F1 LIVE: Fernando Alonso aims cheeky dig at George Russell after podium swap

Fernando Alonso could not help but poke fun at George Russell’s expense on Twitter after his podium at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was reinstated.

The Aston Martin driver came home third in Jeddah on Sunday before he was hit with a 10-second time penalty shortly after the race concluding, demoting him down to fourth and seeing Russell promoted to the podium.

• READ: Why are Red Bull so quick – and can anyone stop their F1 title charge?

But Aston appealed the verdict and were successful due to ambiguity in the rulebook, meaning Alonso did ultimately secure a podium – his 100^th in Formula 1 – and Russell dropped back down to fourth. And after Russell tweeted about picking up his first trophy of the season, Alonso replied on Monday with a picture of him looking upwards into a camera.

Elsewhere, Charles Leclerc lost his cool at his Ferrari engineer in Jeddah, Lewis Hamilton insists he has never seen a quicker car than this year’s Red Bull and Sergio Perez basks in his fifth win in Formula 1.

Follow all the latest F1 news with The Independent

F1 NEWS AND UPDATES

• Sergio Perez claimed victory for Red Bull in the Saudi Arabian GP

• COMMENT: Why are Red Bull so quick – and can anyone stop their F1 title charge?

• Fernando Alonso pokes fun at George Russell after podium reversal

• Charles Leclerc lost his temper with his engineer during the race

• Lewis Hamilton: I’ve never seen a quicker car than the 2023 Red Bull

• Click HERE for the final results in Jeddah

F1 news: Fernando Alonso pokes fun at George Russell after podium reversal

16:11 , Kieran Jackson

Fernando Alonso could not help but send a sly dig to George Russell on Twitter after his podium at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was reinstated.

The Aston Martin driver came home third in Jeddah on Sunday before he was hit with a 10-second time penalty shortly after the race concluding, demoting him down to fourth and seeing Russell promoted to the podium.

But Aston appealed the verdict and were successful due to ambiguity in the rulebook, meaning Alonso did ultimately secure a podium – his 100^th in Formula 1 – and Russell dropped back down to fourth.

And after Russell tweeted about picking up his first trophy of the season, Alonso replied on Monday with a picture of him looking upwards into a camera, accompanied with “Hola” and a “trophy” and “back” emoji.

F1 news: Charles Leclerc’s furious Ferrari reaction on team radio reveals more frustration

15:59 , Kieran Jackson

Charles Leclerc hit out at Ferrari once more to underline his frustration during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The Monegasque driver finished seventh in a dramatic race at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, which saw Fernando Alonso belatedly reinstated to the podium after an Aston Martin appeal.

The result leaves Leclerc 38 points behind Max Verstappen after just two races of the Formula 1 season. And the 25-year-old was especially upset with his race engineer Xavier Marcos Padros after communication over strategy broke down once more for the Scuderia.

Leclerc said: “Being behind like this is really ****. I don’t know what to do!”

Padros had earlier remarked: “Try to push from Safety Car Line One. Lewis Hamilton just pitted.” And Leclerc replied: “Xavi, you need to tell me that before!”

Charles Leclerc’s furious Ferrari reaction on team radio reveals frustration

F1 news: Fred Vasseur at a loss to explain Ferrari performance

15:47 , Kieran Jackson

After finishing sixth and seventh in Saudi Arabia, Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur insisted the team have to understand why there is such a deficit in performance to Red Bull.

He said: “The most difficult in my business after a race like this is to understand what is going well and what is not. We have positive points, but we need a step on the reliability.

“Even the first stint of the race we can be happy with, but the race was based on the last stint and clearly we did not have the pace. In the tyre management we were a bit conservative, but it’s only a matter of one or two tenths. Nothing to do with the gap we had today. We need to understand the lack of performance and it’s not the tyre management.

“When it’s not going well, we need to be clear and honest with ourselves that the pace was not what we expected.”

Ferrari are currently fourth in the Constructors’ Standings.

F1 news: Lewis Hamilton makes astonishing Red Bull claim after Saudi Arabian GP

15:38 , Kieran Jackson

Lewis Hamilton said Red Bull have built the fastest Formula One car he has ever seen after Sergio Perez saw off Max Verstappen to win the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Perez cantered to victory from pole position at the circuit on the Jeddah Corniche as Verstappen blasted his way from 15th to second following a mechanical failure in qualifying.

George Russell originally took third place after Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was demoted a position following a controversial post-race 10-second penalty but Alonso was reinstated in third at 1am local time following a successful appeal by Aston Martin.

Hamilton finished fifth, moving up two places from his qualifying position of seventh.

Red Bull have moved to another stratosphere this year, and their crushing one-two finish – a fortnight after they ruled the season-opener in Bahrain – will be a cause of major concern for Formula One bosses ahead of a record 23-round campaign. Red Bull have now won 12 of the last 13 races staged.

More below:

Lewis Hamilton makes astonishing Red Bull claim after Saudi Arabian GP

F1 news: Fernando Alonso’s Saudi Grand Prix penalty the latest which is ‘too extreme’, says George Russell

15:17 , Kieran Jackson

Formula One needs to apply common sense in handing out penalties for infringements where visibility is a real problem for drivers, according to Mercedes driver George Russell.

Russell, a director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, spoke after Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was handed a five-second penalty for lining up slightly out of position on the starting grid in Saudi Arabia on Sunday.

The Spaniard was then handed a further 10-second post-race penalty, overturned on review, when the rear jack touched his stationary car before the five-second penalty had been fully served in the pits.

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon collected penalties at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix for the same reasons, eventually retiring after a third sanction for speeding in the pitlane.

Drivers have also had lap times deleted in qualifying after their cars’ wheels touched painted lines at the pit lane entry and exit.

Alonso’s Saudi GP penalty the latest which is ‘too extreme’, says Russell

F1 news: Formula 1 accused of ‘enabling violence and bloodshed’ by racing in Saudi Arabia

14:58 , Kieran Jackson

Formula 1 is once again coming under increased scrutiny for staging races in countries with poor human rights records after the brother of a man executed in Saudi Arabia last year insisted the sport’s silence “enables violence and bloodshed.”

A fortnight after staging the opening race of the 2023 season in Bahrain, F1 returns to Jeddah for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix – a country where there have been 13 executions in the last two weeks.

Last year, 81 men were executed in one day shortly before the grand prix, with 41 from the Shia minority who had taken part in protests calling for greater political participation, according to the United Nations.

One of those men was Mustafa al-Kjayyat and his brother, Yasser al-Khayyat, insists that F1 is being used as a “tool to sportswash Saudi abuses”, in a letter seen by The Guardian addressed to F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali.

“They use the spectacle of this sporting championship to distract from the murder of my brother and hundreds of others,” he wrote. “The grand prix carrying on as normal, without even mentioning the atrocities that have just been committed on that same soil, legitimises these heinous crimes.

“Silence is complicity. It is how the regime gets away with its atrocities and suppresses calls for democratic reforms. If you truly want Formula One to be an agent for change, rather than a tool to ‘sportswash’ Saudi abuses, please end Formula One’s silence.”

Formula 1 accused of ‘enabling violence and bloodshed’ by racing in Saudi Arabia

F1 news: Ted Talk! F1 cult hero Kravitz on pit lane secrets and... cheese

14:46 , Kieran Jackson

Exclusive interview by Kieran Jackson

Ted is talking about cheese. For a Formula 1 pit lane reporter functioning in a world of tyre compounds and floor specifications, Ted often finds himself talking about cheese. Usually at pre-season testing. A bizarre synonymity, some might say, and readers not drooling in the daily churn of digital F1 content may be a little lost already. Don’t worry, you’re forgiven.

Sky Sports’ ever-present pit lane reporter Ted Kravitz – of BBC and ITV before that – has a style of presenting so inimitable that the man himself has formed a devoted following of his own, hate it as he might. Ahead of his 22^nd year of pit lane reporting and 27^th working in the sport he loves, Ted’s methodology of fan interaction is constantly evolving. This year, forget TikTok: it’s all about TedTok. So, back to the cheese.

“TedTok was just too good for somebody to steal,” the 48-year-old tells The Independent, in the unusually formal setting for him of an office at Sky Studios. “So I’m just going to put nonsense about doing stuff with cheese on there.

“I put up a video of me and Anthony [Davidson] choosing the perfect cheese in Bahrain to carve away the venturi tunnels of the car to the floor edge… it’s harder than you think.

“You could have got a block of cheddar, but then it would’ve just crumbled away and the whole shoot would’ve been a disaster. This was 20 minutes and Anthony was quite right in choosing the right type of cheese… gouda!”

Ted Talk! F1 cult hero Kravitz on pit lane secrets and... cheese

F1 news: Toto Wolff, speaking after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix:

14:21 , Kieran Jackson

“We’d rather take one of those golden trophies than none! We’ve seen some performance gains compared to Bahrain... but on the flip side we want to race for wins soon, but the Red Bulls are a minute away.

Second in the C’Ship? “Yeah, first loser!”

On Lewis: “Both of the drivers under our guidance, we overmanaged the tyres a little bit. We could have pushed a bit more, but great recovery and yeah solid points.”

“The question is what is your benchmark? The Red Bulls are just so quick, we need to put our car in a different window - we’re changing the team and bodywork. The team in Brackley is just flat out.

“If it looks like an English double decker bus, we will do it if its fast. We’re making big elephant steps going forward but it’ll be a super fun journey to challenge Red Bull. We can see them - they are just far away at the moment.”

F1 news: Watch footage of Fernando Alonso’s controversial pit stop below!

14:04 , Kieran Jackson

Fernando Alonso’s podium at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix has been reinstated after Aston Martin were successful in a late appeal on Sunday night.

Alonso was originally celebrating his second podium in a row for Aston after coming home third, before he was hit with a 10-second time penalty for not serving a five-second penalty correctly in the pits, demoting him to fourth.

However, Aston appealed soon after the race due to a technicality in the rulebook and as the clock hit 1am in Jeddah, Alonso’s third-place finish was reinstated and subsequently his 100th podium in Formula 1.

The double world champion, minutes before the reinstatement was made official, tweeted: “100^th podium! What an amazing TEAM we have and fast car! Proud of you Aston Martin.”

F1 news: Charles Leclerc’s furious Ferrari reaction on team radio reveals more frustration

13:39 , Kieran Jackson

Charles Leclerc hit out at Ferrari once more to underline his frustration during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The Monegasque driver finished seventh in a dramatic race at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, which saw Fernando Alonso belatedly reinstated to the podium after an Aston Martin appeal.

The result leaves Leclerc 38 points behind Max Verstappen after just two races of the Formula 1 season. And the 25-year-old was especially upset with his race engineer Xavier Marcos Padros after communication over strategy broke down once more for the Scuderia.

Leclerc said: “Being behind like this is really ****. I don’t know what to do!”

Padros had earlier remarked: “Try to push from Safety Car Line One. Lewis Hamilton just pitted.” And Leclerc replied: “Xavi, you need to tell me that before!”

Charles Leclerc’s furious Ferrari reaction on team radio reveals frustration

F1 news: Why are Red Bull so quick – and can anyone stop their F1 title charge?

13:18 , Kieran Jackson

Comment by Kieran Jackson

Come on then, who’d have thought this was how it’d turn out already? No, really. Red Bull’s margin of victory in last year’s Constructors’ Championship was a mammoth 205 points but in 2023, that could well be surpassed. In fact, never mind surpassed: ridiculed and knocked out the park.

Just two races down and after a pair of comfortable – bordering on effortless – one-two triumphs, the gap is 49 points to Aston Martin in second. The only point Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen have missed out on was the fastest lap in Bahrain. There’s 21 grand prix left; 27 races including sprints. The signs, for the rest of the pack, are nothing but scarily ominous.

There can be no doubt where most of the acclaim should be directed. Superstar designer Adrian Newey has created arguably his greatest beast yet; the RB19 was described as an evolution of 2022’s all-conquering machine and boy has that proved an underestimation.

Swap evolution for upgrade. Double upgrade. Aerodynamically supreme, as illustrated by the unstoppable surge in speed down the straights with DRS, this breed of car is lightning through the corners too. Their dominance in Saudi Arabia over the weekend was monumental: they topped all five sessions including practice.

Not that he needs an invitation, Christian Horner was basking in the prospect of his team’s greatest ever season.

Why are Red Bull so quick – and can anyone stop their F1 title charge?

F1 news: Lewis Hamilton makes astonishing Red Bull claim after Saudi Arabian GP

12:59 , Kieran Jackson

Lewis Hamilton said Red Bull have built the fastest Formula One car he has ever seen after Sergio Perez saw off Max Verstappen to win the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Perez cantered to victory from pole position at the circuit on the Jeddah Corniche as Verstappen blasted his way from 15th to second following a mechanical failure in qualifying.

George Russell originally took third place after Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was demoted a position following a controversial post-race 10-second penalty but Alonso was reinstated in third at 1am local time following a successful appeal by Aston Martin.

Hamilton finished fifth, moving up two places from his qualifying position of seventh.

Red Bull have moved to another stratosphere this year, and their crushing one-two finish – a fortnight after they ruled the season-opener in Bahrain – will be a cause of major concern for Formula One bosses ahead of a record 23-round campaign. Red Bull have now won 12 of the last 13 races staged.

More below:

Lewis Hamilton makes astonishing Red Bull claim after Saudi Arabian GP

F1 news: Fred Vasseur at a loss to explain Ferrari performance

12:45 , Kieran Jackson

After finishing sixth and seventh in Saudi Arabia, Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur insisted the team have to understand why there is such a deficit in performance to Red Bull.

He said: “The most difficult in my business after a race like this is to understand what is going well and what is not. We have positive points, but we need a step on the reliability.

“Even the first stint of the race we can be happy with, but the race was based on the last stint and clearly we did not have the pace. In the tyre management we were a bit conservative, but it’s only a matter of one or two tenths. Nothing to do with the gap we had today. We need to understand the lack of performance and it’s not the tyre management.

“When it’s not going well, we need to be clear and honest with ourselves that the pace was not what we expected.

Ferrari are currently fourth in the Constructors’ Standings.

F1 news: Fernando Alonso’s Saudi Grand Prix penalty the latest which is ‘too extreme’, says George Russell

12:14 , Kieran Jackson

Formula One needs to apply common sense in handing out penalties for infringements where visibility is a real problem for drivers, according to Mercedes driver George Russell.

Russell, a director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, spoke after Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was handed a five-second penalty for lining up slightly out of position on the starting grid in Saudi Arabia on Sunday.

The Spaniard was then handed a further 10-second post-race penalty, overturned on review, when the rear jack touched his stationary car before the five-second penalty had been fully served in the pits.

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon collected penalties at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix for the same reasons, eventually retiring after a third sanction for speeding in the pitlane.

Drivers have also had lap times deleted in qualifying after their cars’ wheels touched painted lines at the pit lane entry and exit.

Alonso’s Saudi GP penalty the latest which is ‘too extreme’, says Russell

F1 news: Formula 1 accused of ‘enabling violence and bloodshed’ by racing in Saudi Arabia

11:59 , Kieran Jackson

Formula 1 is once again coming under increased scrutiny for staging races in countries with poor human rights records after the brother of a man executed in Saudi Arabia last year insisted the sport’s silence “enables violence and bloodshed.”

A fortnight after staging the opening race of the 2023 season in Bahrain, F1 returns to Jeddah for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix – a country where there have been 13 executions in the last two weeks.

Last year, 81 men were executed in one day shortly before the grand prix, with 41 from the Shia minority who had taken part in protests calling for greater political participation, according to the United Nations.

One of those men was Mustafa al-Kjayyat and his brother, Yasser al-Khayyat, insists that F1 is being used as a “tool to sportswash Saudi abuses”, in a letter seen by The Guardian addressed to F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali.

“They use the spectacle of this sporting championship to distract from the murder of my brother and hundreds of others,” he wrote. “The grand prix carrying on as normal, without even mentioning the atrocities that have just been committed on that same soil, legitimises these heinous crimes.

“Silence is complicity. It is how the regime gets away with its atrocities and suppresses calls for democratic reforms. If you truly want Formula One to be an agent for change, rather than a tool to ‘sportswash’ Saudi abuses, please end Formula One’s silence.”

Formula 1 accused of ‘enabling violence and bloodshed’ by racing in Saudi Arabia

F1 news: Ted Talk! F1 cult hero Kravitz on pit lane secrets and... cheese

11:39 , Kieran Jackson

Exclusive interview by Kieran Jackson

Ted is talking about cheese. For a Formula 1 pit lane reporter functioning in a world of tyre compounds and floor specifications, Ted often finds himself talking about cheese. Usually at pre-season testing. A bizarre synonymity, some might say, and readers not drooling in the daily churn of digital F1 content may be a little lost already. Don’t worry, you’re forgiven.

Sky Sports’ ever-present pit lane reporter Ted Kravitz – of BBC and ITV before that – has a style of presenting so inimitable that the man himself has formed a devoted following of his own, hate it as he might. Ahead of his 22^nd year of pit lane reporting and 27^th working in the sport he loves, Ted’s methodology of fan interaction is constantly evolving. This year, forget TikTok: it’s all about TedTok. So, back to the cheese.

“TedTok was just too good for somebody to steal,” the 48-year-old tells The Independent, in the unusually formal setting for him of an office at Sky Studios. “So I’m just going to put nonsense about doing stuff with cheese on there.

“I put up a video of me and Anthony [Davidson] choosing the perfect cheese in Bahrain to carve away the venturi tunnels of the car to the floor edge… it’s harder than you think.

“You could have got a block of cheddar, but then it would’ve just crumbled away and the whole shoot would’ve been a disaster. This was 20 minutes and Anthony was quite right in choosing the right type of cheese… gouda!”

Ted Talk! F1 cult hero Kravitz on pit lane secrets and... cheese

F1 news: Charles Leclerc’s furious Ferrari reaction on team radio reveals more frustration

11:18 , Kieran Jackson

Charles Leclerc hit out at Ferrari once more to underline his frustration during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The Monegasque driver finished seventh in a dramatic race at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, which saw Fernando Alonso belatedly reinstated to the podium after an Aston Martin appeal.

The result leaves Leclerc 38 points behind Max Verstappen after just two races of the Formula 1 season. And the 25-year-old was especially upset with his race engineer Xavier Marcos Padros after communication over strategy broke down once more for the Scuderia.

Leclerc said: “Being behind like this is really ****. I don’t know what to do!”

Padros had earlier remarked: “Try to push from Safety Car Line One. Lewis Hamilton just pitted.” And Leclerc replied: “Xavi, you need to tell me that before!”

Charles Leclerc’s furious Ferrari reaction on team radio reveals frustration

F1 news: Here’s the full standings from the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

10:58 , Kieran Jackson

1) Sergio Perez

2) Max Verstappen

3) Fernando Alonso

4) George Russell

5) Lewis Hamilton

6) Carlos Sainz

7) Charles Leclerc

8) Esteban Ocono

9) Pierre Gasly

10) Kevin Magnussen

11) Yuki Tsunoda

12) Nico Hulkenberg

13) Zhou Guanyu

14) Nyck de Vries

15) Oscar Piastri

16) Logan Sargeant

17) Lando Norris

18) Valtteri Bottas

19) Alex Albon

20) Lance Stroll

F1 news: Watch footage of Fernando Alonso’s controversial pit stop below!

10:46 , Kieran Jackson

Fernando Alonso’s podium at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix has been reinstated after Aston Martin were successful in a late appeal on Sunday night.

Alonso was originally celebrating his second podium in a row for Aston after coming home third, before he was hit with a 10-second time penalty for not serving a five-second penalty correctly in the pits, demoting him to fourth.

However, Aston appealed soon after the race due to a technicality in the rulebook and as the clock hit 1am in Jeddah, Alonso’s third-place finish was reinstated and subsequently his 100th podium in Formula 1.

The double world champion, minutes before the reinstatement was made official, tweeted: “100^th podium! What an amazing TEAM we have and fast car! Proud of you Aston Martin.”

F1 news: George Russell, speaking after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

10:31 , Kieran Jackson

The Mercedes driver was speaking after believing he’d claimed a podium due to Fernando Alonso’s penalty, though he was later demoted back down to fourth.

“Interesting race. There was a lot of confusion, I thought Fernando had a penalty so didn’t want to be fighting with each other. Pleased to come home in P4. The penalty for Fernando is pretty harsh, they’re the deserving podium finishers but I’ll take another trophy, won’t complain about that.”

“Got to give credit to what Red Bull have done, the gap is bigger than Mercedes in 2014. Serious gap. Everyone needs to work hard to try and close that gap, we didn’t make the right decisions over the winter. Everything’s not all lost, we’ll still be fighting as hard as we can.

“We’ve got to take the positives away from this weekend, we finished above the Ferraris on merit, we’ve got some more performance to come. But our goal isn’t just to beat Ferrari, it’s for the Championship - it has to be with Red Bull but they’re still a step ahead of everyone.”

F1 news: Charles Leclerc’s furious Ferrari reaction on team radio reveals more frustration

10:14 , Kieran Jackson

Charles Leclerc hit out at Ferrari once more to underline his frustration during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The Monegasque driver finished seventh in a dramatic race at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, which saw Fernando Alonso belatedly reinstated to the podium after an Aston Martin appeal.

The result leaves Leclerc 38 points behind Max Verstappen after just two races of the Formula 1 season. And the 25-year-old was especially upset with his race engineer Xavier Marcos Padros after communication over strategy broke down once more for the Scuderia.

Leclerc said: “Being behind like this is really ****. I don’t know what to do!”

Padros had earlier remarked: “Try to push from Safety Car Line One. Lewis Hamilton just pitted.” And Leclerc replied: “Xavi, you need to tell me that before!”

F1 news: Lewis Hamilton makes astonishing Red Bull claim after Saudi Arabian GP

09:59 , Kieran Jackson

Lewis Hamilton said Red Bull have built the fastest Formula One car he has ever seen after Sergio Perez saw off Max Verstappen to win the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Perez cantered to victory from pole position at the circuit on the Jeddah Corniche as Verstappen blasted his way from 15th to second following a mechanical failure in qualifying.

George Russell originally took third place after Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was demoted a position following a controversial post-race 10-second penalty but Alonso was reinstated in third at 1am local time following a successful appeal by Aston Martin.

Hamilton finished fifth, moving up two places from his qualifying position of seventh.

Red Bull have moved to another stratosphere this year, and their crushing one-two finish – a fortnight after they ruled the season-opener in Bahrain – will be a cause of major concern for Formula One bosses ahead of a record 23-round campaign. Red Bull have now won 12 of the last 13 races staged.

More below:

Lewis Hamilton makes astonishing Red Bull claim after Saudi Arabian GP

F1 news: Saudi GP race report!

09:44 , Kieran Jackson

Sergio Perez held off Max Verstappen to win the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as Red Bull’s dominant start to the new season continued in Jeddah.

Perez crossed the line 5.3 seconds clear of team-mate Verstappen, who fought back from 15th after he limped out of qualifying with a driveshaft failure.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso took the final spot on the podium, but was given a 10-second time penalty post-race due to an infringement on how his Aston Martin served an earlier five-second penalty, with George Russell taking third instead. Lewis Hamilton finished fifth.

Red Bull are on another planet this season, and their crushing one-two finish – their second in as many races – will be a major cause of concern for Formula One bosses as it embarks on a record 23-round calendar.

Sergio Perez wins Saudi Arabian GP as Fernando Alonso cruelly denied podium

F1 news: Fernando Alonso podium reinstated after Aston Martin appeal at Saudi GP

09:35 , Kieran Jackson

Fernando Alonso’s podium at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix has been reinstated after Aston Martin were successful in a late appeal on Sunday night.

Alonso was originally celebrating his second podium in a row for Aston after coming home third, before he was hit with a 10-second time penalty for not serving a five-second penalty correctly in the pits, demoting him to fourth.

However, Aston appealed soon after the race due to a technicality in the rulebook and as the clock hit 1am in Jeddah, Alonso’s third-place finish was reinstated and subsequently his 100th podium in Formula 1.

The double world champion, minutes before the reinstatement was made official, tweeted: “100^th podium! What an amazing TEAM we have and fast car! Proud of you Aston Martin.”

F1 news: Charles Leclerc’s furious Ferrari reaction on team radio reveals more frustration

09:31 , Kieran Jackson

Charles Leclerc hit out at Ferrari once more to underline his frustration during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The Monegasque driver finished seventh in a dramatic race at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, which saw Fernando Alonso belatedly reinstated to the podium after an Aston Martin appeal.

The result leaves Leclerc 38 points behind Max Verstappen after just two races of the Formula 1 season. And the 25-year-old was especially upset with his race engineer Xavier Marcos Padros after communication over strategy broke down once more for the Scuderia.

Leclerc said: “Being behind like this is really ****. I don’t know what to do!”

Padros had earlier remarked: “Try to push from Safety Car Line One. Lewis Hamilton just pitted.” And Leclerc replied: “Xavi, you need to tell me that before!”

Charles Leclerc’s furious Ferrari reaction on team radio reveals frustration

F1 news: Good morning!

09:29 , Kieran Jackson

Welcome to The Independent’s F1 news blog as we take a look at all the reaction from last night’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix!

It was another dominant day for Red Bull - with Sergio Perez this time bringing home the victory in another one-two finish - while Aston Martin claimed another podium after Fernando Alonso’s third-place finish was reinstated three hours after the chequered flag.

However, Mercedes found it tough going once more while Ferrari also underperformed in Jeddah.

Stay right here for all the big talking points!