Max Verstappen flies to pole in Jeddah, Norris crashes out!

Max Verstappen got pole position for the F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix ahead of Oscar Piastri in P2 and George Russell in P3. Lando Norris crashed out in the early moments of Q3 and will start the race in P10.

As it happened

Q1

As the first round of laps were closed it was Norris who took the top spot ahead of Charles Leclerc and Alex Albon. The gaps to them were, however, particularly shocking. 5 tenths to the monegasque, 8 tenths to the Thai and nearly a second to Lewis Hamilton.

Then it was Max Verstappen’s turn and he slotted in P2 a little over a tenth from the papaya driver. Red Bull teammate, Yuki Tsunoda came in P3, which became P4 as Oscar Piastri pipped his teammate to P1. Mercedes drivers George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli came in P4 and P7.

For the second run, Verstappen took P1 ahead of both McLarens, Antonellis put his W16 in P4 and Lewis Hamilton escaped Q1 elimination in the final moments with a P9 worthy time. Pierre Gasly, Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon once again outperformed their teammates who fell in the first part of qualifying. Gabriel Bortoleto spun coming out of Turn 1, crushing his chances to make it to the next session.

Eliminated in Q1: Lance Stroll, Jack Doohan, Nico Hulkenberg, Esteban Ocon, Gabriel Bortoleto.

Q2

After the first round of push laps Max Verstappen once again proved to be the McLarens most serious threat as Norris could only beat the Dutchman's effort by 0.048s. Behind them Oscar Piastri took P3, 0.209 off of his teammate's best time.

Russell was nearly 5 tenths off Norris, with Leclerc and Tsunoda right behind the British Mercedes driver. Hamilton whilst closer to Leclerc than in Q1 was still off by 2 tenths. Antonelli was in the danger zone in P10 nearly a second off Norris' time.

In his second run Antonelli moved up to P5, closely followed by Carlos Sainz in his Williams. For Isack Hadjar, he would not make Q3 for the second weekend in a row. Leclerc improved but only marginally so, as Hamilton with both Ferrari drivers moving up to P6 and P8.

Alonso could only improve to P13 from P15, and Tsunoda, in the dying moments of Q2, pushed Sainz' teammate, Alexander Albon to P11. The second time on the trot the Thai driver fell in qualifying to the Spaniard.

Eliminated in Q2: Alexander Albon, Liam Lawson, Fernando Alonso, Isack Hadjar and Oliver Bearman.

Q3

Lando Norris lost control of his MCL39 coming out of Turn 4 and found the wall on the entry into Turn 5, effectively ending his qualifying for the F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix qualifying run prematurely, as Piastri led the session on provisional pole.

Max Verstappen then managed to keep up with Piastri's best effort and indeed took provisional pole by 0.001s. Russell then pipped Verstappen to pole by 0.150s. Piastri brought down Russell's Sector 1 record, but lost in the middle Sector. The Australian closed his lap with a record in the final sector taking provisional pole by a tenth.

Verstappen then took pole position by 0.010s from Piastri and Russell.