Qualifying below the lights on the F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix didn’t disappoint with drama all through and an extremely tight battle for pole place determined by the best of margins.
Listed here are our winners and losers from a pulsating qualifying in Jeddah…
Winner – Max Verstappen
Not one, however two beautiful laps from Max Verstappen. Regardless of carrying extra gas on his first flyer of Q3, the Dutchman was in some way in a position to pip McLaren’s Oscar Piastri’s pre-red flag benchmark by simply 0.001s.
Piastri would go on to reclaim high spot earlier than Verstappen usurped him with a elegant closing run because the four-time world champion as soon as once more made the distinction to grab an unlikely pole away from the qualifying favourites.
Loser – Lando Norris
Lando Norris
This was a bruising evening for Lando Norris because the F1 world championship chief suffered a significant early blow to his title aspirations.
Norris crashed closely when he misplaced management of his McLaren over a kerb at Flip 5 throughout his first flying lap of Q3 and slewed into the barrier, sustaining substantial injury which eradicated him on the spot.
The Briton berated himself as a “f****** fool” for the accident which leaves him a lowly tenth on the grid and staring on the very seemingly situation that he’ll lose his factors benefit.
Winner – Charles Leclerc
Though Charles Leclerc continues to be left annoyed by Ferrari’s deficit to the leaders in F1 2025, he can take satisfaction from the very fact he as soon as once more squeezed the whole lot from his SF-25.
Leclerc dragged his Ferrari to fourth in qualifying in Jeddah, behind solely Verstappen, Piastri and Mercedes’ George Russell. What involved him although was the sizeable 0.376s hole to pole place.
Regardless of the difficult automobile at his disposal, Leclerc continues to underline his prowess over a single lap, and maintain the sting over his new teammate.
Loser – Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton’s troublesome patch reveals little signal of stopping as he might solely handle seventh in qualifying, having scraped via Q1 and Q2.
A complete second away from pole, Hamilton additionally lagged greater than half a second – and three locations – behind Leclerc as his qualifying woes continued in Jeddah. The seven-time world champion admitted he’s struggling to “bond” together with his Ferrari automobile and his set-up selections don’t seem to serving to.
Having felt like he had made progress in Bahrain, it’s again to the drafting board for Hamilton.
Winner – Carlos Sainz
Carlos Sainz took a wonderful P6 for Williams
One other spectacular qualifying show from Carlos Sainz, who claimed a wonderful sixth on the grid as the only real Q3 runner for Williams.
Sainz’s sensible late Q3 effort pipped Hamilton to see him outpace his Ferrari alternative for the second consecutive weekend.
After being annoyed to overlook out on factors final trip in Bahrain, Sainz might be decided to transform his lofty grid place right into a top-10 end on Sunday.
Loser – Jack Doohan
After an encouraging displaying in Bahrain, it ended up being a disappointing qualifying for Jack Doohan.
Doohan was dumped out in Q1 with a time solely ok for seventeenth, whereas his teammate continued to star within the different Alpine.
Winner – Pierre Gasly
The Alpine clearly has some tempo within the arms of Pierre Gasly, who as soon as once more extracted the utmost out of his automobile to bag one other top-10 beginning spot.
Aside from being overwhelmed by Sainz’s Williams, Gasly was ‘better of the remaining’ behind the main pack and can even begin forward of Norris as he goals to make it back-to-back factors finishes within the Center East.
Loser – Esteban Ocon
Esteban Ocon underwhelmed as he ended up nineteenth for Haas and watched his rookie teammate progress to Q2 and take fifteenth whereas he did not make the lower.
Winner – Liam Lawson
Liam Lawson secured his greatest qualifying results of the 12 months
Liam Lawson claimed his greatest beginning place of the season up to now with twelfth in his Racing Bulls automobile, having fallen a tenth shy of constructing Q3 for the primary time.
Lawson additionally acquired the higher of a teammate in qualifying for the primary time in 10 races, ending the second-longest shedding streak of any driver on a Saturday.
A well timed assertion efficiency from the Kiwi after his brutal begin to 2025.
Loser – Sauber
A poor qualifying for Sauber as Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto slumped to 18th and twentieth respectively.
Bortoleto was left apologising to his staff for an enormous spin down at Flip 1 which ruined his hopes of reaching a greater end result.
