Max Verstappen comfortably took pole position for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix for the first time in his career.
Red Bull were on course for a one-two as the final runs began but neither of their drivers improved their times. That opened the door for Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to split the pair.
Q1
There were two major stories heading into the start of qualifying. Ferrari junior driver Oliver Bearman was participating in his first qualifying session in place of Carlos Sainz Jnr, who had been struck down with appendicitis.
Doubt hung over of whether Zhou Guanyu would appear in the session as his Sauber mechanics scrambled to repair his C44 which was damaged in his heavy crash at turn eight in final practice.
Max Verstappen set the pace after every driver had completed at least one run, 0.177s ahead of Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari. Bearman sat in the top 10 despite coming close to hitting the wall on the exit of turn 27. Oscar Piastri struck the same barrier more emphatically, yet gently enough to avoid any damage to his McLaren.
In the final three minutes, Yuki Tsunoda needed to find time to get through into Q2, as did both Alpines of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon with Logan Sargeant also in the bottom five. Zhou finally emerged from the pits with a whisker under two minutes remaining, but he was the first driver to reach the chequered flag before starting a flying lap, leaving him stranded in 20th without having set a time.
He will start at the back of the grid behind Sargeant, who failed to improve by enough to follow team mate Alexander Albon through to safety. The Alpines of Gasly and Ocon were also knocked out in 18th and 17th, respectively. Valtteri Bottas was the first driver to miss the cut in 16th as Tsunoda moved up to tenth with his final time.
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Q1 result
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Q2
The second phase of qualifying began with George Russell setting the early pace ahead of Lando Norris in the McLaren. Red Bull were about to send out Verstappen for his first run in the session, but abandoned that plan when yellow flags appeared at turn eight.
Nico Hulkenberg had pulled off the track in his Haas which appeared to have developed a problem with its power unit. Despite Hulkenberg’s efforts to keep as far off the circuit as possible, the session had to be red-flagged so his VF-24 could be recovered. It was especially…
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