Max Verstappen has claimed pole position for Saturday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as Oliver Bearman, Carlos Sainz’s replacement at Ferrari following a surgery for appendicitis, missed qualified 11th and missed out on Q3.
Q1
Oscar Piastri had a scary moment during a flying lap through the last corner, as the McLaren driver slightly lost the rear and clipped the wall. However, the Australian temporarily set the fastest lap of the session – a 1:28.755 ahead of teammate Lando Norris by 0.050s.
It didn’t last, as Max Verstappen quickly robbed the lead in the timing charts with a 1:18.491, 0.264s faster than the McLaren. Charles Leclerc and Fernando Alonso followed, with gaps of 0.177s and 0.215s respectively – all with the soft compound tire.
The mechanics down at KICK Sauber were able to fix Guanyu Zhou’s car just in time, as the Chinese driver went out onto the track with less than two minutes to the end. Unfortunately for him, he reached the finish line on his out lap when the session was already over, and was unable to set a lap time.
All eyes were on Oliver Bearman, who is replacing Carlos Sainz for the remainder of the weekend as the Spaniard underwent surgery for appendicitis. The British driver finished Q1 in 9th place behind both McLarens, with a time of 1:28.984 in the soft compound.
The first part of qualifying then concluded with Verstappen on top followed by a storming Lance Stroll by 0.079s, and Leclerc in third by 0.147s to the lead.
Heartbreak ensued for both Sauber and Alpine, as Valtteri Bottas just missed out on Q2 by placing the 16th fastest lap, followed by the duo of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly respectively, showcasing once again the tragic downgrade the French squad faced with their new car.
Q2
The second part of qualifying started with chaos for Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg as he suffered from a loss of power, stopping at Turn 8 and prompting the red flag out with almost 11 minutes to go.
The session then resumed 5 minutes later.
Berman faced issued through his first flying lap of Q2 and ended up aborting his attempt after several moments in which he struggled to control his temporarily-lended Ferrari F1 car. He also failed to get into Q3, as he finished just 0.036s behind 10th-placed Lewis Hamilton.
Verstappen dominated the session once again but it was Leclerc behind him withs time by less than a tenth of a second, and Fernando Alonso completed the top 3 by 0.089s, all in the softs.
Stroll was unable to repeat his Q1 surprise and only finished 9th behind RB’s Yuki Tsunoda.
Those knocked out were Bearman, Alexander Albon, Kevin Magnussenn, Daniel Ricciardo, and Hulkenberg who didn’t get the chance to place a flying lap.
Q3
It was Max Verstappen who ended up claiming the fastest time in Q3, and thus will start tomorrow’s race from Pole.
Teammate Sergio Perez had placed 2nd in the charts but his front row start was denied by Ferrari’s Leclerc. Behind the Mexican in 4th was Aston Martin’s Alonso by 0.374s.
The Mercedes duo of Russell and Hamilton finished 7th and 8th respectively, with Tsunoda and Stroll completing the top 10.
Piastri finished ahead of Norris in P5.
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