Sergio Perez claimed his second Formula 1 pole position at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, as early favourite and Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen was eliminated in Q2 with a driveshaft failure.
The double champion had reeled off the fastest lap times in all three practice sessions, and had headed Q1 by half a second over teammate Perez as the result of qualifying appeared to be a foregone conclusion.
Verstappen suffered a slide on his first bid to set a competitive lap in Q2 and backed out of it to prepare for another effort but, lost drive during the middle sector and reported that he could no longer accelerate.
He limped back to the garage, but it became clear that Max would not be able to continue with the session. The team later reported that a mechanical failure of his driveshaft was the culprit.
Given his terrifying advantage, Verstappen’s shocking exit ensured that the battle for pole would largely be open season – although Perez had the upper hand thanks to Red Bull’s overall pace.
It proved to be thus in the opening runs, and Perez setting a one minute, 28.265 seconds to go nearly half a second faster than Charles Leclerc’s best effort as the Ferrari driver had moved to the top after his first run.
This laid down the gauntlet for the other drivers to pick up, and Alonso was first to challenge but lost around three tenths in the final sector to slot in behind Perez in the order.
Lance Stroll then set the best first sector of anyone, keeping tabs on Perez through the next part of the circuit, but shed half a second in the final part of the lap to throw away any chances of claiming a surprise pole.
Leclerc was the last serious contender to try and overhaul the Mexican, but was just 0.155 seconds shy by the close of the lap – but it proved to be enough for the Ferrari driver to claim second over Alonso on the timesheets.
However, Leclerc will stare down the barrel of a ten place grid penalty for the Grand Prix, having taken new control electronics for the second race of the season outside of his permissible allowance.
Perez’s effort amid the opening runs of the session proved to be more than ample to earn his second-ever pole position in Formula 1, his first having come at last year’s race in Jeddah.
Alonso’s best time was 0.465 seconds shy of Perez and the Spaniard was thus third fastest, ahead of George Russell as the Mercedes driver was able to coax a competitive first-sector time out of his car.
Carlos Sainz overcame a Q2 scare, in which he had to try another lap to break into the top ten, to claim the fifth fastest time. He starts alongside Russell on the second row owing to Leclerc’s penalty, with Stroll fifth on Sunday’s grid.
Ocon was seventh fastest from Hamilton, while Oscar Piastri made his first Q3 appearance in Formula 1 and was ninth in the order, beating Pierre Gasly to a place on the fourth row of the grid once penalties have been applied.
Aside from Verstappen’s issue in Q2, Gasly made a late escape from the drop zone having been pushed into the bottom five by Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg.
The Hulk was in P14 after the first set of runs, but sprung into the top ten to leave Gasly on the brink of needing to take an early exit.
By just 0.04 seconds, Gasly pipped Hulkenberg to a place in Q3 in a closely fought session in which the top 14 were covered by just 1.033 seconds.
Piastri dumped Yuki Tsunoda out of qualifying at the flag during Q1, moments after the AlphaTauri driver had managed to push Alex Albon into the drop zone amid a late flurry of laps.
Conversely, Lando Norris was unable to progress having tapped the inside wall at Turn 27, immediately breaking his front-left suspension to force him into a quick retreat to the pitlane. Norris could not return to the circuit, ensuring he was P19 in the session.
He was surrounded on the timing boards by Nyck de Vries, who spun on his first timed lap at the opening corner and later confessed to messing up the final corner on his last-gasp effort to try and break out of the bottom five.
Logan Sargeant propped up the order after losing his best laptime to track limits. Coming out of the final corner, the Williams driver crossed the line at the kink along the start-finish straight, costing him his one minute, 29.721 seconds lap – which would have been good enough to get him into Q2.
Sargeant later spun on his next effort later on in the session, and then scuffed his final lap and reported an unspecified breakage – coming to rest at Turn 10 after pulling over.
So a mixed up grid for the main race following the shocking exit for the defending world champion. The front row looks exciting with Perez alongside Alonso. It’s going to be fascinating to see Verstappen fighting through the field as the Red Bull RB19 has super race pace.
Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Qualifying positions:
1 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:28.265
2 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:28.730
3 George Russell Mercedes 1:28.857
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:28.931
5 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:28.945
6 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:29.078
7 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:29.223
8 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1’29.243
9 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:29.357
10 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:29.451
11 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:29.461
12 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:28.420*
13 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:29.517
14 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:29.668
15 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:49.953
16 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:29.939
17 Alex Albon Williams 1:29.994
18 Nyck de Vries AlphaTauri 1:30.244
19 Lando Norris McLaren 1:30.447
20 Logan Sargeant Williams 2:08.510
*Ten place grid penalty for changing an electric control unit
Jeddah qualifying review as reported by Formula1.com.
Sergio Perez claimed pole position for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix during an action-packed qualifying session at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit after team mate and championship leader Max Verstappen dropped out in Q2 due to technical problems.
Verstappen was the firm favourite for pole position after leading the way in FP1, FP2, FP3 and the opening Q1 phase of qualifying, but a driveshaft issue that struck in Q2 means he will start Sunday’s race from 15th on the grid.
Perez picked up the pieces in Verstappen’s absence, posting a 1m 28.265 in the decisive Q3 phase to claim a second successive pole in the Kingdom, 0.155s ahead of Ferrari rival Charles Leclerc, who will lose 10 places due to an engine penalty.
Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin therefore jump up to the front row as their strong start to the season continues, followed by the lead Mercedes of George Russell, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and team mate Lance Stroll.
A much stronger qualifying performance from Alpine saw them place seventh and 10th with Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly respectively, with Lewis Hamilton taking eighth in his Mercedes, and rookie Oscar Piastri impressing en route to P9 in his McLaren.
Haas and Alfa Romeo were unable to make it over the second qualifying hurdle, with Nico Hulkenberg ending up 11th from Zhou Guanyu, Kevin Magnussen and Valtteri Bottas, as Verstappen completed the list of drivers to drop out in Q2 amid his costly issues.
AlphaTauri lost both of their cars in Q1, with Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck de Vries taking P16 and P18 respectively – the latter ruing a mistake at the final corner of his final lap after missing FP3 due to a power unit change.
Alex Albon was the lead Williams in 17th, splitting up the two AlphaTauris, while Lando Norris was the biggest name to drop out in Q1 after hitting the Turn 27 wall and picking up steering damage that could not be fixed.
It was a messy second F1 qualifying session for Logan Sargeant, who lost his first lap for exceeding track limits, spun out during his second effort and finally encountered a technical problem on his final attempt – leaving him at the back of the grid without a time.
Following a driveshaft failure which knocked out Max Verstappen in qualifying, the world champion said “anything is possible” from P15 in Saudi Formula 1 Grand Prix. Motorsport.com provides the story.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen says “anything is possible” from 15th place on the grid for Formula 1’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after being hit by a driveshaft issue in qualifying.
On his first run in Q2 Verstappen suddenly slowed in the second sector of Jeddah’s Corniche street circuit.
“It was the first time I heard about that [issue]. Coming out of Turn 10 it happens, which is very annoying for it to happen,” he told Sky.
“I think we so far had a really good weekend, every session was going really well and every time we went on track the car was working really well.
“So now it’s a little bit more tricky to get to the front, but it’s all about scoring points.
“It’s a very long season, of course, I would have hoped to start a bit further up the road, but we cannot change that now.”
The Dutchman notified his team of a possible engine issue, but after he made it back to the Red Bull garage the team confirmed he was hit by a driveshaft problem. As he hadn’t set a time yet, that meant the world champion finished Q2 in 15th place.
Verstappen, who won the season-opening race in Bahrain earlier this month, said it was “annoying” to be encountering the issue in qualifying after enjoying a smooth weekend until that point.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/verstappen-anything-is-possible-from-15th-in-saudi-gp-f1/10445479/
Charles Leclerc has no doubts that Red Bull remains on “another planet” despite getting close to pole position man Sergio Perez in qualifying for Formula 1’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
While Leclerc has come into the Jeddah weekend knowing that he faced a 10-place grid penalty, it still meant he had to push things to the max to ensure he did not start too far down the order.
But while he got within 0.15 seconds of Perez as he finished qualifying in second, the weekend has not delivered much cause for optimism for the Monegasque.
With Ferrari having not appeared to have the potential to overcome Red Bull, and knowing that Max Verstappen had been so strong in practice prior to the driveshaft problem that put him out in Q2, Leclerc remained realistic about the gap to the front.
“Happy? Yes and no,” said Leclerc, who will start the race in 12th place. “On one hand, I think it’s been a very difficult weekend in terms of pace for us. But I’m very happy about my lap. I think I put everything in it. It was really, really on the limit.
“On the other hand, Red Bull are on another planet. And we are struggling a little bit. So, we need to keep pushing. But that’s what we are doing as a team.
“Tomorrow is not going to be easy. I have a 10-place grid penalty. So we’ll be starting a little bit further back. But we’ll focus on the race and hopefully come back in the front as quickly as possible.”
While Ferrari spent much of its focus in qualifying on sorting out its race pace, having struggled so much in Bahrain, Leclerc did not see an easy route forward.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/red-bull-f1-still-on-another-planet-says-leclerc/10445513/
Fernando Alonso reckons Aston Martin is “not in a position” to beat Red Bull in Sunday’s Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, as the Spaniard starts alongside polesitter Sergio Perez.
he double world champion set the third fastest time in qualifying, 0.465 seconds away from Perez’s ultimate pace, but will move up to the front row on the grid as Charles Leclerc will cop at least a 10-place grid penalty for taking on new control electronics.
Despite a solid qualifying result, the consensus is that Aston Martin is much stronger in race trim, and Alonso explained that general long-run pace and a light touch with tyres will yield more performance on Sunday.
Regardless, Alonso does not expect to battle Perez for victory on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, admitting that the Red Bull squad is “in another league” compared to the rest of the field.
He believes instead that Aston Martin will have to focus on beating the cars behind it, and suggest that the trio of Ferrari, Mercedes, and Alpine could all offer threats to the British squad’s podium hopes.
“I don’t know [if we can beat Perez] – I think we are not in that position yet,” Alonso said.
“On pure pace, I think Red Bull is in another league and I think we have to concentrate more on the teams behind. So Ferrari will be very strong, Mercedes are strong, also Alpine – they are fast here.
“I think our race is just behind us. We saw today Max probably was in his league today in qualifying and he could not complete the qualifying with a mechanical issue.
“Even if we focus on our mirrors and try to keep the people behind, if anything happens in front, we will try to take the opportunity.
“I don’t want to sound pessimistic, but if we see the pace in free practice, and in Bahrain, we have to be honest with ourselves and know that Red Bull is a little bit ahead of everyone.
“That’s not the target tomorrow, to fight for the win with Checo. But, as I said before, Formula 1 is not exact mathematics, you know, anything can happen and today, Verstappen was P15. These things happen sometimes.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/alonso-not-in-a-position-to-beat-perez-red-bull-in-saudi-arabian-f1-gp/10445561/