#F1 #SaudiArabianGP Qualifying: @Max33Verstappen scores 34th-career pole.

Verstappen Saudi Arabian GP Pole – Reigning world champion Max Verstappen surged to his 34^th-career pole position in qualifying for the Saudi Arabian GP and ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez.

In Q3, Verstappen was quickest in the initial flyers setting all purple sectors to post an effort of a 1:27.472 and was 0.335 seconds ahead of team-mate Perez whilst Alonso was a further 0.516 seconds adrift of the Dutchman in third.

The final flying laps saw Leclerc set all personal bests to go second and was unable to beat Verstappen’s benchmark giving the Dutchman pole position by 0.319 seconds.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso followed in fourth place and in-front of McLaren pairing Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris who qualified fifth and sixth respectively.

The Mercedes duo of George Russell and Sir Lewis Hamilton will start the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in seventh and eighth as RB’s Yuki Tsunoda and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll completed the top ten.

In the middle segment, which was topped by Verstappen, Ferrari’s Oliver Bearman missed out on a Q3 appearance by a very narrow 0.036 seconds in his debut Formula One qualifying session as a replacement for the ill Carlos Sainz. The Briton will start 11^th on the grid in his debut Grand Prix.

Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon ended qualifying in 12^th and in-front of Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen who was 13^th and RB’s Daniel Ricciardo who took 14^th.

The other Haas VF-24 entry of Nico Hulkenberg brought out the red flag with 10 minutes 58 seconds on the clock after suffering a mechanical issue and parking it in the turn eight run-off and was unable to post a lap-time wounding up 15^th.

In the first stage of qualifying, which was topped by Verstappen, Kick Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas missed out on a Q2 appearance by a slim 0.072 seconds and was the quickest of the Q1 eliminatees in 16^th and starts the Saudi Arabian GP ahead of Alpine pairing Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly who ended the first segment in 17^th and 18^th respectively.

Williams Racing’s Logan Sargeant took 19^th as the second Sauber C44 of Zhou Guanyu had his car ready to go with 1:51 seconds left on the clock following his earlier FP3 shunt, but the Chinese driver just missed out on setting a flying lap due to the time running out.

You can see the full Formula 1 STC Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2024 Qualifying Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2024/races/1230/saudi-arabia/qualifying.html

2024 Saudi Arabian GP Qualifying – The Top Three

2024 Saudi Arabian GP Pole Position – Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing, Honda-RBPT, RB20, 1:27.472:

“A very good day so far, we improved the car a little bit overnight and that gave me confidence to attack the high-speed corners. In qualifying, it’s pretty crazy how fast you go around here. I had a lot of fun and the car was behaving really well. A lot can happen around here, a lot of straights but I’m confident with the race pace we have.”

2^nd Place – Charles Leclerc, #16, Scuderia Ferrari, SF-24, +0.319:

“The first lap in Q3 we tried something different, in the second lap I put everything together and that is what was in the car today. A shame we are a bit further away than we hoped, but tomorrow is a new day. We did a step forward compared to last year, the car is in a better place on race runs. We will try and optimise everything else for the race. I hope Carlos will recover quickly – and on Oliver’s side, he’s done an incredible job, straight up to speed and comfortable in the car.”

3^rd Place – Sergio Perez, #11, Oracle Red Bull Racing, Honda-RBPT, RB20, +0.335:

“I didn’t get much of an improvement on the final lap, which is where we missed the front row. Max has done a tremendous lap, which was not possible for me today. But we are in the fight for tomorrow, I think it will be a long, fun race with plenty of action.”

#F1 #SaudiArabianGP FP3: @Max33Verstappen tops time-sheets in red-flag shortened session.

#F1 #SaudiArabianGP FP2: @alo_oficial pips @GeorgeRussell63 by 0.230s.

#SaudiArabianGP FP1: @Max33Verstappen quickest ahead of @Alo_Oficial, #Perez. #F1

#F1 STC #SaudiArabianGP 2024 Race Preview. #Formula1 #SaudiArabiaGP