Mexican driver Sergio Perez held off Dutch team-mate Max Verstappen to take a Red Bull one-two in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Verstappen fought up from 15th on the grid to fourth place before a safety car closed up the field and brought him into contention for victory.

The Dutchman could not catch Perez despite passing Mercedes’ George Russell and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and had to settle for second.

Aston Martin’s Alonso was reinstated in third after a post-race penalty was overturned.

The Spaniard had dropped to fourth after being penalised 10 seconds for not serving an earlier five-second penalty for not starting in his grid slot at the beginning of the race.

He served it in his pit stop, but it was adjudged that the team had broken the rules by touching the car before the five seconds had elapsed and he was given a 10-second penalty as a result, promoting Russell to third.

But Alonso’s team successfully argued there were previous examples of drivers not being penalised in such circumstances and the stewards overturned their original verdict hours later.

Lewis Hamilton took fifth, after briefly challenging Russell following the restart after the safety car, ahead of the Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

It was Red Bull’s second consecutive one-two at the start of a season they have begun with every impression they will be almost impossible to beat.

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