Checo Pérez celebrates his 11th anniversary in F1 with 4th place in Jeddah

Exactly 11 years ago, Checo Pérez made his Formula 1 debut. The Mexican driver finished fourth after starting from pole position.

Checo Pérez finished fourth in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the second date of the Formula 1 season. At the end of the race, the Mexican driver requested that Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz be investigated, as he felt he had not respected a period of double yellow flags in one sector, and could To inherit the third place.

The winner of the race was Max Verstappen after a tough fight against Charles Licklec. Verstappen took the lead on lap 48 of 50 and still had to hold off Monaco late in the race.

Checo Pérez had an 11-year anniversary in Formula 1 due to the safety car ruining his strategy at the Grand Prix in Saudi Arabia. A trick by Ferrari, where Red Bull fell, and Nicholas Latifi’s accident made him lose every advantage and settle for fourth.

The Guadalajara player started defending his pole position in a superb way from the first corner. First he covered the spaces for Charles Leclerc and later he started making an important difference against Monaco.

Checo Pérez had deterioration issues on the right front tire through the radius and with only 10 laps, but his times were consistent and with a 2.7sec lead over Charles Leclerc everything looked tilted in his favour.

On lap 16, Scuderia sent in to call Leclerc to dig. Red Bull took the bait and called Chico as well. Charles ignored the call and carried on, while Milton Keynes changed from medium rubber to hard.

All went well for the Checo engineer and the team, as Latifi crashed and with it the guy from Guadalajara lost the advantage, while Max Verstappen and Ferrari stopped free. Thus, the illusions of victory gradually faded.

The white tires did not match well with the man from Guadalajara, because after only 16 laps he was 8 seconds behind leader Leclerc and was unable to cut a two-second disadvantage in front of Carlos Sainz, who indicated problems with his gear change.

The Mexican couldn’t be competitive against Ferrari as he was two to three seconds apart while running.

The Jeddah circuit witnessed drama with the retirement of Fernando Alonso and Daniel Ricciardo, due to power issues, while Bottas instigated and left. The virtual safety car appeared when McLaren and Alpine stayed on the right track. However, they blocked the entrance to the pits and the Mexican had to fend for himself with a compound that did little to help him.