Verstappen unexpectedly drops out, pole position in Saudi Arabia still goes to Red Bull!

The second round of this year’s Formula One World Championship has a starting line-up. Qualifying for the Saudi Grand Prix was dominated by Sergio Pérez, who replaced his teammate Max Verstappen and defended his pole position from last year.

The opening session of qualifying only confirmed what was clear from the first practice session. Once again, Red Bull showed its back to all of its rivals and, thanks to Verstappen, dominated Q1. But the more interesting battle was at the bottom of the standings.

The situation was further muddled with four minutes to go by a spinning Logan Sargeant, who made a cheap driving mistake on his first lap. In fact, he slightly ran his left tyre off the track on the home straight and his time was wiped out.

In the end, Williams didn’t get a single car into the middle section. Along with him, both Alpha Tauri and Lando Norris also finished in the 18-minute block. The British driver hit the wall on the inside of the track at the last corner and the damaged suspension was not repaired by the mechanics.

A difficult fate befell Jüki Cunda. The Japanese driver missed out on Q2 by just a hundredth of a second, with fifteenth place being snatched at the last moment by Valtteri Bottas in the Alfa Romeo. Logan Sargeant 20, Lando Norris 19, Nyck de Vries 18, Alexander Albon 17, Júki Cunoda 16.

The second block started with very fast Aston Martins, which were first and third after the first sharp laps. The biggest surprise came from Red Bull again. This time, however, unexpectedly negative. Verstappen’s power unit failed and the problem could not be solved.

The Dutchman will start from fifteenth place and will not have an easy job. However, the data from the practice sessions show that the race pace of the “Red Bulls” will be the best. Meanwhile, qualifying has continued.

A tough job awaited Carlos Sainz, who was in a non-advancing position before the last fast lap. But the Spaniard managed to pull his Ferrari through all twenty-seven corners without much trouble and finished fourth.

Both Alfa Romeos and both Haas failed to make it out of Q2. Verstappen’s retirement opened the way for Pierre Gasly in the Alpine monopost to slip into the top ten with the chequered flag. And Oscar Piastri also pulled off a great performance. The Australian showed that McLaren may not be doing so badly after all.

11. Nico Hülkenberg, 12. Zhou Kuan-yu, 13. Kevin Magnussen, 14. Valtteri Bottas, 15. Max Verstappen.

The battle for pole position had only nine players at the start. Charles Leclerc is facing a ten-place penalty for deploying his third battery. And although Verstappen dropped out, Red Bull was still the fastest on track.

Pérez pulled out a phenomenal time of 1:28.265, almost half a second quicker than second-placed Leclerc on his first attempt. In the second attempts, Fernando Alonso again pulled away, starting from the front row. Leclerc did get ahead of the Spaniard, but he drops to twelfth.

Mexican Pérez earns his second career pole position, with a hungry Alonso waiting for him in the race. George Russell and Spaniard Sainz will occupy the second row.

The race is scheduled for Sunday from 18:00. You can see the full standings for Saturday’s qualifying in the attached Twitter post below.

Source: F1 TV