SAUDI ARABIAN GP – Lewis Hamilton takes pole in Jeddah as Max Verstappen hits the wall in closing moments
Lewis Hamilton has beaten his teammate Valtteri Bottas by a tenth to take pole position for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The Mercedes duo looked under threat from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in the closing moment before the Dutchman locked up and hit the wall through the final corner.
The battle for pole between the two championship rivals in Jeddah was close, before hitting the wall the Dutchman was two tenths up going into the final sector. Hamilton had set his time before Verstappen, but while the dutchman was faster, he carried too much speed through Turn Twenty-Seven before sliding the rear into the wall.
That left the Dutchman third three hundredths behind Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas, Red Bull will be hoping that doesn’t incur a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change. Throughout qualifying there appeared to be very little between the two title contenders.
Verstappen looked to be on the limit on his final lap, going fastest in the first two sectors, as he attempted to open the throttle but locked up, before sliding into the wall as he exited the final corner. The contact with the barrier damaged the rear suspension, but the concern will be his gearbox.
The Dutchman looked quicker and on course for pole position, Bottas meanwhile had just moved ahead of the Red Bull. He had set the early pace, while Hamilton looked to be scrappy early on in Q3, making a mistake at the first corner on one lap and then a slide at Turn Six on another before finally setting a time.
But Hamilton managed to sneak ahead of Verstappen’s first time on his second run, Verstappen hitting back by going faster in the first two sectors before his crash.
Mercedes had expected to be the team to beat this weekend, however the Jeddah circuit appears to have levelled out the performance with their nearest rivals Red Bull, who look better on the soft tyres.
Verstappen’s crash could make it harder for him to wrap up the championship tomorrow, with him needing to outscore Hamilton by eighteen points. While Mercedes needs to outscore Red Bull by forty points to secure the constructors. Victory for Hamilton would see him at least tie the championship, going to Abu Dhabi next weekend.
Hamilton added, “We were quick through practice but for some reason P3 and particularly qualifying I was lacking pace and particularly struggling with the tyres. For us to get a one-two, I’m really proud of Valtteri and everyone on the team, this is a great result. Those guys [Red Bull] were just so fast…they were rapid today.”
Verstappen said, “In general it was a good qualifying, I knew the pace was there and it showed at the end. I don’t really understand what happened but I locked up, I still tried to keep the car on track and keep going but clipped the rear and had to stop.”
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc split the two Red Bull’s, in his best qualifying since Istanbul he was six hundredths faster than Sergio Perez. The Mexican complained after the session he was struggling with understeer, which left him two thousandths of a second ahead of the sister Alpha Tauri of Pierre Gasly.
Momentum in Jeddah still appearing to be with Ferrari in terms of pace which could be key in the battle with McLaren for third in the constructors. Alpha Tauri also looking to be sneaking ahead of Alpine slightly in the battle for fifth. But Gasly has a lot to do as he has been more consistent than his teammate Yuki Tsunoda.
McLaren’s Lando Norris was seventh going over three and a half tenths ahead of Tsunoda, with Esteban Ocon and Antonio Giovinazzi rounding out the top ten. A strong session for the Italian, who was just over a tenth behind in his penultimate qualifying.
Norris’s teammate Daniel Ricciardo missed out on Q3 starting eleventh after going two tenths faster than Kimi Raikkonen. Fernando Alonso put his Alpine thirteenth going a tenth faster than the Williams of George Russell.
The second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz had a difficult session, the Spaniard unable to improve on his second lap after spinning at Turn Nine. While he managed to avoid a big crash, he clipped the rear wing endplate while he made a second attempt with the car still damaged, he suffered a snap of oversteer at the same corner and went onto the run off area.
Sainz appeared to be impeded during Q1 by Gasly.
Nicolas Latifi was fastest of those knocked out in Q1, the Williams driver not doing enough to get himself out of the drop zone. The big surprise was Aston Martin who showed pace all weekend but failed to make it out of Q1, Sebastian Vettel starting seventeenth after going over a quarter of a second.
Vettel was over a quarter of a second faster than his Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll, while Mick Schumacher once again out-qualified his Haas teammate Nikita Mazepin.
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