Verstappen dominates Saudi Arabia qualifying to take pole position

Max Verstappen set the fastest lap in every qualifying session as he stormed to pole position at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Behind the Dutchman and his rapid Red Bull was the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc in P2, and then the other Red Bull of Sergio Perez rounding out the top three.

After the first set of Q3 runs around the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, it showed the supreme pace at the disposal of Verstappen and his RB20, as he was three-tenths clear of his teammate in P2 and five-tenths ahead of Fernando Alonso's Aston Martin in P3.

There was nothing anyone else could do to displace the three-time world champion, even with Alonso catching a cheeky tow off the back of Lewis Hamilton. Leclerc improved to move up to P2, moving Perez down to P3 and Alonso down to P4.

Behind those four were Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, with the McLaren pair coming in P5 and P6. The Mercedes' of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton could only come in P7 and P8, with Yuki Tsunoda and Lance Stroll rounding out the top ten.

Q1

Before Friday in Jeddah started, there was a change to the grid for Ferrari. Carlos Sainz came into this Grand Prix weekend feeling ill, and today, there was breaking news that the Spaniard has been suffering from appendicitis, meaning he will miss the rest of the weekend after already having surgery.

Because of this, F2 driver and 18-year-old Oliver Bearman replaces Sainz behind the wheel of the SF-24, becoming the youngest British driver in F1 history and the 12th British driver to race for Ferrari.

Under the lights, Bearman moved into Q2 in 9th place as Verstappen finished P1 in the first qualifying session behind Stroll and Leclerc.

At the bottom of the standings, Valtteri Bottas missed out on Q2 by +0.072 seconds in P16 behind Alex Albon.

His teammate Zhou Guanyu will start from P20 after his FP3 crash meant he could not set a lap time before the session ran out, despite getting out on track with less than two minutes remaining.

Behind Bottas were the Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly in P17 and P18, and Logan Sargeant's Williams could only clock the 19th fastest time.

Out - P20 Zhou, P19 Sargeant, P18 Gasly, P17 Ocon, P16 Bottas

Q2

The second qualifying session started with a red flag caused by the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg, with the German driver forced to retire because of a mechanical failure. As a result, he could not set a time and will start tomorrow's race in 15th place.

When the session got back underway, Verstappen was in P1 once again, as the Dutchman, Leclerc in P2 and Alonso in P3 were covered by just a tenth of a second.

Unfortunately for the other Ferrari of Bearman, he could not get through to Q3 in his first F1 race weekend, finishing just +0.036 seconds behind the Mercedes of Hamilton in P10.

Missing out in Q3 along with Bearman was Alex Albon in P12, the other Haas of Kevin Magnussen in P13, and Daniel Ricciardo's VCARB in P14.

Out - P15 Hulkenberg, P14 Ricciardo, P13 Magnussen, P12 Albon, P11 Bearman