The F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2022 race started off more calmly than expected as there was no incident at the time of the start, however on lap 16 everything changed due to the departure of a car from security provoked by Nicholas Latifi.
The Canadian hit the wall in his Williams on the same lap as Sergio Pérez, who was leading up to that point, came down the pitlane for his first pit stop to fit a new set of hard tyres.
The Mexican, losing time changing tires, lost the lead to the detriment of Charles Leclerc, who took advantage of the safety car to put on the harder tire and steal the race lead.
Red Bull moved quickly to call on teammate and reigning world champion Max Verstappen to try to hold onto position behind the Monegasque, but the Dutchman had to settle for second place.
Ferrari, meanwhile, tried to overtake Checo Pérez with a quick maneuver when changing tires, and Carlos Sainz started parallel to the one from Guadalajara, but ahead as he passed the white line when leaving the pitlane.
This caused the race management to open an investigation into the action and, although they did not reach a firm decision until the test was relaunched, the man from Madrid took the opportunity to overtake the Red Bull driver when braking at turn 1 due to that the Austrian team informed its driver by radio to give up the position.
This is how Sergio Pérez fell from first to fourth place without receiving any penalty, and lost great chances of achieving his third victory in Formula 1.
