Verstappen: We've finally kick-started the season

Verstappen started the race in fourth after messing up qualifying on Saturday, but made use of well timed Safety Car that put Sergio Perez - race leader up to that point - on the back foot to get closer to Charles Leclerc, and after a fantastic tussle with the Monegasque, the Red Bull ace took the lead with a handful of laps remaining, never to relinquish it.

"It was really tough but a good race," Verstappen said after the race. "We were battling hard at the front and we just tried to play the long game.

"They were really quick through the corners and we were really quick on the straight. The tyres were wearing our quite quickly around here. You could see at the end, we had a little bit more pace. It wasn't easy but eventually managed to get ahead.

"I'm really happy that we've finally kick-started the season," the Dutchman admitted.

Verstappen reflected on his battle with Ferrari while speaking to Sky Sports F1: "It is super close between the two of us. There are quite a few things we can do better still but happy to have a first win of the season.

"You have to be patient [out there] because I want to score points as well, I want to win but also not retire," he added.

"The battles have been really cool and really hard. Both of us, we have a lot of respect for each other and that’s important, that’s why we have these good battles," the reigning F1 Champion revealed.

Perez lamented a missed opportunity in Jeddah, as up until Nicholas Latifi's crash followed by a Safety Car, the Mexican was leading the team without putting any foot wrong. But then things turned upside down for Checo who had to settle for fourth.

"This is just racing especially when we knew that we could be in that situation," Perez said. "We had the undercut and the margin that we were looking for, we got it, and things were looking really good but unfortunately Latifi put it in the wall at the wrong time for me.

"This is racing. It will come around for us one day but it hurts because we did everything we possibly could do to win this race from pole," Perez regretted.

Speaking of his get together with Carlos Sainz under the Safety Car, the Red Bull driver added: "I was told to give the place back, so I gave it back. I felt that was fair enough.

"After the virtual safety car I think I picked up a bit of speed, I came close, but then there was the yellow flags on the finals laps so I had to slow down and I couldn’t do much more," Perez explained.

Christian Horner weighed in on the first victory for Red Bull in 2022, and said: "What a great race, it was a very strategic race from Max, not taking too much out of the tyres and making sure he had enough left to attack at the end of the Grand Prix.

"There was some great racing between him and Charles, it was fantastic to watch, thankfully he had enough to hang on right at the end there," he added.

"It is desperately disappointing for Checo because he drove an incredible lap yesterday to get his maiden pole, he then converted that from the start to keep the lead and was controlling the race beautifully. He pitted on the lap we discussed before the race and then bang a safety car, and he was very unlucky today.

"It was great for the Team to rebound after the disappointment of Bahrain, everyone has worked very hard over the past week to understand and address the issues that we had.

"The first two races have delivered great racing between the two teams, Ferrari are very quick and we are expecting the competition to continue over the next few races,"Horner concluded.