Saudi Arabia GP – Pérez (Red Bull) steals pole from Ferrari, Verstappen (Red Bull) 4th, Hamilton (Mercedes) 16th

Checo’s lap of glory! Saturday in Jeddah, Sergio Pérez won his first career pole position, on the occasion of his 216th qualifying session since his debut in Formula 1 in 2011, which constitutes the new patience record, far ahead of the former holder Mark Webber (131).

Author of a third time noticed during free practice 3, 0″098 behind an unbeatable Leclerc in training, the second Red Bull driver confirmed that he had put his finger on the right set-up by dropping the Monegasque for 0″025, with a lap in 1’28″200. Incisive but still too irregular in the money timeCarlos Sainz settled for third place at 0″202, ahead of a Max Verstappen (Red Bull) at 0″261, and never really in the game.

McLaren at the door of Q3

At the end of this uncertain session, where anything was possible, Alpine pulled out of the game by hoisting Esteban Ocon’s A522 to fifth place, 0″868 behind the n°11 RB18. And the swerve that the Frenchman narrowly controlled at the end of Q3 to avoid repeating Mick Schumacher’s accident showed the level of commitment of the Enstone team, which qualified Fernando Alonso’s machine in seventh place.

Stuck between the pink cars of Enstone, George Russell managed to limit the damage for Mercedes, without forgetting the K.-O. technique of its leader, while Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo), Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri) and Kevin Magnussen (Haas) took places from 8 to 10 in this order.

Apart from Lewis Hamilton, no intruder is in the second part of the grid. McLarens in progress lacked a bit to pass the cut, since Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo failed in 11th and 12th places. On the other hand, Aston Martin is still not out of its slump. In the absence of its quadruple world champion Sebastian Vettel, the English team is in 15th and 18th positions with Lance Stroll and Nico Hülkenberg.