World champion Max Verstappen put Red Bull on pole position for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in track-record time on Saturday as McLaren’s Formula One leader Lando Norris hit the wall and qualified 10th.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, bidding to become the first Australian to lead the standings since Mark Webber in 2010, joined the four-times world champion on the front row for Sunday’s night race.
Mercedes’s George Russell and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc will share the second row in third and fourth at the super-fast Corniche circuit where the winner has come from pole three out of four times previously.
“The car came alive in the night,” exclaimed Verstappen after pipping Piastri by a mere 0.010 of a second. The pole position changed hands three times in a final flurry of flying laps before the champion settled matters with a time of one minute 27.294 seconds.
“I think in the race it will be difficult to keep them behind. But we will give it a good go,” said Verstappen, winner last year.
Italian 18-year-old rookie Kimi Antonelli qualified fifth for Mercedes, with Carlos Sainz sixth for Williams and Lewis Hamilton only seventh for Ferrari.
Verstappen’s team-mate Yuki Tsunoda will start eighth with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly ninth.
Norris was fastest in final practice and the second phase of qualifying, after Verstappen had led the first, but brought out red flags with eight-and-a-half minutes remaining when he hit the wall.
The Briton, who leads Piastri by three points after four races, signalled over the team radio that he was unhurt while calling himself an idiot with an exasperated expletive thrown in.
Piastri was the only one with a time on the board at that point, his 1:27.560 effort slower than Norris’s best of 1:27.481 in Q2.
Verstappen then went top when the track action resumed but Russell and Piastri went faster again before the Red Bull driver’s last effort.
Hamilton just squeezed through to the final top-10 shootout, the 40-year-old just 0.007 quicker than 11th-placed Alex Albon in the Williams.
Liam Lawson qualified 12th and ahead of his Racing Bulls rookie team mate Isack Hadjar in 14th.
Oliver Bearman, who made a sensational F1 debut with Ferrari as a stand-in at last year’s Saudi race, will line up 15th for Haas.
Aston Martin, marking their 100th Formula One race as a marque, had another difficult session with double world champion Fernando Alonso 13th and Lance Stroll 16th.
Meanwhile, Mercedes are ‘super-happy’ with their Formula One driver line-up and have had no conversation with Red Bull’s four-times world champion Verstappen about a switch, team boss Toto Wolff said on Saturday.
The Austrian told Sky Sports television at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix that Russell, out of contract at the end of the year, was doing a top job and was on the same level as the Dutch driver.
“I always say I don’t flirt outside if I’m happy in the relationship on a professional level,” said Wolff of his drivers.
“I’m super happy with the line-up we have, I couldn’t wish for anything better. Max is at Red Bull, we haven’t had a conversation, we are continuing our trajectory.”
Wolff said Russell, who is fourth in the championship but still within striking distance of McLaren’s leader Norris, was delivering.
“He’s been performing in the car to the maximum and is doing great. George is on Max’s level,” he said.
Verstappen’s future has been much discussed since Red Bull’s motorsport consultant Helmut Marko said the team were concerned that the 27-year-old, who has exit clauses, could leave at the end of the season.
Agencies
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