Max Verstappen has ended a tough week for Red Bull by snatching pole for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as Lando Norris’ self-confessed doubts proved accurate when the Formula 1 championship leader crashed out.
After the Red Bull hierarchy held urgent meetings following a poor showing last time out in Bahrain and with speculation in Jeddah turning towards whether Verstappen’s future could lie away from Milton Keynes, the reigning world champion did his talking on the track.
The Dutchman sealed his 42nd career pole position with a scintillating time of 1m27.294s, beating Oscar Piastri’s McLaren by 0.010 seconds.
George Russell will start third after another good outing for Mercedes, while Charles Leclerc is set to start alongside him on the second row in the lead Ferrari.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Carlos Sainz share row three, the latter clearly now settling into life at Williams with his best qualifying performance of the season.
Lewis Hamilton had said just making the top 10 would be progress for him as he struggled for pace in his Ferrari, and he ultimately qualified seventh with Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly also getting ahead of Norris after his crash.
Having spoken about confidence issues on the eve on qualifying, Norris had been competing at the head of the field but was caught out around the tight Jeddah Corniche Circuit, hitting the wall at Turn 5 during his opening Q3 run, labelling himself a “fucking idiot” over team radio.
It means, having started sixth in Bahrain last weekend, the title hopeful is 10th on the grid on Sunday.
Alex Albon was strong throughout practice but narrowly missed out on the top 10 shoot-out and is 11th on the grid, alongside Liam Lawson for Racing Bulls.
Fernando Alonso is 13th with Isack Hadjar and Oliver Bearman having also made it into Q2 before being eliminated.
Gasly survived pulling out of his garage with a tyre blanket still attached to the right front to get out of Q1, although his Alpine team-mate Jack Doohan did not escape the drop zone and will start 17th, behind Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin.
Sauber struggled with Nico Hulkenberg down in 18th and Gabriel Bortoleto last after spinning on his final attempt as the second Haas of Esteban Ocon has split the pair.
F1 Saudi Arabian GP qualifying results
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| Cla | Driver | # | Chassis | Engine | Laps | Time | Interval | Tyres | km/h | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1 |  M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing |
1 |  |
Red Bull | Red Bull | 7 |
1'27.294 |
S | 254.615 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2 |  O. Piastri McLaren |
81 |  |
McLaren | Mercedes | 6 |
+0.010 1'27.304 |
0.010 | S | 254.586 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 |  G. Russell Mercedes |
63 |  |
Mercedes | Mercedes | 5 |
+0.113 1'27.407 |
0.103 | S | 254.286 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4 |  C. Leclerc Ferrari |
16 |  |
Ferrari | Ferrari | 5 |
+0.376 1'27.670 |
0.263 | S | 253.523 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5 |  A. Antonelli Mercedes |
12 |  |
Mercedes | Mercedes | 5 |
+0.572 1'27.866 |
0.196 | S | 252.957 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 6 |  C. Sainz Williams |
55 |  |
Williams | Mercedes | 8 |
+0.870 1'28.164 |
0.298 | S | 252.102 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 7 | L. Hamilton Ferrari |
44 |  |
Ferrari | Ferrari | 5 |
+0.907 1'28.201 |
0.037 | S | 251.997 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 8 |  Y. Tsunoda Red Bull Racing |
22 |  |
Red Bull | Red Bull | 4 |
+0.910 1'28.204 |
0.003 | S | 251.988 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9 |  P. Gasly Alpine |
10 |  |
Alpine | Renault | 7 |
+1.073 1'28.367 |
0.163 | S | 251.523 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10 | L. Norris McLaren |
4 |  |
McLaren | Mercedes | 2 |
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S | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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