Verstappen’s huge mistake changed the course of qualifying, so the fight for the world championship title in Jeddah was shuffled again

The penultimate qualifying session of the 2021 season took place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The track, which should be very challenging to pass on, offered another great battle between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. And it was the British driver who was more successful in the end.

Classically, Q1 was more about the lower end of the driver spectrum. The traditionally weak Haas (20th Mazepin and 19th Schumacher) were this time complemented in the retirement positions by the two Aston Martins (18th Stroll and 17th Vettel) and Nicholas Latifi of Williams. Q1 was won with a time of 1::28::021 by Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez.

the 15-minute second session was started by 15 drivers apart from George Russell on medium tyres, and the medium set proved very difficult to warm up.

In Q2, the mistakes mounted as championship leader Max Verstappen went off the track. The Ferrari of Carlos Sainz then had more trouble. The Spaniard still went on track with a damaged rear wing when he made light contact with the barrier, but 15th place remained.

Along with him, the 14. George Russell, 13. Fernando Alonso, 12. Kimi Räikkönen and 11. Daniel Ricciardo. Q2 was won by Lewis Hamilton with a time of 1::27::712. But the Briton had completed nine laps on the middle set, and so will have relatively old tyres at the start.

The last part of qualifying was symbolised by Hamilton and Verstappen swapping the lead. De facto, the Dutchman had the upper hand all the way through, setting a great lap at the end, with a lead of over two tenths over the Briton after two sectors.

But then came a minor puncture on the left front tyre, followed by Verstappen being tentative on the throttle and crashing on the exit of the final corner. The problem is not just starting from third place behind Valtteri Bottas, the team will also have to look at the state of the gearbox in the Red Bull monoposto. Replacing it would mean a five-place penalty.

The next places are four. Charles Leclerc, 5. Sergio Pérez, 6. Pierre Gasly, 7. Lando Norris, 8. Júki Cunoda, 9. Esteban Ocon and 10. Antonio Giovinazzi.

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