Red Bull driver Max Verstappen won the 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Sunday with a one-stop strategy, going from P Zero Yellow medium C3 to P Zero White hard C2 under a safety car on lap 16 and then passing Ferrari's Charles Leclerc - who followed an identical strategy - with three laps to go.

Polesitter Sergio Perez led for Red Bull in the early stages but made his pit stop the lap before a Nichola Latfi crash brought out the safety car, which cost him the advantage. Perez would finish in P3.

"The sessions ran quite smoothly today, we completed our programme and tried out lots of different tyre sets. It seems like Ferrari were quite competitive again, we still have a little bit of work to do to catch up with them and there's plenty of room for improvement," said Verstappen.

"Although I'm disappointed to lose the victory so late in the race, it feels good to be fighting for wins again," said Leclerc. "Whenever I had a bit of margin to Max (Verstappen), I could manage the race well. But after the Virtual Safety Car, as soon as he got in the DRS range, it became difficult."

Leclerc's Ferrari teammate, Carlos Sainz, finished fourth.

Mercedes driver, George Russell, rounded out the top 5.

Russell's teammate, Lewis Hamiton, finished P10, having started in P15, running an offset strategy to the majority of the field on the Hard tyre. A Safety Car on lap 17 came too early for Lewis to box and switch to the Medium, while a late VSC and a slowing RIC at the pit entry prevented the team from taking advantage.

"George managed his race well and scored the maximum we could have hoped for today without any incidents ahead of him. For Lewis, it was always going to be a difficult afternoon from P15," said Mercedes Team Principal, Toto Wolff.

BWT Alpine F1 Team departs the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix with another eight points to add to its championship tally, after Esteban Ocon finished in the sixth position.

McLaren's Lando Norris and AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly fought a hard midfield battle throughout the race with the two finishing positions seven and eight, respectively.

Haas Racing's Kevin Magnussen continued an impressive start to 2022 for the US-based team.

Pos	Driver		Team		Time		Gap

1	Verstappen	Red Bull	50	1h 24:19.293
2	Leclerc		Ferrari		50	+ 0:00.549
3	Sainz		Ferrari		50	+ 0:08.097
4	Perez		Red Bull	50	+ 0:10.800
5	Russell		Mercedes	50	+ 0:32.732
6	Ocon		Alpine		50	+ 0:56.017
7	Norris		McLaren		50	+ 0:56.124
8	Gasly		AlphaTauri	50	+ 1:02.946
9	Magnussen	Haas		50	+ 1:04.308
10	Hamilton	Mercedes	50	+ 1:13.948
11	Zhou		Alfa Romeo	50	+ 1:22.215
12	Hulkenberg	Aston Martin	50	+ 1:31.742
13	Stroll		Aston Martin	49	+ 1 Lap
14	Albon		Williams	47	Retired
15	Bottas		Alfa Romeo	36	Retired
16	Alonso		Alpine		35	Retired
17	Ricciardo	McLaren		35	Retired
18	Latifi		Williams	14	Accident
19	Tsunoda		AlphaTauri		Did Not Start
20	Schumacher	Haas			Did Not Enter

Fastest Lap: Leclerc (Ferrari) 1:31.634 (Lap 48)