Verstappen takes pole position on the streets of Saudi Arabia for the first time, whilst Ollie Bearman will start his first F1 Grand Prix in 11th.
Q1
It was a race against time for Zhou Guanyu as his mechanics worked tirelessly to repair his car following a crash in FP3. The Chinese driver was eventually able to get going with a little under two minutes remaining, though he was unable to get round in time in order to set a lap.
Oliver Bearman went to bed yesterday as an F2 driver, buy woke up this morning a Ferrari F1 driver after stepping in for Carlos Sainz, who has received surgery for Appendicitis. With only one practice session to get to grips with an F1 car in a competitive environment, the 18 year old did well to exit Q1 with relative comfort.
Alpine’s poor start to the season continued into this qualifying session. With the Renault power unit being the weakest of the four on the grid, a track as power demanding as The Jeddah Corniche circuit was always bound to be a struggle.
ELIMINATED
16. Valtteri Bottas – Kick Sauber +0.072
17. Esteban Ocon – Alpine +0.368
18. Pierre Gasly – Alpine +0.371
19. Logan Sargeant – Williams +0.419
20. Zhou Guanyu – Kick Sauber NO TIME
Q2
Hulkenberg’s lap had initially started well after being given a slipstream by his teammate Magnussen. However, he would quickly lose power, and the car was left stranded at turn 8. This would eventually bring out the red flag, though it appeared that there had been a delay in showing the yellow flags in that section of the track.
Ollie Bearman was still very much fighting until the end to make his way into the final part of qualifying. He had gotten over-eager at the turn 22-23 chicane, and was unable to improve on his banker time. Luckily for him, he was fuelled up to do another lap, and got agonisingly close to getting through to Q3, but was knocked out by less than half a tenth of a second.
Yuki Tsunoda managed to make it through to Q3 for the first time this season, having himself been incredibly close to a Q3 appearance last weekend. After having team order squabbles with his teammate during the Bahrain, Tsunoda was able to outqualify Daniel Ricciardo by over three tenths, with the latter only going fast enough for 14th.
ELIMINATED
11. Oliver Bearman – Ferrari +0.036
12. Alex Albon – Williams +0.374
13. Kevin Magnussen – Haas +0.414
14. Daniel Ricciardo – RB +0.419
15. Nico Hulkenberg – Haas NO TIME
Q3
The qualifying gap between the cars in Q3 last weekend was found to be relatively close, however this was not so much the case this weekend. Max Verstappen was able to set the pole position time with a 1:27.472, that meant he did not need to improve on his time after everyone else had completed their laps.
Charles Leclerc was able to pip Sergio Perez to 2nd on the grid, though Fernando Alonso was very much in this fight as well. The Spaniard was able to gain a slipstream off of Lewis Hamilton down into turn 1, and was only one tenth down on Verstappen coming out of sector 2. However, his sector three was less than ideal, and he was only able to achieve fourth place.
McLaren appear to have pipped Mercedes for 3rd best this weekend, at least on one lap pace. Piastri was able to get ahead of Norris as the two McLaren’s lock out the third row, whilst Russell starts ahead of Hamilton in 7th and 8th respectively.
Qualifying Results
1. Max Verstappen – Red Bull 1:27.472
2. Charles Leclerc – Ferrari +0.319
3. Sergio Perez – Red Bull +0.335
4. Fernando Alonso – Aston Martin +0.374
5. Oscar Piastri– McLaren +0.617
6. Lando Norris – McLaren +0.660
7. George Russell – Mercedes +0.844
8. Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes +0.988
9. Yuki Tsunoda – Alpha Tauri +1.075
10. Lance Stroll – Aston Martin +1.100
