Debates and polls
- Will Alonso win a world championship title with Aston Martin?
- How long should Red Bull give Ricciardo to prove he’s not lost his touch?
- Were stewards right to penalise Alonso over his driving before Russell’s crash?
- Are Williams right to bench Sargeant so Albon can race after crash?
- Is the FIA right to make ten seconds the new standard for penalties?
Jere (@jerejj)
19th March 2023, 18:39
Clearly Checo, no contest.
melanos
19th March 2023, 18:45
Expectatives count for a lot. You would not expect Checo to be as fast as Max and yet he was. Otherwise I fail to see what Checo did better than Max. Anyway I’d vote for Fred with honorable mentions for both RBR drivers
melanos
19th March 2023, 18:50
And now under investigation for incorrectly serving the @@@@ penalty, like it was his fault.
w0o0dy
19th March 2023, 21:56
Hahahaha, for what exactly? Inherent pole due to reliability and then just lead without drama? Or should it be the guy coming from 15th and getting quite close to taking the race win?
No contest is right. Max was head and shoulders above everyone else today.
Todfod (@todfod)
20th March 2023, 5:03
Max was nothing spectacular today unfortunately. He had the car to cut through the field, instead he was struggling to make up positions. Heck, he wasn’t even as impressive as Leclerc during the first stint, who was in a significantly slower Ferrari. Max got lucky with the safety car, which got him back in contention for the win. But, he couldn’t cut a 5 second deficit over 30 laps to Sergio to even contend for P1.
Probably one of the most unimpressive drives by Max in the last 2 or 3 seasons.
melanos
19th March 2023, 18:40
Checo held his own. Max was just Max. And Fred made the most of his AM even with an extremely harsh penalty, if he was in the left limit of the box no advantage was gained from it
MichaelN
19th March 2023, 18:41
Russell quietly getting the work done, perhaps. But nothing spectacular this F1 weekend.
Ben
19th March 2023, 18:48
+1 I’d say he’s the highest scoring driver who out performed where their car actually is.
It’s hard to rate the RedBulls as there’s no way they are finishing anything other than 1-2 with the advantage they have. It’s actually sad to see them pulling 1.2-1.5 a lap on the best best car, and over 2 seconds on a Mercedes and Ferrari.
Mike Davies (@nanotech)
19th March 2023, 19:09
Agree – he was the most impressive of an unsurprising race.
RedEaredRabbit (@redearedrabbit)
19th March 2023, 19:52
Agreed. I voted for George.
Sihrtogg (@sihrtogg)
20th March 2023, 0:21
I think Zhou and Ocon did a good job too.
MCG (@malrg)
20th March 2023, 3:45
Interestingly on F1 official, Hamilton has more votes than Russel…show’s that people are not realistic or analytical, they vote with their hearts.
Max Verstappen – 26.3%
Sergio Perez – 19.8%
Fernando Alonso – 14.6%
Charles Leclerc – 7.2%
Lewis Hamilton- 6.7%
Tom
19th March 2023, 18:45
This really needs a “none of the above” option.
Everyone just drove around in circles. Snooze fest.
Nick T.
20th March 2023, 2:01
Kind of agree. And F1 did it to themselves. OMG, he’s only behind a fence at the slowest turn on the track! Next time they’ll red flag it and give everyone blankets and cocoa.
MXMXD (@mxmxd)
19th March 2023, 18:51
Not trolling, but…
Yuki Tsunoda.
MXMXD (@mxmxd)
19th March 2023, 18:51
Not even joking, I’m voting for Yuki Tsunoda here.
melanos
19th March 2023, 18:54
It’s your privilege, but I’d like to hear why
MXMXD (@mxmxd)
19th March 2023, 19:05
Because he’s the only finisher who drove its car “higher” than it was supposed to be.
JA
19th March 2023, 22:18
But didn’t do it out of merrit, but due to a safety car at a great moment?
Claus J
20th March 2023, 11:00
He ought to have held of MAG coming from behind on 40 lap old hards in a worse car, though…
SpaFrancorchamps (@spafrancorchamps)
19th March 2023, 18:54
This was one of the most boring races that I have ever seen in what seems to be starting to become the most boring F1 season I have ever seen.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
20th March 2023, 0:30
Ahah, fitting for such a season to have such a race! I indeed found it difficult to pick a driver here, went with alonso as I felt 5 sec were already excessive for the first offense, otherwise drove well and even passed perez at the start, then the car didn’t have the pace to keep him behind; perez did better than I expected keeping verstappen behind.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
19th March 2023, 18:56
The steward who handed out the deleted laps and time penalties all weekend.
Must’ve been part of their prize for Jeddah Traffic Warden of the Year.
d0senbrot (@d0senbrot)
19th March 2023, 19:25
No one at the front was flawless, so I went with Oscar here.
Fritz
19th March 2023, 20:11
Let me get this, looking at the poll. Alonso has 23% despite loosing position in car he’s happy with. Lewis gains 2 positions and had to pit way early because of the pacecar situation thereby compromising he’s tyre strategi while driving a mistake for a car. Earned points so far 0 %
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
20th March 2023, 0:32
What position did alonso lose? You didn’t expect him to beat the red bulls, did you? Or did you also expect ferrari etc. to beat merc in 2014? Cause that’s their level.
MCG (@malrg)
20th March 2023, 3:53
This is for Driver if the WEEKEND, Hamilton did exactly nothing remarkable, out performed by his Team mate from start to end. even when Ham’ had the better tyres he only managed to close up until Russel realised he was closing, then Russel drove away from him on slower tyres. He deserves nothing more the 0% for this weekend to add to his constant blaming everyone else.
bogaaaa (@nosehair)
19th March 2023, 23:21
Has to be Oscar, 8th quali, hit on lap one and out driving so called Mega star Lando..l suspect Lando knows he has tuff teammate
slowmo (@slowmo)
19th March 2023, 23:55
I suspect Lando doesnt care about being beaten when finishing outside the points. Pretty sure his season will start with their actual new car in a couple of races time.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
20th March 2023, 0:35
Yes, I guess if you don’t want to go for alonso, considering the red bull’s pace, piastri is a good choice as well, I was also impressed by the quali and then they don’t seem to have the race pace for points yet.
MXMXD (@mxmxd)
20th March 2023, 2:15
That McLaren may have been a pretty good qualifying car (all things considered) at Jeddah. Not ready to credit Piastri because Norris hit the wall.
Mooa42
20th March 2023, 4:24
I thought Piastri did well at the end to keep pushing in the last couple of laps and got past Lando, (admittedly without much of a fight from Lando) and Sargent on the last lap, it was more interesting than anything else happening in the field.
slowmo (@slowmo)
19th March 2023, 23:53
I mean nobody really excelled or out performed their machinery this weekend so I went with Perez for delivering pole and the win. Alonso did well but I think he finished where his car should be and made a silly mistake at the start.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
20th March 2023, 0:39
Perez is ofc also a reasonable choice considering I, for one, didn’t really expect him to keep verstappen behind, he was mostly on his pace and managed that 5 sec gap for a while, as for alonso I’m not sure if his team mate would’ve been right behind him if not for his mechanical problem, he had already lost position on both ferraris at the pits, so there seemed to be a significant difference.
slowmo (@slowmo)
20th March 2023, 11:35
How much of Stroll falling behind Ferrari was really an overcut though and not the start of an issue perhaps? I don’t think Stroll would have got past Hamilton let alone Russell though as while the Aston Martin is clearly a faster car at present it is not much more than a couple of tenths which is possible to lose through the driver performance imo.
Nick T.
20th March 2023, 2:06
No driver of the day. Alonso for being 42 and still crazy fast and just shrugging when told about that idiotic penalty after the race. The only differentiator I can.
Pjotr (@pietkoster)
20th March 2023, 8:57
I voted for Hamilton. Not my favorite but i felt sorry for him. He say’s he has not given up but he is reduced to a sitting duck now. Not good for the sport.