Eyes of the world will be on Jeddah, the bride of the Red Sea, which will witness the main race of the Formula 1 STC Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2023, as part of the second round of the 2023 Formula 1 World Championship for 2023. The race will kick off later today, Sunday at 8:00pm in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's local time. On this occasion, Prince Khalid bin Sultan Al-Abdullah Al-Faisal, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Saudi Automobile & Motorcycle Federation (SAMF) and President of the Saudi Motorsports Company, expressed his happiness at the return of one of the greatest motorsport races in the world to the Kingdom, stressing that hosting this event for the third time marks the culmination of the great successes that have been achieved by the sports sector in the Kingdom. The Prince also indicated that the Kingdom has become a leading destination in hosting the world's largest events and prestigious championships, given the generous support that the sports sector enjoys from the prudent leadership and the trust and directives of Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al-Faisal, Minister of Sports in line with the plans and objectives of Saudi Vision 2030. He added, "Jeddah Corniche Circuit is fully prepared to welcome the Kingdom's guests from all over the world, and we look forward to recording new success in the Saudi motorsports sector, in a way that embodies the Kingdom's thriving present, aspirations and vision for the future, and we hope that all our guests will have happy times in Jeddah, and enjoy the main race." The qualifying round that preceded the upcoming event concluded on Saturday, as Mexican Sergio Perez, the Red Bull team's driver, took the first starting position in today's race, after achieving the best lap with a time of 1 minute, 28 seconds and 256 parts of a second, ahead of Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, who finished second by 0.155 seconds, while Spanish Fernando Alonso, driver of Aston Martin team, finished third, by 0.465 seconds. British George Russell, driver of Mercedes-AMG team, finished fourth, followed by Spanish Carlos Sainz, the Ferrari driver, who will start the final race in fifth place on the starting grid, while the rest of the results of the qualifying round were as follows: 6- Lance Stroll - Aston Martin Team 7- Esteban Ocon-Alpine 8- Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes-AMG 9- Oscar Piastri - McLaren Team 10- Pierre Gasly - Alpine 11- Nico Hulkenberg - Haas Team 12- Guanyu Zhou - Alfa Romeo Team 13- Kevin Magnussen - Haas Team 14- Valtteri Bottas - Alfa Romeo 15- Max Verstappen - Red Bull Racing 16- Yuki Tsunoda - AlphaTauri 17. Alexander Albon-Williams 18- Nyck de Vries - AlphaTauri 19- Lando Norris - McLaren 20. Logan Sargeant-Williams The session of qualifying trials had witnessed the exit of the Dutch Max Verstappen, the driver of the Red Bull team and the world champion from topping the general ranking in the second section of the round, due to a mechanical failure, to start from the 15th place, while the runner-up in the qualifying round, Charles Leclerc will start from the 12th place, after he was punished by retreating 10 places because he bypassed the electronic power control unit components allocated to him in his car.
