Verstappen compares Jeddah pole to notorious 2021 fail

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Max Verstappen claimed his first pole at Jeddah Corniche Circuit for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, finishing three tenths ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and his own Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez in Friday's qualifying.

Verstappen was quickest in all three rounds of qualifying and rarely under pressure on his bid to claim the top spot on tomorrow's grid.

It's his 34th career pole, but the first time he's managed to beat his rivals in Saudi Arabia. His first attempt in 2021 memorably ended in a lock-up that put him into the barrier at the final corner in the last seconds of Q3.

"It's crazy how fast you can go around here, especially my first lap in Q3," Verstappen told the media in parc ferme after the end of the session. "I was very happy with the lap.

"“It felt almost a bit like the failed ’21 lap, but of course making the last corner!" he quipped. "But I had a lot of fun, and the car was behaving really well."

Read also: Verstappen sweeps Jeddah qualifying for pole

Verstappen had also been quickest in two of the three practice sessions before qualifying. Although he failed to improve his time in his final Q3 run, his long distance race pace also looks emphatically better than anyone else's.

"Around here it depends a lot on your confidence level and how much you can go the limit," he explained. "And I felt very comfortable with the car.

"We improved the car a little bit overnight, and that gave me a bit more confidence to attack the high-speed corners," he continued.

"There are a lot of straights, but I am confident that with the race pace we have, the car will work really well."

Even though things are going according to plan for Red Bull and victory seems all-but inevitable in the second round of the F1 world championship, Verstappen isn't counting his chickens just yet.

"We have seen in the past there have been a lot of crazy races around here, a lot can happen," he said. "Normally people always say it is a one-stop, but it is like that around here."

Last year it was Perez who claimed pole position for the race and duly went on to win the race in what proved to be a rare failure for Verstappen in an otherwise record-breaking season.

But there are few on pit lane tonight who feel that Verstappen won't be able to seal the deal this year as his campaign for a fourth consecutive title continues apace.

As for Perez, the Mexican driver had looked set to join Verstappen on the front row, but was ousted in the final seconds by a quicker lap posted by Leclerc and will start tomorrow from P3 instead.

“I didn’t get much of an improvement on the final lap, which I think is why we missed the front row," he acknowledged.

“Overall I think Max has done a tremendous lap. I think that wasn't possible for me today, but I think being on the front row was achievable.”

Perez added that when it came to the race, he was still of the firm belief that “we are still in the fight for tomorrow.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.