Verstappen delighted after 'physical' victory

Max Verstappen has conceded the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was 'physical' despite another dominant victory.

The reigning world champion had built an early advantage which vanished on the sixth lap after Lance Stroll crashed at Turn 22, resulting in a safety car. Like most of the field, Verstappen pitted as soon as the safety car was released and rejoined the circuit behind Lando Norris who opted against pitting.

Verstappen made light work of Norris though, and endured a lonely race until he took the chequered flag once again.

"I think overall, a fantastic weekend for the whole team," Verstappen said after the race. "But also for myself, I felt really good with the car and also basically was the same in the race.

"Of course, the last stint was a bit longer than we would have liked, but with the safety car, you have to go for it. So the last few laps also with those backmarkers with the cold tyres was a little bit slippery.

"But we had good base all around. We could manage it quite well, but the gap also, overall, very, very pleased."

Final stint 'tricky'

Whilst he was unchallenged for the the bulk of the race, he still had to manage his tyres after having to do a 44-lap stint on the hard compound.

"I think ideally, you don't want to do such a long stint on that tyre," admitted Verstappen. "But we had to, and that, of course, around here with all these high speed corners, if the tyre falls out of the window a little bit that makes it a little bit more tricky."

Despite the Red Bull driver spending the majority of the race alone, he admitted afterwards that the nature of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit meant it was still a challenge for him.

"Always here, you know, early in the season as well, anti-clockwise and a lot of G's constantly throughout the whole lap," said Verstappen. "So it's definitely always one of the more physical ones."