Sergio Perez repeated his success of last year by claiming pole position for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at Jeddah Corniche Circuit, thanks to a final round lap of 1:28.265s in qualifying.
"It was tricky that Q3, especially not getting that second lap," he commented afterwards. "I had a good jump from all my previous laps, and that meant I was able to get the pole.”
"You know when you nail it," he added. "When you have a good car that you can push around this place, you really feel the car coming alive - getting a clean, good lap."
But the success came at a high price, after his Red Bull team mate Max Verstappen suffered a driveshaft mechanical failure at the start of Q2 and was unable to set a lap time in the second round when the engineers couldn't effect repairs in time to get him back out.
Perez was able to carry on and duly clinched pole, but Verstappen's sudden exit from the session understandably left him concerned for his own prospects in Sunday's race after he too suffered from technical gremlins.
"Hopefully tomorrow we can both cars up there," he said when interviewed in parc ferme after the end of qualifying. "You never know with these cars: reliability issues can hit you at any time.
"It is a shame as Max has been really strong the whole weekend," he added, reflecting on the fact that Verstappen had swept the board in all three practice sessions heading into qualifying.
That superiority had continued in Q1 when Verstappen was 0.483s quicker than Perez, who was in turn quicker than Aston Martin pair Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll and set up what looked like a certain Red Bull 1-2 for tomorrow.
But Verstappen's sudden mechanical failure left him limping back to pit lane, while it fell to Perez to fly the team's banner and take the top spot in his place despite having problems of his own.
"Maximising that lap was very important, because [we had an] issue on the the final run," he revealed. "It was really important, as the track was improving [all the time]."
He did indeed manage to hold on to the top spot, only a fraction off the time he set in 2022 to claim last year's pole position.
“Hopefully for the team we’re able to come back and get maximum points," Perez said. "These weekends are very important; the competition is only going to get closer, so to be able to [take] maximum points will be important.”
Verstappen will have to start the race from 15th on the grid at best, but is confident that he will be able to overcome the setback. “Now it’s a little bit more tricky to get to the front,” he said when interviewed by Sky Sports F1.
Perez is aware that his team mate will make rapid progress and be a feature of the race at some point. “So many things can happen in a race, but I do expect [Max] to come back. Our race pace was very strong on Friday.
“But I’m not going to approach the race tomorrow thinking about Max," he added. "First of all, I have to make sure I’m able to keep the lead on the initial laps. If I’m able to do that, to keep [Alonso] behind, it will be good.
“I think we certainly have a good race car. I think it’s probably where we’re a little bit better than the competition."
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