Saudi Arabian Grand Prix – Qualifying: Perez secures his first pole position

Q1:

Kevin Magnussen’s Haas was the first car to hit the track in qualifying. He was followed by Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo’s two McLarens.

Mercedes was the only team in this first part of qualifying to use medium tires. Unlike previous years, this choice was not motivated by a superior pace that would allow them to move on to Q2, but rather with the aim of saving a set of soft tires.

With 11 minutes remaining, the session was disrupted by a red flag following Nicholas Latifi’s crash at turn 13. At the entrance of the corner, the rear of the Canadian’s car slipped at high speed before crashing into the barriers. Fortunately, the Williams driver suffered more shock than harm and had no trouble getting out of his damaged car.

While Tsunoda was about to start his first qualifying lap, his engineer called him back to the pit due to a technical issue. Although the AlphaTauri seems to be a competitive car in terms of pace, its reliability is quite worrying.

Temporarily leading the time sheet, Max Verstappen saw his stopwatch shattered after the passage of the two Ferraris. Indeed, Carlos Sainz managed to set a 1’28’855, two tenths ahead of his teammate and 5 tenths ahead of the Dutchman’s Red Bull.

With two minutes remaining, the situation was critical at Mercedes. Indeed, at the start of his final lap, Lewis Hamilton, a 7-time Formula 1 world champion, was on the verge of being eliminated in Q1, with a gap of one second and two tenths behind his garage neighbor. Despite improving his lap, the British driver failed to make it to Q2 for the first time since 2017.

List of eliminated: Yuki Tsunoda (20th), Nicholas Latifi (19th), Nico Hülkenberg (18th), Alexander Albon (17th), and Lewis Hamilton (16th)

Q2:

From the beginning of this second part of the qualifications, Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari set the benchmark by clocking a 1’28’883. The two Red Bulls were less than one-tenth of a second behind the Monegasque.

This second part of the qualifications was not without incident for the French drivers. Indeed, in the Alpine garage, Esteban Ocon was hindered by Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren, which prevented him from completing his lap. As for Pierre Gasly, he had to finish the qualifications with a slightly damaged floor after scraping the track too much.

With 5 minutes remaining, the qualifications were put on hold due to a spectacular accident by Mick Schumacher at turn number 12. A visually terrifying accident, thankfully, Mick Schumacher appears to have emerged without serious consequences.

It is finally Carlos Sainz who has taken the best lap time of this second round of qualifying. 94 milliseconds ahead of his teammate, Charles Leclerc.

Great performance as well from the two French drivers Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, respectively in 7th and 9th position, who managed to make it into Q3 in an extremely tight midfield.

List of eliminations: Lance Stroll (15th), Mick Schumacher (14th), Guanyu Zhou (13th), Daniel Ricciardo (12th), and Lando Norris (11th)

Q3:

The Ferraris were impressive at the beginning of this last part of the qualifying session. Carlos Sainz managed to continue his good pace from the end of Q2 by taking the provisional pole position. The Spaniard was only 44 milliseconds ahead of Charles Leclerc.

Disappointment, on the other hand, for Max Verstappen who complained about a lack of grip. The Dutch driver, feeling uncomfortable, could only manage 6th place during his first attempt.

Temporarily in pole position, Charles Leclerc was ultimately beaten by Sergio Perez in their last attempts. Only 25 milliseconds separate the two men.

Carlos Sainz is third ahead of Max Verstappen. Esteban Ocon is 5th, which is the best of the rest ahead of George Russell’s Mercedes and his teammate Fernando Alonso. Pierre Gasly finished in 9th position.