@SChecoPerez stuns @CharlesLeclerc to claim maiden pole at the #SaudiArabianGP. F1

Perez Saudi Arabian GP Pole – Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Perez beat both Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz to claim his maiden pole position at the Saudi Arabian GP with team-mate Max Verstappen qualifying fourth.

The Mexican flew to the top of the time-sheets with his final flyer of Q3 on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit as he hit a solid 1:28.200 to pip both Ferrari’s.

This meant the late improvement by Leclerc, as the free practice clean-sweeper finally had to answer to Ferrari team-mate Sainz who held provisional pole on a 1:28.402 after getting purple sectors in sectors one and three with Ferrari team-mate Leclerc quicker in the second sector, but was 0.044 seconds off the Spaniard and wound up 0.025 seconds behind Perez.

But the Spaniard however, could not find an improvement on his final hot-lap so he slipped to third and two tenths behind his Ferrari team-mate whilst Red Bull’s Verstappen ended qualifying in fourth place following some struggles in his initial Q3 flying tour as he battled over-steer while applying the throttle out of the second corner.

BWT Alpine F1 Team pairing Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso qualified fifth and seventh respectively with Mercedes’ George Russell sandwiched in sixth.

Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN’s Valtteri Bottas will start eighth on the grid and in-front of AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly who took ninth and Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen rounded out the top ten.

In the second qualifying stage, which was delayed for 57 minutes following a heavy shunt involving Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher, McLaren duo Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo qualified 11th and 12th respectively with the latter potentially facing penalties and being under investigation due to an unsafe release in the pit-lane with Magnussen and for impeding the lap of Alpine’s Ocon.

Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN’s Zhou Guanyu takes 13th in his second Formula 1 qualifying session of his career.

The aforementioned Schumacher brought out the second red flag in the session with four minutes and fifty-eight seconds remaining after suffering a nasty crash into the turn 12 barriers and debris from his VF-22 racer scattered across the track. Thankfully Schumacher was unscathed, conscious and been taken to hospital for scans.

Schumacher will start 14th should he be medically cleared to race and ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll who was the slowest of the Q2 runners in 15th.

In Q1, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton was the shock elimination of the session taking 16th after being pipped by Aston Martin’s Stroll. This was the Briton’s first knock out of the first qualifying segment since the 2017 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon qualified in 17th and ahead of Aston Martin’s Nico Hulkenberg who took 18th.

Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi will start in 19th after crashing his FW44 racer into the barriers, after suffering a spin at turn 13, which brought out the red flags and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda brought up the rear due to a fuel-related issue.

You can see the full Formula 1 STC Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2022 Qualifying Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1125/saudi-arabia/qualifying.html

2022 Saudi Arabian GP Qualifying – The Top Three

2022 Saudi Arabian GP Pole Position – Sergio Perez, Oracle Red Bull Racing – RBPT, RB18, 1:28.200:

“What a lap, unbelievable. I can do 1,000 laps and I don’t think I could beat that one, it was unbelievable. We weren’t expecting to match the Ferraris in qualifying, we were focussing on the race.”

2nd Place – Charles Leclerc, Scuderia Ferrari, F1-75, 1:28.225:

“In the second lap, I went for it and I pretty much put it together. I definitely did not expect Checo to come with that lap time so congratulations to him.”

3rd Place – Carlos Sainz, Scuderia Ferrari, F1-75, 1:28.402:

“The lap for P3 was pretty good, it was on a used tyre – the new tyre for some reason is tricky for me. On the new tyre in the end of Q3 I didn’t have the grip. Should be an exciting race!”

In the earlier FP3 session, it was Ferrari’s Leclerc completing a clean-sweep of topping all practice sessions and 0.033 seconds ahead of reigning world champion Verstappen and Perez who were both second and third respectively for Red Bull, Sainz was fourth and a further 0.274 adrift of his leading Ferrari team-mate, and Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN’s Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top five. You can see the full Formula 1 STC Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2022 Free Practice 3 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1125/saudi-arabia/practice-3.html

#SaudiArabianGP FP2: @CharlesLeclerc fastest ahead of @Max33Verstappen. #F1

#SaudiArabianGP FP1: @CharlesLeclerc pips @Max33Verstappen to top time-sheets. #F1

#Formula1 STC #SaudiArabianGP 2022 Preview – #F1 #SaudiArabiaGP