F1: Verstappen chokes, handing Saudi Arabia pole to Hamilton
Max Verstappen was on a massive lap, 3/10ths up on Hamilton through the first two sectors, and was headed to pole for the Saudi Arabian GP, but on the final corner he choked from the pressure of the Mercedes team, and hit the wall on exit and tore up the right side of the Red Bull and lost pole.
As a result, Lewis Hamilton won pole with a lap of 1m27.511s to beat his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas by 0.111s.
“What a tough track this is,” said Hamilton. “Through FP3 and qualifying I was lacking pace, struggling with the tires. So for us to get a 1-2 is incredible, we’ve worked so hard. The collaboration has been epic with Valtteri, he’s the best of teammates. Those guys [Red Bull] were so fast. They were rapid today.
“We always get closer in race pace,” he said. “I think my long run was good yesterday, but you know, they’ve [Red Bull] obviously picked something with the set-up, and they’re rapid today.
“So I anticipate it will be a close battle all the way through tomorrow. But Valtteri and I will be on it.”
“I had a struggle in FP3, and I thought I needed a new engine,” said Bottas. “But in quali all was working fine, so happy. The last lap was on the limit. The track is tough. We need to focus on team championship and Lewis.”
Verstappen’s first effort was enough for third at 1m27.653s, with Leclerc a brilliant fourth 0.543s back.
“It feels terrible, we were having a good qualifying, I knew the pace was there. I locked up and I still trying to push, to finish the lap,” said Verstappen. “P3 is disappointing knowing the lap I was on. At least it shows the car is quick. [With regards the gearbox] I don’t know.
Plenty of others lost their laps times once the yellow flags came out for Verstappen’s stricken Red Bull, which wound up parked on the straight.
Sergio Perez was fifth, Pierre Gasly sixth.
Next was Lando Norris and Yuki Tsunoda, with Ocon and Giovinazzi rounding out the top 10.
The big question now is will Verstappen’s gearbox be okay – or will the team need to change it and incur a penalty?
It might be the championship turning point?
Select Quotes
Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team
Lewis Hamilton (1st, 1:27.511): “This place is one of the hardest tracks to get right, I was on the limit the whole way round, and the car was on a knife-edge. Trying to pull out the maximum with the tires was so tough. It’s difficult to understand why – it’s so warm here, but we were having trouble getting temperature in the front, and rears at the same time to have grip at the start of the lap. I’m very proud, and thankful that we were able to put it on the front row for tomorrow, it’s going to be an intense race. It’s always important to have Valtteri beside me, particularly in this part of the year, he’s been driving exceptionally well, and hopefully tomorrow we can do a good job together.”
Valtteri Bottas (2nd, 1:27.622): “You get such an adrenaline rush from this track! Tomorrow’s going to be hard, this place is so intense, but at least we’re starting in the best places. Given how tricky qualifying was today, it’s a great result. Starting on the left side tomorrow is definitely going to be dusty, but I’ll be trying hard to keep position. This is one of the toughest tracks of the year, both mentally, and physically, which is exciting because come tomorrow, anything can happen.”
Toto Wolff, Team Principal: “What a crazy session! We expected to be stronger today, we have a quick car, and it looked like those quick corners would suit us, but like so many times this season, you’re constantly surprised. Austin should have been our track, and wasn’t, and then suddenly in Brazil we were performing really well, so you just never know. It was important today that we kept attacking, and attacking, and we’ve ended up with a front row lockout which is a big advantage for tomorrow. There is a brutal energy running through the whole Team. We just look forward, and keep pushing, and pushing, and when you go in the debrief room or in the garage, you don’t need to talk because you can feel the energy, and how buzzed everyone is.”
Andrew Shovlin: “It’s been a very busy day. The final practice session wasn’t great for us, we were doing OK on the Hard tire, but not finding great grip on the Soft. We found an issue with Valtteri’s power unit just before the end of the session so had to swap that out for another in his pool just before qualifying; it was a lot of work, but everyone in the garage did a great job to get the car ready in time. Our struggles didn’t disappear going into qualifying, we were able to do reasonable lap times, but every time Max went out he’d beat the time we just set, and his final run showed clearly that they have the upper hand here on a single lap. Had he completed the lap, there’s no way we could have matched it so whilst we’re pleased to have the front row, it doesn’t feel like we’ve earned it. It’s hard to know what to expect tomorrow; we were good on the long run on Friday, but Red Bull seem to have found a chunk of pace overnight, and if that translates into the long run, it’s bound to be close.”
Red Bull Racing
Max Verstappen (3rd, 1:27.653): “I was on a really good lap until I lost it on the final corner, I thought I had approached it in the same way I had been doing all session, but I lost the rear. I’m upset with myself, and it is of course disappointing, but there are two races to go, and anything can happen. We had a good car in qualifying, and everything was coming together which gives me hope going into the race tomorrow, also knowing that the pace was there today. I hope we can follow well tomorrow, and if that’s the case, there should be some good opportunities, and we should have a good shot.”
Sergio Perez (5th, 1:28.123): “We were P1 in Q1, and Q2, and then in Q3 I don’t think the approach we took with the tires was the right one. I suddenly picked up a lot of understeer, and couldn’t match my Q2 time, which is a bit of a shame. These tires are so picky that if you are not in the right temperature window then your balance is totally different, and that is what happened to me today. It is a physically demanding track, it puts a lot of stress on your body, and mentally it is challenging too to be up there session after session. Today wasn’t an ideal day for us as a Team, but tomorrow there is still a lot to play for, it is going to be a long race, and anything can happen still. I am looking forward to it, the pace was there today, and I really hope we can improve on our starting position, and get into the podium positions very early on. We will see if starting on the clean side of the grid tomorrow is an advantage, I think the start is a good chance to overtake, then we will go from there, and try to be in the mix with the leaders straight away.”
Christian Horner, Sporting Director: “It was looking like the lap of the year up until that moment. It’s a great shame as it was a mighty, mighty lap, and he was pulling something very special out of the bag. Max will be frustrated I am sure as he knows what a good lap it was, but he just needs to put it behind him now. He’s still P3 on the grid, and he just needs to have a good start, as anything could happen in this race. Unfortunately, we are on the back foot now, so we’ll get the car back, and hope the damage isn’t too bad. Grid position on any street circuit is crucial, and it’s going to be very hard to overtake here, so it’s all going to be about strategy, and Checo could have a major part to play in the race.”
McLaren F1 Team
Lando Norris (7th, 1:28.180): “I’m disappointed with the end of qualifying really. Happy we’re still P7, because it could’ve been worse today. I got a bit unlucky throughout qualifying with yellow flags, but even so I could’ve been one or two positions higher as I didn’t do the best lap when I needed to, so I’m a bit frustrated. I have a small advantage at the start with the Soft tire, so I need to make the most of that, but for the rest of the race it’s going to make it a lot trickier. I’m still in a decent position to score some points tomorrow, so we’ll see what we can do.”
Daniel Ricciardo (11th, 1:28.668): “We had a quick car, but I just picked up some damage on the last run, and lost a lot of time. I damaged the floor on a curb, and it was dragging on the straight. I saw the lap-time dropping away. It’s a shame, because we were a lot quicker than P11 today. I’ve used that curb a lot already, but that time I picked up a bit of damage. We made a good set-up change for quali so I was comfortable, and had pace, we just got unlucky.”
Andreas Seidl, Team Principal: “P7, and P11 in today’s qualifying. We had a quick car today, but unfortunately couldn’t maximize the outcome of quali. Daniel took some heavy floor damage when running over a curb in Q2, which didn’t allow him to progress to Q3. Lando was unlucky with yellow flags in Q2, which then made us switch to the Soft tires for the second run in order to ensure we progressed to Q3. This unfortunately meant he only had one set of new Softs for Q3, which compromised the outcome for him. We should have a competitive car tomorrow in the race, let’s make up some positions.”
Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team
Sebastian Vettel (17th, 1:29.198): “I was a little surprised that we were unable to make Q2 because I felt my last lap was good – even though I was held up at the end of the second sector, which cost me a few tenths, and a chance to progress. There was a lot of traffic out there, especially at the end of laps, which complicated things further. I think it is clear that this track does not suit our car in qualifying trim, but the positive is that our race pace has traditionally been stronger this season, so we will see what we can do tomorrow. It hurts to qualify in P17 but, if we have an eventful race tomorrow, we can try to make our way up the field.”
Lance Stroll (18th, 1:29.368): “I am really disappointed to have ended up in P18 because traffic at the end of the session ruined my qualifying. It was like a parking lot, and there was nothing I could do. As a result, I was not able to put in a flying lap when the track, and tires were at their optimum, and it proved very costly. I think we would have had enough to make it into Q2 otherwise. We will go away, and review to see if there is anything we could have done differently. We have never raced here before, so we will have to see how the Grand Prix plays out tomorrow, and try to make up some places.”
Otmar Szafnauer, Chief Operating Officer: “It is pretty obvious that the unusual characteristics of this very fast circuit did not suit our car in qualifying today. However, Sebastian, and Lance did their best. This race will be a tough one for us, because overtaking is unlikely to be easy here, but we will crunch the data this evening in an effort to come up with an optimal race strategy all the same, and do our level best tomorrow.”
Alpine F1 Team
Esteban Ocon (9th, 1:28.647): “I’m pretty happy with today’s Qualifying in ninth place. I was pleased with my laps and, as a team, we’ve worked really well this weekend. I’ve got the confidence in the car, which is needed around here in order to really push on the low fuel laps. It’s a shame we couldn’t put both cars into Q3, but we had a quick car in FP2, and hopefully we can carry that into the race with both Fernando, and I aiming to score. It’s going to be a long race tomorrow. It’s very hot, a very busy lap, maybe similar to Singapore in terms of physicality, but I’m looking forward to it. We’ll see what we can do from ninth on the grid, and we’ll give it our best for another solid team result.”
Fernando Alonso (13th, 1:28.920): “It was a tricky session for us tonight. Yesterday the car felt fast, and had a good balance, but today from FP3, and into qualifying the car felt very different. On a street circuit, and going close to the walls it’s quite difficult when you aren’t totally comfortable with the balance. We saw in Formula 2 there were more overtakes than expected, so while I think it will be more difficult for us to follow at such high speeds, we remain hopeful to make up ground tomorrow. I hope to have a clean race tomorrow, and we need to make sure to score more points in our battle for fifth place.”
Alan Permane, Sporting Director: “It’s a bit of a mixed result for us, and we were hoping for more after a very strong day yesterday. Fernando has not been happy with his car all day – he’s not had the planted rear end he had yesterday, and wasn’t able to push as he wanted. Congratulations to Esteban; he got the most out of the car as ninth was unfortunately as much as we could achieve today. We know we typically go better on Sunday than in qualifying so we will be looking for a strong race tomorrow.”
Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow
Charles Leclerc (4th, 1:28.054): “I am very happy with my qualifying. Today was all about regaining confidence on this track, and I worked on this from my first lap in FP3 to that last lap in qualifying. I really took it to the limit, and P4 is a very good result, one that we did not expect. Tomorrow will be a tough, but exciting race. Despite it being a street circuit, the three long straights make it possible to overtake more than we had anticipated. Our race pace has been strong all weekend, so we should have a good opportunity if we have a clean race. A big thank you to everyone on our team for the incredible job they did last night to put the car back together in perfect shape. I will give it my all to bring home a good result for them.”
Carlos Sainz (15th, 1:53.652): “Today’s qualifying is a tough one to digest. I’ve been fast, and comfortable with the car all weekend, and a single snap jeopardized the entire qualifying, and tomorrow’s race. Q1 was very promising, and I knew from previous sessions I was also fast with the Medium compound. However, a very aggressive snap of oversteer in turn 10 made me lose the car and, although I managed to avoid a big crash, I clipped the wall, and damaged the rear wing. It was unexpected, because I hadn’t experienced that snap in any other run since Friday. There was no time to replace the damaged end plate, and the guys did their best to fix it before going out again. I was quite fast in the first part of the lap, but as soon as I put some load on the rear wing in a more difficult corner I realized the downforce was very compromised, and I had to abort. The race tomorrow is uncertain, and anything can happen. I have confidence in my pace, and will give it my all to make up some positions, and try to score some good points.”
Laurent Mekies, Sporting Director: “Mixed emotions after qualifying. We are pleased with Charles’ great fourth place. Today he progressively regained confidence in the car after yesterday’s crash, and right on his last run, he once again demonstrated that he is one of the best drivers on the grid, with a fantastic lap. It’s a real shame that Carlos was unable to secure the result that he had shown he was clearly capable of throughout the weekend, including the first part of qualifying. That small mistake at turn 10 cost him dear, and tomorrow he will be up against it. For the race, first, and foremost, we will prepare as well as possible to try, and extend still further our lead in the fight for third place in the Constructors’ classification, which is our main aim in this final part of the season. On such an unforgiving track, we can expect the unexpected, and so it will be important to make the most of any opportunity that comes our way.”
Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda
Pierre Gasly (6th, 1:28.125): “It’s been fantastic again today with another top six Qualifying position. This time it was a bit more difficult, I didn’t feel quite as confident in the car, and I struggled with the balance throughout the session. I had to really work as we made our way through Quali, but I managed to put it altogether, and I’m really pleased with my lap. I was only two-thousandths behind Sergio, which is nothing, so that’s a bit frustrating, but at the end of the day it’s still a great starting position for tomorrow to score points.”
Yuki Tsunoda (8th, 1:28.442): “I’ve got some mixed feelings about today. I think my performance in Q1, and Q2 was great, and I’m really pleased with that, but unfortunately on my final lap in Q3 I had traffic, and I lost a lot of time. I think I could’ve been starting further up the grid tomorrow, so it’s frustrating right now. There are lots of positives to take away today though, particularly the fact that I made it through Q2 on the Mediums, so I’ll be starting on the same tire as everyone else around me tomorrow. It’s a really great track to drive, so I’m looking forward to the race, and hopefully we can come away with points.”
Jonathan Eddolls, Chief Race Engineer: “The team, and drivers have done a fantastic job today in Qualifying, and I think it’s fair to say they managed to extract the most from the package under quite complicated circumstances, especially whilst trying to understand the tires on this new circuit. From Friday we knew the car was quick, but we struggled to get the best lap early on in the run, so the focus during FP3 was to try to understand what was required to optimize the car for the first lap of the race. Although we made progress with our understanding in FP3, we still went into Quali with some unanswered questions. This meant that we effectively used Q1 as another practice session to learn more about the Soft tire, to then help us in Q3, where it would be crucial to extract the most from it. It was a complicated Quali session, much like a wet session, as we made a number of changes to the plan based on the conditions we faced at the time, but the team reacted well, and both drivers did a fantastic job throughout. We line up on our preferred side of the grid, with both cars inside the top 10, and starting on medium tires. We made a number of changes to the car from Friday to improve the long run performance, so we will work hard tonight on the strategy, and aim to bring home as many points as we can tomorrow.”
Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN
Antonio Giovinazzi (10th, 1:28.754): “It was a great qualifying, and I had a lot of fun, the car today was just brilliant. We knew the medium tires would be better, and we showed just how good they were in Q2. The soft in Q3 weren’t as good, and we struggled a bit more, it took us longer to get them in the right window, but tomorrow we will start on medium which is a positive. I could have improved even more on my Q2 lap, but I had a little kiss with the wall on my final flying lap: thankfully, I could still make it through. Starting in P10 with our preferred tires, on a track like this, will be good, and I can’t wait for the race. We had a strong weekend straight from FP1, and now we just need to keep this pace, maybe with a bit of the luck that has eluded us all season, to bring home a good result.”
Kimi Raikkonen (12th, 1:28.885): “It was a good performance, we were really close to making it to Q3, but it didn’t work out in the end. The last corner wasn’t that good, and it cost us a little bit of time, but in the end what made the difference was that probably we should have stayed on the mediums for an extra lap. I wanted to try the soft tires, and it didn’t work. Still, we are in a good place to start: it’s hard to tell how the race will go, it will surely be important to be in the thick of it, and we’ll give everything to bring home a good result.”
Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal: “The team delivered a really good performance today, we achieved a good result, and we were the closest we have been all year to having two cars in Q3. We capitalized on the strong start of our weekend, yesterday in practice, and went on to build on it. Both drivers were comfortable in their cars, and delivered good laps, at the limit, when it mattered. Still, there are no points on offer today: we still have a long race ahead of us, and we’ll need to make sure we maximize our chances tomorrow. Nobody knows how the race is going to shape up: it will be a very interesting evening, that’s for sure.”
Haas F1 Team
Mick Schumacher (19th, 1:29.464): “I delayed the deployment of my DRS, and it’s around a tenth so it’s quite frustrating, but I was not anticipating being so close to the Aston Martin so that’s something I think really shows our build-up of performance over the weekend. The race is a different story – if we get the opportunity to fight we will, but if we get ahead, and have a good start, we might be even able to keep it.”
Nikita Mazepin (20th, 1:30.473): “The track’s still good – it cleared up from yesterday which is a positive. I was happy with my rhythm, that was totally deliberate, and ended up in a very good place in FP3, and if anything, I should’ve been better in qualifying. Unfortunately, qualifying is about a lot of others letting you do your lap. 6.1km on this track isn’t enough for even the best in our sport to get through. I was dive bombed by four or five cars into the last corner when I was trying to make a gap, and ended up racing Vettel on the start-finish line so didn’t get my lap in.”
Guenther Steiner, Team Principal: “It was a pretty good day with a lot of running, and no damage. It was solid running for all of FP3, and solid running from both in qualifying to get close to the cars in front of us, which is very encouraging for us so late in the season. Unfortunately for Nikita, his last lap attempt wasn’t successful because there was a tangle in front of him, and he had to lift, and couldn’t get going, but otherwise a flawless effort from the whole team, and the communication between driver, and engineer was good.”
Williams Racing
George Russell (14th, 1:29.054): “I was really happy with my lap in Q1, and was pleased to get through to Q2. We ran the medium tire for the first time since FP1 in Q2, and again, I was pretty happy with my first lap, but couldn’t improve on my second effort, running slightly wide in the middle sector. I am relatively satisfied with P14, but we are a bit further behind Alfa Romeo than we would want to be. It is tricky out there, and getting the tires in the right window is difficult, but I do believe that is about where our car is at the moment. I think overtaking is going to be difficult in the Grand Prix, but we will have to see on Sunday. Nobody knows how the tires are going to react, and the grip levels are pretty high. You can push relatively hard which is quite fatiguing, but what we want to see in F1. Let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”
Nicholas Latifi (16th, 1:29.177): “We were aiming for Q2 today, and it looked possible, but unfortunately, I didn’t get my second lap on the first set of tires in, and then ran wide in Turn four which set me back a lap. I know I could have done a better job and, with an extra lap we could have found that time, but I only have myself to blame for that, so it is a bit disappointing. Tomorrow will be quite challenging for everyone, both physically, and mentally, with the high temperature, and high-speed nature of the circuit. It has been a fun track to drive so far though, so I am looking forward to the challenge.”
Dave Robson, Senior Race Engineer: “Today was one of the busiest Saturdays we have seen for a while with most cars spending a large proportion of the time in each qualifying session on track. Throughout the session, the required tire preparation varied, and was difficult to predict. Furthermore, the Soft, and Medium compounds offered viable alternatives for most drivers. Nicholas was again just short of qualifying for Q2, finishing only just behind Alonso having made a mistake on his final timed lap of the first run, which hurt his momentum through the session. George had a good session, and qualified for Q2, close to both Alfa Romeos. We opted to complete a run on the Soft compound at the beginning of Q2 to get a time on the board, and to see how it compared to those who ran the Medium. We then switched to the Medium, aiming to complete a three timed lap run. Unfortunately, having not run the Medium since FP1, we didn’t quite get the balance right, and George was unable to complete his final timed lap, which was a shame as we may have been able to challenge the three cars ahead. The race tomorrow is going to be long with opportunities to make progress. Both drivers have showed good high fuel pace throughout the weekend, and there is no reason to think that we can’t race the cars around us.”
Qualifying Results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | CAR | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | LAPS |
| 1 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:28.466 | 1:27.712 | 1:27.511 | 23 |
| 2 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1:28.057 | 1:28.054 | 1:27.622 | 24 |
| 3 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing Honda | 1:28.285 | 1:27.953 | 1:27.653 | 19 |
| 4 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:28.310 | 1:28.459 | 1:28.054 | 24 |
| 5 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull Racing Honda | 1:28.021 | 1:27.946 | 1:28.123 | 23 |
| 6 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri Honda | 1:28.401 | 1:28.314 | 1:28.125 | 26 |
| 7 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren Mercedes | 1:28.338 | 1:28.344 | 1:28.180 | 21 |
| 8 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri Honda | 1:28.503 | 1:28.222 | 1:28.442 | 26 |
| 9 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine Renault | 1:28.752 | 1:28.574 | 1:28.647 | 22 |
| 10 | 99 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari | 1:28.899 | 1:28.616 | 1:28.754 | 21 |
| 11 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren Mercedes | 1:28.216 | 1:28.668 | – | 17 |
| 12 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari | 1:28.856 | 1:28.885 | – | 18 |
| 13 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine Renault | 1:28.944 | 1:28.920 | – | 17 |
| 14 | 63 | George Russell | Williams Mercedes | 1:28.926 | 1:29.054 | – | 17 |
| 15 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 1:28.237 | 1:53.652 | – | 16 |
| 16 | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams Mercedes | 1:29.177 | – | – | 9 |
| 17 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin Mercedes | 1:29.198 | – | – | 10 |
| 18 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin Mercedes | 1:29.368 | – | – | 9 |
| 19 | 47 | Mick Schumacher | Haas Ferrari | 1:29.464 | – | – | 9 |
| 20 | 9 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas Ferrari | 1:30.473 | – | – | 8 |