Sergio Perez won the pole position for the first time in his F1 career, beating both Ferrari drivers in the last Q3 attempt. In addition to the premier pole position of the driver from Mexico, the qualifications will be remembered for the great accident of Mick Schumacher.
Ferrari acted as a favorite for the pole position during free practice, and when the qualifications started, the idea was confirmed, but still Perez made a great circle in his last Q3 attempt and surpassed Leclerc and Sainz, thus securing his first F1 pole. career position. Leklerk improved in the second attempt in Q3 and surpassed Sajnc, while the latter failed to improve in the second Q3 exit. Max Verstappen had a problem with the grip of his car in Q3 and complained that he had almost no grip at all, especially in the first Q3 attempt where he was far behind the Ferrari driver and his club colleague. He improved in the second attempt, but the time was only enough for the fourth place.
The improvement in Alpine's form compared to the first race was indicated by training and confirmation followed in qualifying, not only did both Alpine drivers qualify for Q3, but Okon did a great job and won fifth time, while Alonso set seventh best time. The sandwich of the two Alpines was the only representative of Mercedes in Q3, George Russell. Russell did a great job when compared to other drivers using Mercedes engines, and when compared to Hamilton, it was a league in itself. The seven-time world champion and last year's runner-up was eliminated in the Q1 part of the qualifications, and the car, according to him, was incorrigible. Namely, Mercedes used two different approaches and two different setups with Russell and Luis, so they were obviously on the right track with Russell's settings. Botas again did a great job for Alfa, winning eighth place, ahead of Gasli in Alfa Tauri and again the great Magnusen in Has.
At Haas, they can be happy with Magnusen for sure, but the focus is on the fact that their other driver, Mick Schumacher, had an extremely severe accident, when at one point he lost control by crossing a curb and hitting a wall at high speed. This caused the interruption of the Q2 part of the qualifications, which lasted almost an hour. Luckily, Mick is fine but will not be competing in the race, so only one driver will defend Hasa's colors. McLaren showed better form than it was in the first race of the season, Norris and Ricardo won 11th and 12th place respectively, but Ricardo also received a penalty of moving three places due to blocking Okon after qualifying. Behind them the qualification ended very good Hi in Alpha. Schumacher recorded the 14th time, but he will not be at the start tomorrow. Fifteenth time was set by Strol who pushed his Aston Martin into the Q2 part of the qualifiers. Luis, as we said, had big problems and did not manage to place in Q2, and the time he set was only enough for 16th place, and he managed to beat only Albon in Williams and Hulkenberg, who again changes Vettel to Aston. Martin. Latifi and Cunoda are in the last two places, Cunoda didn't even start, while Latifi ended his performance with an accident.
The race for the Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia starts tomorrow at 7 pm CET.
Qualifying results for the Saudi Arabian GP:
| POS | DRIVER | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1: 29.705 | 1: 28.924 | 1: 28,200 | |
| 2 | 1: 29.039 | 1: 28.780 | 1: 28.225 | |
| 3 | 1: 28.855 | 1: 28.686 | 1: 28.402 | |
| 4 | 1: 28.928 | 1: 28.945 | 1: 28.461 | |
| 5 | 1: 30,093 | 1: 29.584 | 1: 29.068 | |
| 6 | 1: 29.680 | 1: 29.618 | 1: 29.104 | |
| 7 | 1: 29.978 | 1: 29.295 | 1: 29.147 | |
| 8 | 1: 29.683 | 1: 29.404 | 1: 29.183 | |
| 9 | 1: 29.891 | 1: 29.418 | 1: 29.254 | |
| 10 | 1: 29.831 | 1: 29.546 | 1: 29.588 | |
| 11 | 1: 29.957 | 1: 29.651 | ||
| 12 | 1: 30.009 | 1: 29.773 | ||
| 13 | 1: 29.978 | 1: 29.819 | ||
| 14 | 1: 30.167 | 1: 29,920 | ||
| 15 | 1: 30.256 | 1: 31.009 | ||
| 16 | 1: 30,343 | |||
| 17 | 1: 30,492 | |||
| 18 | 1: 30,543 | |||
| 19 | 1: 31.817 | |||
| NC | DNS |