Ferrari will start 2-3 with Verstappen in the fourth slot. Car issues plagued Hamilton, who’ll start 16th.
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia—Sergio Perez has had to play second best at Red Bull to world champion teammate Max Verstappen. But Saturday night qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was a different story. Despite two red flags, one which stopped the second session for 57 minutes, Perez clocked a 1:28:200 best time to take his maiden pole ahead of the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. Verstappen will start fourth.
Sergio Perez: I could do another 1,000 laps and I could never beat this lap time.
Alpine had an impressive day, too, placing both Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso in fifth and seventh, respectively. George Russell was the sole Mercedes that placed in the top ten, taking fifth, with Valtteri Bottas pleased with the eighth-place finish in his Alfa Romeo. Pierre Gasly took ninth in the Alpha Tauri, with Kevin Magnussen finishing tenth in the sole Haas entry.
Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton, who was stunned about having to exit the opening session, will begin Sunday’s race from the 16th position. He struggled to understand why. “The car just wasn’t underneath me as it was in practice,” Hamilton said. “It was just difficult to drive suddenly, way more difficult than ever before.”
There were two incidents on the night, one serious. In the first session, Nicholas Latifi crashed his Williams with 11:22 left, delaying the qualifying for a few minutes while marshals cleaned an oil spill at turn 13. The major crash occurred when Haas driver Mick Schumacher hit the curb between turns eight and nine, smashing heavily into the wall. Emergency units responded and took Schumacher to the hospital as a precautionary measure (he was responding and sitting up).
Later, Schumacher posted a video on Facebook claiming he was ok, but he also reported that the damaged car was beyond repair and that he would not race on Sunday evening.
Saudi Arabian Grand Prix will be a simulcast on satellite channel ESPN in the United States and Sky Sports F1 of Great Britain beginning at 12:55p Eastern Time.
