That was the weekend that was
The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix according to social media
And breathe…
After more than two hours of frenetic and fraught racing on the streets of Jeddah, you’re probably struggling to remember everything that happened at the inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. You could watch it all again, or you could just read this edition of ‘That Was The Weekend That Was’ to see what social media made of the longest of Arabian nights and much, much more…
As we draw ever closer to the end of the 2021 Formula 1 season, it’s clear to see that Papaya is becoming a wardrobe staple for many – and if it’s not part of your fashion arsenal, you can change that right now by visiting the McLaren Store.
But why stop at getting Papaya in your wardrobe? Get it on the wall…
And on the table...
Not content with the Moon being deemed the ‘biggest’ McLaren fan, the sun showed its true colours at the weekend.
While Lando and Daniel were exploring the limits on their first visit to the brand-new Jeddah Corniche Circuit…
…some of you were racking up the miles around Jeddah on the F1 2021 video game:
For those of you in Blighty, with FP2 and qualifying starting at 17:00 GMT, you’d be forgiven for thinking the race would start at the same time on Sunday – not 17:30 GMT – but luckily, Daniel was on hand to clarify the start time for everyone in the UK.
The evening session times did make life a little difficult for those looking to paint the town red – or Papaya – over the weekend…
And those who just wanted to get a good night’s sleep…
As the drivers headed out for qualifying at the fastest street circuit in the world, it was an appropriate time for this classic clip of James Hunt to resurface:
You could say the drivers needed to be superhero-brave. Introducing, Iron Lan-do…
And this would, undoubtedly, have to be the theme tune:
If you’re looking for some more sonic inspiration, Daniel and Lando revealed their most-listened-to songs of 2021 in Squatify Recapped.
Back to qualifying, and both Lando and Daniel made it safely through to Q2.
Things weren’t so straightforward in Q2, however. Daniel missed out on the top-10 shootout by 50 milliseconds – a damaged bib at the front of the floor costing him precious lap time.
Lando made it through to Q3 on a set of Soft tyres in ‘dark mode’, though:
Although, Q3 wasn’t particularly smooth for a sweaty Lando: he overcooked it on his last flying lap and aborted, leaving him having to settle for P7.
There were plenty of nerves before lights out on Sunday:
And they weren’t misplaced. The inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix saw two red flags, one Safety Car, four Virtual Safety Cars and three standing starts.
Fortunately, @kyleloomis11 was on hand to explain what all the different flags meant (better add this to the Rookie’s Guide):
At the start – the first one – both Lando and Daniel made places, with Lando up to P6 and Daniel up to P9 – which soon became P8 after passing Pierre Gasly on lap eight.
The decision to pit Lando under the Safety Car, to put him on a set of Hard tyres, came back to bite us when the race was red-flagged just a few laps later. It gave everyone the opportunity to change tyres without making a pit-stop and left Lando in P14 – which became P16 after the second red flag. Not for the first time this season, through no fault of his own, Lando was left with a mountain to climb to get back in the points and, unsurprisingly, he wasn’t exactly thrilled:
It wasn’t all bad. On the other side of the garage, Daniel was able to profit from the red flags. He fitted a set of Mediums, avoided the chaos and climbed up the order to be in contention for a podium and ultimately finish fifth.
Lando, meanwhile, had worked his way up to P11.
...which he duly did to finish 10th.
After the race, the nerves were replaced with relief that the chaos was over and that we’d managed to come away with a decent haul of points.
Lando still wasn’t best pleased…
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