Qualifying report: Red Bull’s Sergio Perez on pole after Hamilton’s shock exit in Q1

Sergio Perez will take off from Pole Position at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Sunday after a last-minute flying lap knocked the prancing horses off the top spot.

This marks a first career pole position for Perez after a whopping 215 races, and speaking after qualifying the Mexican driver said: “What a lap.

“I can do a 1,000 laps and I don’t think I can beat that lap, it was unbelievable.

“We were not really expecting too much from qualifying, we were focusing mainly on the race, so hopefully we get them tomorrow.”

Joining him on the front row tomorrow is the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc who said he was surprised Checo was able to bump him off pole. Speaking this evening he said: “The lap felt good, honestly. I am very happy with the lap. All qualifying was all about just keeping it on track and not doing any mistakes which would have been costly.

“Then in Q3 in the second lap, I just went for it. I more or less put everything together, there was a bit here and there.

“I definitely did not expect Checo to come with that lap time, congratulations to him. I’m sure he did an incredible job today.”

His teammate Carlos Sainz will take off from third with the second Red Bull of Max Verstappen in fourth – the dutchman was complaining of no grip on his flying laps this evening.

Highlights

Q1

Less than five minutes into Q1 Williams’s Nicholas Latifi crashed at turn 13 and reported the rear “just let go” on him – bringing about a red flag with 11 minutes to go.

Both Ferrari drivers had to abandon their flying laps that would have potentially put them at the top of the timesheets early doors.

Haas’s Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher were in P1 and P2 ahead of the restart but were quickly replaced by Max Verstappen in first and Sergio Perez in second  – however, the Ferrari’s were now on their flying laps.

As was expected the prancing horses blew everyone off the top, with Sainz in first and Leclerc in second with 6 minutes to go.

Meanwhile, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda was called back to the garage with some sort of technical issue.

Most shockingly, with just over two minutes remaining, Lewis Hamilton was in the drop zone as he continued to struggle with his W13.

After a final attempt the British driver briefly made his way out of the danger zone, only to be pushed back down by Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll – that’s the first time Hamilton hasn’t made it to Q2 since 2017.

ELIMINATED

16. HAMILTON

17. ALBON

18. HULKENBERG

19. LATIFI

20. TSUNODA

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Q2

As Q2 got underway, Charles Leclerc went fastest, while George Russell – in the remaining Mercedes – in second on the medium tyre but he was 0.7s behind the Ferrari.

Verstappen – who went purple in the middle sector – was only fast enough to land third overall after his first flying lap – he was a tenth of a second off the leading Ferrari.

Ricciardo may run into a race-ruining penalty as stewards look into him impeding Esteban Ocon in Q2 – he is also under investigation for an unsafe release.

Mick Schumacher was involved in a horror crash at the unforgiving Corniche Circuit on the first sector – bringing about a second red flag this evening with five minutes left.

The incident occurred at sector 1 when the Haas clipped the wall and went spinning – he was clocking speeds of around 270 km/h, meaning the impact would have been huge.

The German driver remained motionless in the car at first, but reporters confirmed he was conscious and in conversation with Dr. Ian Roberts.

He was then extracted from the car minutes later and placed in an ambulance. He is currently at the on-site medical centre and will be transferred to a nearby hospital by helicopter if needs be.

Sky Sports confirmed that Mick was “conscious and talking to the doctors” who were tending to him.

He was extracted from the car by medics with an ambulance on the scene and was brought to the medical centre.

Guenther Steiner provided an update and said: “I didn’t speak with him directly; he’s spoken to his mum. I spoke with his mum a few times and kept her updated.

“He has no injuries which you can see, they just wanted to check on him and do some scans to see that there’s no damage from the impact and the forces.

“It seems like he’s gone on the curb and just lost the car. We just lost all the data immediately on the impact, we had no contact with him after the contact.”

Racing resumed at 21:40 local time (18:40 Irish time).

Carlos Sainz set the fastest time of Q2, jumping in front of his teammate Charles Leclerc with a 1:28.686. Meanwhile, the second Mercedes of George Russell managed to hold on and was into Q3.

ELIMINATED

11. NORRIS

12. RICCIARDO

13. ZHOU

14. SCHUMACHER

15. STROLL

FULL TIMESHEET

Q3

In the final shootout at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, Carlos Sainz was on provisional pole with six minutes to go – his teammate Charles Leclerc was in second, followed by Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.

Max Verstappen had been on a flying lap but crossed the line in sixth as he complained over the radio of having no grip on his soft Pirellis.

After Lewis Hamilton’s shock exit in Q1, his new teammate George Russell was in fifth after his first flying lap, .7s off the leading Ferrari.

In the final moments of Qualifying this evening, Leclerc knocked his teammate out of the top spot, only to be replaced moments later by Sergio Perez.

This marks the Mexican’s first career pole position.

FINAL TIMESHEET: