Max Verstappen continued his dominant run in Formula 1, scoring the pole for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix by an impressive 0.319 seconds ahead of Charles Leclerc in second.
Verstappen set the fastest lap in Q3 on his banker lap, then set another lap that would have still been on pole at the conclusion of the session.
Sergio Perez had to settle for third behind Verstappen and Leclerc.
“We did a step forward from last year,” Leclerc said in his podium interview. “The car is in a much better place in race runs. We just have to focus on ourselves. We cannot change the [setup] for tomorrow, so we just have to optimize everything else for the race. Then we’ll see what’s possible.”
One of the big stories of the day in the F1 paddock was a surprise debut. Carlos Sainz is out for the rest of the weekend due to appendicitis, leaving a Ferrari seat open for the team’s reserve driver, 18-year-old Oliver Bearman. Bearman qualified 11th in advance of his first race.
Q3
After a bit of action in the first two rounds of qualifying, this one went incident free.
| Pos. | Driver No. | Driver | Team | Time from Leader |
| 1. | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT | 1:00:000m |
| 2. | 16 | Charles Leclec | Ferrari | +0.319s |
| 3. | 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT | +0.335s |
| 4. | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | +0.374s |
| 5. | 83 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren Mercedes | +0.617s |
| 6. | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren Mercedes | +0.660s |
| 7. | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | +0.844s |
| 8. | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | +0.988s |
| 9. | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB Honda RBPT | +1.075s |
| 10. | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | +1.100s |
Q2
With 11 minutes remaining in the session, Nico Hulkenberg lost all power in his Haas and stopped outside of the racing line in turn 8.
The red flag was waved stopping the session with 10 minutes and 58 seconds remaining.
| Pos. | Driver No. | Driver | Team | Time from Advancing |
| 11. | 38 | Oliver Bearman | Ferrari | +0.036s |
| 12. | 23 | Alexander Albon | Williams Mercedes | +0.374s |
| 13. | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas Ferrari | +0.414s |
| 14. | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | RB Honda RBPT | +0.419s |
| 15. | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas Ferrari | N/A |
Q1
As the track continued to grip up, safe teams were having to resort to slapping on sets of used soft tires and going out to qualify in a hurry.
After a very hard wreck near the end of Free Practice 3 earlier in the day, Zhou Guanyu was stuck in the garage until the final two minutes of this session. The KICK Sauber team had to rush to get its green machine back out.
Sadly, it wasn’t a miracle run. The Chinese driver just missed getting to the line in time and didn’t set a qualifying time.
| Pos. | Driver No. | Driver | Team | Time from Advancing |
| 16. | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | KICK Sauber | +0.072s |
| 17. | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine Renault | +0.366s |
| 18. | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine Renault | +0.370s |
| 19. | 2 | Logan Sargeant | Williams Mercedes | +0.417s |
| 20. | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | KICK Sauber Ferrari | N/A |
This year’s first two F1 races are unique in that they will be contested on Saturdays instead of Sundays. Lights out for round two, the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, will come at noon ET on Saturday, March 9. Coverage will be on ESPN.
About the author
Michael has watched NASCAR for 20 years and regularly covered the sport from 2013-2021, and also formerly covered the SRX series from 2021-2023. He now covers the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and road course events in the NASCAR Cup Series.
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To my mind I think max verstappen is like Jackson storm from cars 3 and I think he’s unstoppable