Red Bull's Max Verstappen swept all three rounds of qualifying to clinch a straightforward pole position for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix - his first in Jeddah - by 0.319s ahead of Charles Leclerc, Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso
In his maiden F1 qualifying session subbing for the unwell Carlos Sainz, Ferrari's Oliver Bearman narrowly missed out on pipping Lewis Hamilton for a place in the final round and will start tomorrow's race from P11.
Zhou Guanyu was unable to take part in the session despite Sauber's best efforts repairing his car after a big accident in final practice, and Nico Hulkenberg's Haas came to a stop at the start of Q2 causing a brief red flag stoppage.
It had already been a dramatic day in Jeddah, with Carlos Sainz rushed off for emergency surgery for appendicitis leaving 18-year-old reserve driver Oliver Bearman taking over his seat at Ferrari for FP3 and now for qualifying. There had also been drama in FP3 itself with a big accident for Zhou Guanyu leaving the Sauber engineers racing against time to get his car repaired in time to be ready the lights at the end of pit lane went green for qualifying to get underway under the floodlights.
Q1: Verstappen breezes to the top, Bearman in the top ten as Zhou gets out too late
A barrage of 15 cars hit the track straight away, all on the soft compound with the exception of Mercedes where George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were out for a shakedown on mediums rather than a serious flying lap. Thursday pace setter Fernando Alonso set the initial target time of 1:28.876s ahead of Charles Leclerc, with Lance Stroll third ahead of Haas' Nico Hulkenberg and McLaren duo Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. All were within four tenths of the Aston Martin's initial best time.
Piastri was soon able to find more time to go top with a time of 1:28.755s despite being close to glancing the wall, with Norris half a tenth behind. Bearman also came scarily near to the barrier coming out of the final corner, but crossed the line to take fourth place in his first-ever F1 qualifying session. Then it was time for the Red Bulls to show their hand, and Max Verstappen went predictably top with a time of 1:28.491s as Sergio Perez split the two McLarens.
There were improved times to come from Leclerc and Alonso putting them into the top three behind Verstappen. The two Mercedes cars were now on softs and in the top ten - Russell into fourth, Hamilton in P9 putting him just behind Bearman. The only driver yet to set a time was Zhou, with the Sauber crew completing their work on his car but still struggling to bolt the tyres on. He pulled out of the garage with less than two minutes on the clock. However he was unable to start his flying lap before the chequered flag came out, leaving him timeless.
Meanwhile Leclerc was able to go top with three minutes remaining, posting a time of 1:28.318s. That was soon bettered by Verstappen, with Stroll popping into second just 0.079s off the Red Bull. Perez also improved, putting him fourth ahead of Alonso and Russell, with Piastri and Norris finishing ahead of Bearman who had succeeded in making the top ten on his first-ever round of qualifying, less than a day after he had clinched F2 pole at the venue. However he faces a post-session investigation for failing to follow race director instructions on maximum delta time. Yuki Tsunoda rounded out the top ten for RB ahead of Hamilton.
Williams' Alex Albon had just scraped through to the second round on the bubble on P15, but we had seen the last of his team mate Logan Sargeant along with both Alpines, Valtteri Bottas likewise missing the cut and joining Zhou on the sidelines for the rest of the evening.
Q2: Verstappen top, Bearman misses the cut, and Hulkenberg grinds to a halt
There was no time to waste, with a queue of cars waiting on pit lane to get the second round of qualifying underway. Haas was keen to get going, Mercedes also wanting to get a swift start ahead of both McLarens and the two Ferraris. However Hulkenberg was soon on the radio to report a loss of engine power forcing him to pull over to the side of a track at turn 5, triggering a red flag stoppage which stopped the clock.
Only Russell, Norris, Hamilton and Piastri had been able to set flying lap times by this point with Russell leading the timing screens with 1:28.608s on used softs, putting him 0.035s ahead of Norris. The pause in track action for the retrieval of the inert Haas was not too long before the track went green again. Having been thwarted on his first run on used tyres, Bearman was first to embark on a flying run but a few minor lock-ups saw him back off and return to pit lane without setting a time.
Instead it was Verstappen who was firmly back in charge with a time of 1:28.078s, a mere 0.044s ahead of Alonso followed by Leclerc, Perez and Stroll pushing Russell down to sixth. Piastri jumped ahead of Perez on his next run, and Norris moved up to fifth place but was still two tenths slower than his team mate. Bearman finally put in a time, but running wide in turn 23 meant it wasn't quite enough to get him into the top ten, leaving him at risk of elimination.
There was still time for one last flying lap for all 14 cars still in the running. Verstappen, Leclerc and Alonso remained at the top ahead of Piastri, Russell and Perez, while RB's Yuki Tsunoda made a last minute improvement to eighth pushing Hamilton onto the bubble; Bearman came close to pushing him out altogether but came 0.036s short of pipping the Mercedes. It meant he missed the cut as did Alex Albon, Kevin Magnussen, Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg.
Q3: Verstappen sweeps to pole, Leclerc pips Perez to front row spot
Ten cars were left for the final round shoot-out to set the order of the front five rows of the starting grid for tomorrow's Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Verstappen, Perez, Alonso, Leclerc and Piastri were all straight out on fresh tyres while Tsunoda and Norris set off on used tyres. It proved to be an easy sweep for the Red Bulls, Verstappen's time of 1:27.472s proving to be a third of a second ahead of Perez followed by Alonso and Russell, with the McLarens of Piastri and Norris slotting in ahead of Stroll, Hamilton and Tsunoda.
Leclerc was the last of the ten to set a time after aborting his initial lap very early on; he managed to muscle his way between Alonso and Russell for a provisional fourth. After that the cars headed back to pit lane for one final set of fresh tyres, leaving the circuit momentarily eerily quiet before the cars started to reassemble on track for one last push led by Hamilton, Russell, Norris and Piastri. By contrast, Aston Martin held back and were last out.
Hamilton improved marginally to P7 but remained a second off Verstappen's existing time. He did give Alonso a helpful tow down the start/finish straight at the start of the Aston driver's flier. Perez could find no more time and was ejected from second by a better run from Leclerc, but the Mexican's existing lap remained good enough to stay third ahead of Alonso. Both McLarens improved, with Piastri and Norris moving ahead of Russell on the grid just ahead of Hamilton. Tsunoda and Stroll rounded out the top ten as proceedings came to a close.
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