Also if you look at the timesheets closely, you'll find that so far qualifying has been the only time where Ferrari has been generally faster than Mercedes. Charles was faster in the race in Bahrain but Carlos wasn't. Jeddah was also supposed to be a Ferrari centric race this year. Fairs they don't beat the Red Bull. Not entirely surprising. But the way they just were not competitive at all after the Safety Car was astonishing. Lewis built up a 1 second gap on Sainz with ease and went into tire saving mode the rest of the race while Sainz kept falling further back.

It's why even if the Safety Car doesn't happen, I think George would have been safe from either Ferrari and Lewis would have had a solid chance to overtake at the end on fresher tires.