Verstappen takes yet another pole, as young Olivier Bearman of Ferrari turns heads in Friday’s qualifying.
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia—Max Verstappen took his second pole in the season’s second race by clocking a 1:27:472 quickest time in qualifying for Saturday’s STC Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. This time was three-tenths of a second faster than Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who edged out Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez.
Max Verstappen: We improved the car a little bit overnight, giving me more confidence to attack the high-speed corners. Around here, that affects your confidence in how much you can go to the limit, and I felt very comfortable with the car. Throughout qualifying, it’s crazy how fast you go around here, and my lap in Q3 I was happy with how I did the lap. It was very good I had a lot of fun, and the car was behaving really well.
Fernando Alonso had the quickest time in Friday’s practice in his Aston Martin, but the Spaniard could only manage fourth in qualifying and will start from the outside next to Perez. The McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris will share the fourth row, while the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton finished seventh and eighth and will start on the fifth row. Visa Cash App’s Yuki Tsunoda managed ninth, while the second Aston Martin of Lance Stroll topped the top ten final qualifiers.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the qualifying session was the performance of 18-year-old Olivier Bearman of Ferrari. Bearman replaced Carlos Sainz, who could not race because of appendicitis. The Englishman, who will be the third youngest driver to race a Formula 1 event, will start from 11th position.
ESPN will televise today’s race starting at Noon Eastern Time.
