Qualifying duels | Verstappen and Hamilton lose their lead

After qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, there were a number of surprises in the duels between teammates. Sergio Perez was the biggest surprise of the day, but George Russell, Esteban Ocon and Lance Stroll also managed to beat their teammate during the second qualifying session of the season.

Perez unexpectedly grabbed pole position for Sunday's race after it seemed for a long time that the Ferrari drivers were too fast. The Mexican was no match for Max Verstappen on Saturday in 2021, but this weekend in Saudi Arabia he took the first pole position of his Formula 1 career.

For Lewis Hamilton, qualifying went extremely poorly. The Brit did not advance to Q2 only managing a time good enough for P16. Teammate Russell, on the other hand, made an impression, as he managed to qualify his W13 in sixth position despite the problems at Mercedes.

After a bad weekend for Stroll in Bahrain, this time he managed to qualify better than Nico Hulkenberg, who replaces Sebastian Vettel again this weekend after a positive coronavirus test. This shouldn't really be a surprise though, as Hulkenberg got into the car last minute in Bahrain with no experience of the new cars. Fortunately for Stroll, he managed to beat the German this weekend. Ocon also did good business by leaving Fernando Alonso behind in qualifying.

At the other teams, the drivers did manage to maintain their lead in the qualifying duels. However, Mick Schumacher and Yuki Tsunoda did not get a fair chance, as the Haas driver crashed hard during Q2, and Tsunoda dropped out in Q1 with engine problems.

Mercedes: Hamilton/Russell 1-1

Red Bull Racing: Verstappen/Perez 1-1

Ferrari: Leclerc/Sainz 2-0

McLaren: Norris/Ricciardo 2-0

Alpine: Alonso/Ocon 1-1

AlphaTauri: Gasly/Tsunoda 2-0

Aston Martin: Hulkenberg/Stroll 1-1

Alfa Romeo Racing: Bottas/Zhou 2-0

Haas F1: Magnussen/Schumacher 2-0

Williams: Albon/Latifi 2-0