“It’s time to celebrate” - Sergio Perez jubilant with a victory at the 2023 F1 Saudi Arabian GP

Sergio Perez capitalized on his pole position to win the 2023 F1 Saudi Arabian GP on Sunday, March 19. He led Red Bull to a one-two finish with the defending champion Max Verstappen coming second.

Perez started from pole position at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit for the second year running after teammate Verstappen was ruled out in Q2 with a driveshaft problem on his RB19.

Red Bull's hopes were mainly riding on Perez and he didn't disappoint. He overcame hiccups in the race and some technical issues to take the checkered flag. The race driver thanked his team mechanics for their efforts.

"The team did a fantastic job - they've worked so hard during the weekend. We've had a lot of mechanical issues and these guys have been on top of that. I'm really happy for them and it's time to celebrate."

Sergio Perez after winning the F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia

The Mexican lost the lead on the opening lap to Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso before regaining the position shortly afterwards. Perez managed to build up a healthy lead before a Safety Car period, following Lance Stroll's DNF, bunched the whole pack back together. This brought back unsavory memories from last year's race for the 33-year-old.

However, an undaunted Perez aced the restart and held the lead from there until the checkered flag. But it was not all smooth sailing for the Red Bull driver. The 33-year-old had to deal with a potential reliability scare towards the latter stages of the race, as well as the possibility of teammate Max Verstappen hunting him down.

While speaking to David Coulthard during his post-race interview in parc-ferme for Sky Sports and F1 TV, Sergio Perez said:

"It turned out to be tougher than expected. That Safety Car... we really did a job in the first stint but that Safety Car again tried to take the victory out of us but not this time. I was on for victory last time and finally, I got it."

The result means that Red Bull has started an F1 campaign with consecutive one-two finishes for the first time since 2009. Despite that, Sergio Perez does not plan to let his foot off the pedal just yet. He concluded the interview by saying:

"We will keep pushing. We will keep pushing hard and the important thing I think is we had the fastest car out there today, so I'm very pleased with that. There's some work to do [on starts], we've changed the procedure. So, I think we need to do some work to get better starts in the future."

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Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen could be aided by Red Bull's impending updates for next two races

F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia

Sergio Perez's plans to keep pushing in the races to come could be aided by Red Bull's plans to introduce two updates to the RB19 for the next two rounds of the season.

According to AMuS, Red Bull already has some tricks up its sleeves and could be bringing a small upgrade for the third race of the season in Melbourne.

The team is expected to follow this up with a substantial package upgrade for the fourth race weekend in Baku, which will also be the first of six Sprint races of the season.

This will be music to the ears of Verstappen and Perez but not for the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes. The latter two teams are still trying to figure out ways to keep up with Red Bull on and off the track.

Currently, Sergio Perez is in P2 in the Drivers' World Championship standings, just one point behind the reigning world champion Max Verstappen.