Saudi Arabia Grand Prix – Qualifying: Perez takes pole position, Verstappen retires
Perez takes the pole position in Jeddah while his teammate was forced to retire after a gearbox failure.

Q1
These qualifications started in the night of Jeddah. While he did not participate in the last practice session, De Vries made a mistake and had to abort his first lap. After the initial timed attempts, Verstappen and Perez quickly take the lead ahead of the two Haas cars, surprising guests thanks to their high top speed.
Lando Norris hits the wall and returns to the garage. He is suffering from a steering problem as a result of the collision with the wall, forcing him to change his front left wheel and parts of his suspension. The McLaren driver gets out of his car and won’t be able to get back in. As for his teammate, he manages to make it into Q2, marking the first time in his Formula 1 career.
Ferrari, who had hidden their true potential during the free practice sessions by deliberately reducing their engine power, is back in the top 10 with Leclerc posting the fifth fastest time, while Carlos Sainz is sixth. After a poor start, Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon manage to salvage their positions in the final seconds.
On the other hand, Q1 was more disappointing for Logan Sergeant. Just after his lap was canceled for exceeding the track limits, he spins and triggers a yellow flag. The Williams driver doesn’t make it within the 107% and will therefore have to be allowed to race tomorrow by the stewards.
List of eliminated drivers: Logan Sargeant (20th); Lando Norris (19th); Nyck de Vries (18th); Alex Albon (17th); Yuki Tsunoda (16th)
Q2
After a turbulent Q1, Verstappen starts Q2 in the lead with new tires. Perez is right behind him, followed by the two Aston Martin cars, which are clearly very comfortable at the beginning of the season.
While he hasn’t yet set a fast lap and there are 10 minutes remaining, the world champion suffers a gearbox failure and struggles to drag his car to the pits. He won’t make it to Q3 and will start at best 15th on the grid tomorrow. His team won’t be able to fix his gearbox in such a short time, but he may still benefit from potential penalties for drivers ahead of him to gain positions.
We were waiting to see the performances of Ferrari and Mercedes, two struggling teams at the moment. On the Ferrari side, Charles Leclerc takes the third best time while his teammate, who was in danger for a long time, finishes fourth. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, low-key, easily make it to Q3.
The French team continues their good momentum from the weekend and both of them reach Q3. However, Haas and Alfa Romeo are the losers of this second qualifying session.
Following Verstappen’s withdrawal, it is finally Alonso who claims the best time in 1:28.757.
List of eliminated drivers: Max Verstappen (15th); Valtteri Bottas (14th); Kevin Magnussen (13th); Guanyu Zhou (12th); Nico Hülkenberg (11th)
Q3
After losing their champion, Red Bull could only rely on Sergio Perez. A serious contender for pole position as he had achieved it for the first time in his career, right here last year. After the first few minutes, he overtakes Fernando Alonso, who also sets a great time, and takes the lead. The dominant Red Bull is never caught up and Perez repeats his feat by securing pole position in 1:28.265, which is 65 milliseconds faster than last year.
Charles Leclerc, second on the timesheet, will start twelfth on the grid after receiving a 10-place penalty earlier this week. Fernando Alonso is third and will therefore be on the front row, alongside Perez and ahead of George Russell and Carlos Sainz. Stroll came close to delivering a great performance with an improved lap time compared to his teammate, until he made a small mistake at turn 17. Nonetheless, he still surpasses Ocon and Hamilton. Piastri is ninth, ahead of Pierre Gasly, who closes out the top 10.
The qualifying ranking of the 2023 Saudi Arabia F1 Grand Prix
N° | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Perez | Oracle Red Bull Racing | 1:28.244 | 1:28.635 | 1:28.265 | 18 |
2 | Leclerc | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:29.376 | 1:28.903 | 1:28.420 | 19 |
3 | Alonso | Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team | 1:29.298 | 1:28.757 | 1:28.730 | 18 |
4 | Russell | Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport | 1:29.592 | 1:29.132 | 1:28.857 | 21 |
5 | Sainz | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:29.411 | 1:28.957 | 1:28.931 | 24 |
6 | Stroll | Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team | 1:29.335 | 1:29.962 | 1:28.945 | 20 |
7 | Ocon | BWT Alpine F1 Team | 1:29.707 | 1:29.255 | 1:29.078 | 24 |
8 | Hamilton | Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport | 1:29.689 | 1:29.374 | 1:29.223 | 21 |
9 | Piastri | McLaren F1 Team | 1:29.706 | 1:29.378 | 1:29.243 | 23 |
10 | Gasly | BWT Alpine F1 Team | 1:29.890 | 1:29.411 | 1:29.357 | 23 |
11 | Hülkenberg | Haas F1 Team | 1:29.547 | 1:29.451 | 18 | |
12 | Guanyu | Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN | 1:29.654 | 1:29.461 | 18 | |
13 | Magnussen | Haas F1 Team | 1:29.744 | 1:29.517 | 17 | |
14 | Bottas | Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN | 1:29.929 | 1:29.668 | 18 | |
15 | Verstappen | Oracle Red Bull Racing | 1:28.761 | 1:49.953 | 6 | |
16 | Tsunoda | Scuderia AlphaTauri | 1:29.939 | 10 | ||
17 | Albon | Williams Racing | 1:29.994 | 9 | ||
18 | De Vries | Scuderia AlphaTauri | 1:30.244 | 10 | ||
19 | Norris | McLaren F1 Team | 1:30.447 | 4 | ||
20 | Sargeant | Williams Racing | 2:08.510 | 8 |