Max Verstappen has beaten Charles Leclerc by three-tenths of a second to take pole position for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The three-time world champion set his fastest time on his first run and then didn’t need to improve as he took back to back poles at the start of the season.
Verstappen remained at the top despite the best efforts of Leclerc who managed to improve on his final attempt splitting the two Red Bull’s after he went just under a quarter of a tenth faster than the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez. The Dutchman starting the season with back-to-back poles with another ominous showing.
Verstappen made a small error in the early stages of his second run, but by that point it had become clear that no other driver was going to come close. This was one of only two races last year in which Perez beat him, but there was never a chance of that this weekend, as Verstappen operated on a separate level from his teammate on the fast Jeddah street circuit.
Dutchman Verstappen is giving every impression he could win every race this year, looking comfortable in the car and out of reach of his rivals. But this was one of three races he failed to win last season
The Monacan had gone fourth on his first attempt, he had tried to do a double warm-up as he struggled to cure the tyres but failed to improve and was left in second. Perez also struggled to improve leaving him third, just under a hundredth behind the Ferrari.
Verstappen said, “A very good day. We improved the car a little bit overnight and that gave me a bit more confidence to attack the high-speed corners. You need confidence to go to the limit here – it’s incredible how fast we go around here in qualifying. My first lap in Q3, I was very happy with how I did that lap, it felt very like the failed ’21 lap. The car was behaving very well.”
Perez said: “Max has done a tremendous lap – that was not possible for me today. Being on the front row was achievable but we are in the fight for tomorrow.”
Leclerc said: “The first lap in Q3 we tried doing something different, doing a preparation lap and that didn’t work out for us.
Fernando Alonso backed up his strong pace in FP2 on Thursday putting his Aston Martin fourth, the Spaniard going four hundredths behind Perez and a quarter of a second faster than both the McLaren’s. He did manage to improve but was not able to move into the top three.
Oscar Piastri throughout qualifying looked to be the faster of the McLaren’s, the Australian going nearly half a tenth faster than teammate Lando Norris.
George Russell was seventh nearly two-tenths behind Norris, as he went a tenth and a half faster than his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton. Russell would have likely gone higher on his final attempt but was still comfortably faster than the seven-time champion despite an error on his last and fastest lap.
Mercedes surprisingly further off the pace than expected, Russell eight tenths off pole with Hamilton nearly a tenth and a half further behind. That’s not bad given Hamilton had been looking to struggle for pace than Russell in practice.
Yuki Tsunoda was nearly nine hundredths behind Hamilton with Lance Stroll rounding out the top ten. The Japanese driver is under major scrutiny after losing his cool having been asked to let through teammate Daniel Ricciardo in the closing stages in Bahrain, but offered the perfect response by finishing six places above the Australian on this occasion.
Hamilton hanging onto his place ahead of Ollie Bearman, driving the Ferrari he gets his hands on next season. All eyes were on Bearman in his first qualifying, the Englishman drafted into Ferrari after Carlos Sainz was diagnosed with appendicitis, which needed immediate surgery. The Spaniard is recovering in hospital after a successful operation, the team said before qualifying.
Bearman had on Thursday taken pole for the F2 feature, but despite only one hour of practice was only three-tenths a highly impressive start, but he admitted that it was a “messy” session after that. He pushed it to the limit in Q2 but on his final attempt brushed the wall leaving him three hundredths off a place in the top ten shootouts.
Bearman ended the session eleventh fastest going three-tenths faster than the Williams of Alex Albon, the British-Thai driver with all six Brits in the top twelve. The Ferrari driver facing two investigations for failing to respect the race directors’ instruction on the maximum delta time in qualifying when not on a flying lap, in both Q1 and Q2.
Kevin Magnussen was thirteenth going five thousandths ahead of the RB of Daniel Ricciardo. But Magnussen’s Haas teammate Nico Hulkenberg failed to set a time in Q2, as the German began his first attempt, the car lost power and stopped towards the end of the first sector.
Valtteri Bottas was fastest of those knocked out in Q1, the Sauber driver missing out by seven hundredths. But the Finn was three hundredths faster than both Alpine’s, with Esteban Ocon going four thousandths faster than teammate Pierre Gasly. Logan Sargeant was nineteenth, with Guanyu Zhou’s crash in FP3 meaning he didn’t start a lap before the chequered flag despite Sauber getting the car out.
Related
- SAUDI ARABIAN GP – Max Verstappen fastest two-tenths faster than Charles Leclerc in third practice
- SAUDI ARABIAN GP – Fernando Alonso fastest two tenths ahead of George Russell in second practice
- SAUDI ARABIAN GP – Max Verstappen fastest almost two-tenths faster than Fernando Alonso in first practice
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