F1 | Qualifying | Saudi Arabian GP | Verstappen gets 42nd F1 pole position - Motorsport

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Qualifying sets off in the humid night of Jeddah at the Saudi Arabian GP. McLaren presently lead the Constructors’ championship and are still looking strong around the Jeddah Corniche Circuit. Both McLaren drivers topped the timesheets in the last two free practice sessions, while Gasly headed the first session with Norris and Piastri close behind in respectively P2 and P4. They seemed like the most likely team to take pole today, with their two drivers battling for the upper hand in the championship. Yet, in a remarkable performance, Verstappen surprised the grid to take pole position at the very end of the session.

Evening conditions remain warm in the Saudi Arabian GP Qualifying, with a track temperature of 38 degrees Celsius and an air temperature of 29 degrees Celsius.

Q1:

Green lights indicated the start of the session, with drivers headed on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit to prepare their tyres for the first stint behind Esteban Ocon. At the start of Q1, the soft Pirelli tyre can hold on for more than a lap, if cooled down properly in between push-laps, allowing drivers to go for more laps in the session. Haas’ Ocon set the benchmark of the session with a 1.29.924, though he was quickly overtook by his teammate Ollie Bearman.

Unsurprisingly, Lando Norris grabbed P1 away from Alexander Albon with a 1.28.026 a few moments later. Charles Leclerc joined +0.526 behind in P2, struggling for grip.

World champion Max Verstappen set a time in his RB21 to take P2 away from Leclerc, +0.122 behind Norris. On a strong push lap, Yuki Tsunoda ended up +0.405 behind his teammate Verstappen. Hadjar brushed the wall on the exit of the last corner in the later part of Q1. Yet, the French driver fortunately did not pick up any damage. 7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton laboriously reached P10, still adapting to his SF-25.

Norris and Piastri dominated the first part of qualifying, improving on their own times.

With a projected knockout time of 1.28.4, Doohan, Lawson, Gasly, Ocon and Bortoleto had to push to get out of the drop zone, under pressure in the last 5 minutes of Q1. On their last attempt in Q1, Doohan and Lawson made it out, pushing Bearman and Hülkenberg into the drop zone. Doohan was later pushed back down to P17 in spite of his best effort.

Gasly scrapped down the wall to make it to P9 andè into Q2, while pushing Hamilton into a dangerous P15. The British driver pushed his car to P9, thus making it to Q2. On the other hand, Bortoleto spinned a few moments before the end of Q1, bringing out a yellow flag shortly. He will be starting P20.

Knocked-out at the end of Q1:

Lance Stroll
Jack Doohan
Nico Hülkenberg
Esteban Ocon
Gabriel Bortoleto

Q2:

The fastest fifteen drivers emerged from the pit lane for the second part of qualifying, hoping to make it into the top 10. Gaging track evolution, some pilots went out on a scrubbed set of soft tyres like Hamilton and Antonelli. Albon set the benchmark for Q2 on a lap of 1.28.581. Responding to this initial time, Piastri topped the times with a 1.27.690 though his first sector was not ideal.

Maintaining speed throughout his lap, Verstappen took P1 with a 1.27.529. Leclerc’s opening effort only got him P4, +0.501 behind his rival Verstappen while Norris pushed Verstappen down to second place with a 1.27.481.

On the exit of turn 4, Max scrapped the floor as had Piastri a few moments earlier. Neither car sustained damage.

With 5 minutes left in the Q2, Lawson in the VCarb still had not set a time. Albon, who had never made Q3 at the Jeddah Cornich circuit, went up to 6th position 4 minutes before the end of Q2. Gasly, Bearman, Hadjar, Alonson and Lawson found themselves in the drop zone, having to set a quicker time than Antonelli’s 1.28.314 to make it to Q3.

From P10 to P5, Antonelli set a 1.27.798 while Sainz put his Williams in P6. Hadjar sadly could not fight through to Q3 while his teammate Lawson narrowly reached P10. He was however rapidly dropped out of Q3 .

Tsunoda found a good lap to make it to Q3 with a P7, eliminating Albon – outqualified by his teammate Carlos Sainz for the second week in a row.

Knocked out in Q2:

Alex Albon
Liam Lawson
Fernando Alonso
Isaak Hadjar
Ollie Bearman

Q3: Norris incident brought out red flag

While getting to Q2 seemed attainable, reaching Q3 was far more challenging. The ten fastest drivers made it through and went out onto the Jeddah Corniche Circuit one last time in this session behind Piastri. With temperatures dropping and the track evolving, drivers could set even faster times in the final part of qualifying. Both Ferrari cars went on used tyres whereas Norris Piastri and Russel’s cars were equipped with new sets of soft tyres. Piastri, struggling to rotate the car on the right hand side, set a hesitant 1.27.560.

In a remarkable turn of events, a yellow then red flag paused the clock before any other driver set a time. Norris jumped over the kerb in turn 5, consequently running into the barrier in a defining moment of the session. This tiny error cost the British driver immensely. Seemingly the faster McLaren until that moment, Norris will unfortunately be starting P10 tomorrow in the Saudi Arabian GP. The driver was physically okay, with an impact below 18G and did not need to go to see the medical team.

Restart of Q3 with 9 cars left

Verstappen set a 1.27.559 with the fastest first and third sectors, getting to P1 by one thousands of a second. Yet, the Dutchman lamented low grip into turn 1. Russel in his Mercedes managed to put his machine on provisional pole with the fastest first sector of the weekend so far reaching a 1.27.407. Piastri tried to respond to Russel and Verstappen. He managed to do so, with a new benchmark in the first sector.

Verstappen however beat this first sector time, set a perfect lap and got pole position from Piastri by one hundredth of a second. This is the Dutchman’s 42nd pole position in Formula 1.