Verstappen takes first Jeddah pole, Perez P3 for Red Bull; Leclerc P2, rookie sub Bearman P11 for Ferrari; Alonso shines for Aston, McLaren in the hunt as Mercedes flounder
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen made it two pole positions on the trot to start his 2024 campaign, taking his first-ever pole at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Saudi Arabia on Friday. Verstappen edged out Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by just a shade over three-tenths, the confined quarters of the Jeddah street course somewhat neutralizing the Red Bull’s usual pace advantage. Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez notched P3, while Leclerc had a substitute stablemate in rookie
Aston Martin found some pace after a disappointing effort in Bahrain last week and veteran Fernando Alonso wrung his car’s neck to the tune of the fourth best time in Q3. Teammate Lance Stroll couldn’t match the Spanish two-time champ’s speed and qualified a distant P10. Both of McLaren’s drivers showed fine pace, with Oscar Piastri just getting the better of teammate Lando Norris, P5 to P6. Mercedes, on the other hand, really struggled in quali trim, with George Russell only able to set the seventh fastest time and Lewis Hamilton searching for balance in the car down in P8 on the grid. Yuki Tsunoda excelled for the newly christened RB F1 team (formerly AlphaTauri, formerly Toro Rosso) with a sparkling final run that earned the fiery Japanese driver P9 for tomorrow’s race start.
Top 10 qualifiers for the Saudi Arabian GP:
POS | DRIVER | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1:28.171 | 1:28.033 | 1:27.472 | |
2 | 1:28.318 | 1:28.112 | 1:27.791 | |
3 | 1:28.638 | 1:28.467 | 1:27.807 | |
4 | 1:28.706 | 1:28.122 | 1:27.846 | |
5 | 1:28.755 | 1:28.343 | 1:28.089 | |
6 | 1:28.805 | 1:28.479 | 1:28.132 | |
7 | 1:28.749 | 1:28.448 | 1:28.316 | |
8 | 1:28.994 | 1:28.606 | 1:28.460 | |
9 | 1:28.988 | 1:28.564 | 1:28.547 | |
10 | 1:28.250 | 1:28.578 | 1:28.572 |
Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.
Tomorrow’s race, another Saturday special due to the upcoming Ramadan holiday, airs live beginning at Noon Eastern on ESPN2 here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out if the very tight and perilous quarters at Jeddah will throw up some real surprises!