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Max Verstappen was on course to take pole position for the first-ever Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Saturday, but the Dutchman missed out after crashing into the wall exiting the final turn.

The Red Bull Racing driver had set a time faster than Lewis Hamilton in both of the opening two sectors and was heading to pole position, only to lock up his left-front wheel heading into turn twenty-seven, which sent him towards the wall.

Verstappen was left frustrated by the mistake, which meant he was relegated to third on the grid behind Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, feeling he had the pace in the car to be at the front of the field. 

However, he knows the battle is to come on Sunday, and he hopes he will be fighting the two Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team drivers for victory.

“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,” said Verstappen.  “I’m upset with myself and it is of course disappointing but there are two races to go and anything can happen.

Lewis Hamilton took pole number one hundred and three of his fabled Formula 1 career in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver admitting the Jeddah Corniche Circuit is one of the hardest to get right.

The seven-time World Champion was made to work hard for pole position, with Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, the current championship leader, on course to deny Hamilton top spot up until he hit the wall exiting the final turn.

Hamilton says getting the tyres to work in their optimum window has been difficult all weekend long, and it was still the same on Saturday, and he hopes the front-row lock out for Mercedes will help him take over at the top of the Drivers’ Championship on Sunday evening.

“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,” said Hamilton.  “Trying to pull out the maximum with the tyres 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.

Lando Norris was disappointed to qualify only seventh for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Saturday evening, with the Briton feeling he left plenty of time on the table during his best lap in Q3.

The McLaren F1 Team driver believed he could have qualified as high as fourth or fifth at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, but ultimately he did not put the lap together when it mattered, and it left him on row four of the grid rather than row two.

The other factor for Norris to reflect on is the fact he was the only driver inside the top ten that will start Sunday’s race on the soft Pirelli tyre, with everyone around him on the medium compound.

“I’m disappointed with the end of qualifying really,” said Norris.  “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 tyre, 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.

Charles Leclerc was pleased to be able to repay the hard work of his mechanics and engineers for fixing his heavily damaged car overnight by putting his Scuderia Ferrari fourth on the grid for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Leclerc hit the turn twenty-two wall hard on Friday evening, but his mechanics worked hard to fix the car in preparation for Saturday’s running, and he starred in Qualifying to set a time good enough for the second row of the grid.

He is now hoping to build on this position on Sunday at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit and score a good number of points for the team in the Constructors’ Championship.

“I am very happy with my qualifying,” said Leclerc.  “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.

Antonio Giovinazzi ended Qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix with a place inside the top ten, with the Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN driver delighted to have made it into Q3 on the medium tyre.

Giovinazzi, who will leave Formula 1 at the end of 2021 to race in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship with Dragon/Penske Autosport, enjoyed a strong day at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit on Saturday, with the Italian earning a place inside Q3.

He is hoping to be able to convert his place inside the top ten into a points finish on Sunday, which will give him a confidence boost after scoring only one point in the opening twenty races of the year.

“It was a great qualifying and I had a lot of fun, the car today was just brilliant,” said Giovinazzi.  “We knew the medium tyres 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.

Esteban Ocon was happy with his performance during Qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Saturday evening, with the Frenchman set to start Sunday’s race from ninth on the grid.

The Alpine F1 Team racer admitted he has confidence in his A521 car this weekend at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, and this showed when he made it into the top ten shootout under the floodlights on Saturday evening.

Ocon believes the race on Sunday will be a very physical one, much akin to the races in Singapore, but he is confident he can translate his positive Qualifying result into a points finish.

“I’m pretty happy with today’s Qualifying in ninth place,” said Ocon.  “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.

Pierre Gasly continued his excellent Qualifying form in 2021 as he took sixth on the grid for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, while Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was eighth.

It was a strong session for the AlphaTauri duo, although Gasly admitted post-session that he was struggling with the balance of his car, which made the session at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit a bit harder than he was anticipating.

However, Gasly was pleased with the way he made it into the top ten shootout and with his final flying lap in Q3, and he feels sixth is a good position to start the first ever Grand Prix in Saudi Arabia on Sunday evening.

“It’s been fantastic again today with another top six Qualifying position,” said Gasly.  “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.”

Lewis Hamilton clinched pole position at the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team locked out the front row. At the penultimate race of the 2021 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, the two title contenders hotly contested for pole position.

Valtteri Bottas was in second position as he joined his team-mate Hamilton on the first row. Max Verstappen was on course to snatch pole position on his final flying lap but crashed in the final corner to finish in third position.

The qualifying session started under the lights with air temperatures at 28 degrees C and track temperatures at 30 degrees C at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The Pirelli tyre choice at this race is the white-striped hard compound tyres (C2), yellow-striped medium compound tyres (C3), and red-striped soft compound tyres (C4), the middle range of compounds in the Pirelli tyre range.

Q1: Vettel and Stroll knocked out

The two Williams F1 Team drivers,George Russell and Nicholas Latifi, were the first drivers on the track. The drivers went out on the soft compound tyres for their initial runs.

Lewis Hamilton has escaped with just a reprimand following two investigations after final practice for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Saturday.

The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver had been under investigation for a possible double yellow flag offence, and for impeding Nikita Mazepin during Saturday’s free practice session at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

Stewards found that Hamilton did not contravene the yellow flag rules as no yellow flag was shown to him, nor was any yellow flag warning flashed onto his dashboard.

“The Race Director reported to the Stewards that the double yellow flag warning on the FIA Marshalling System was activated at Light Panel Number 6 accidentally, for less than 1 second,” said the FIA bulletin.

“As the on-board video of Car 44 (to be released by the Commercial Rights Holder following this Decision) clearly shows, there was no yellow flag displayed, no yellow lights were displayed to that driver and the yellow warning light was not visible on the driver’s steering wheel.

Lewis Hamilton has been summoned to see the stewards ahead of Qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix for two separate offences during Saturday afternoon’s final practice session.

The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team racer, who needs to prevent Max Verstappen from outscoring him by eighteen points to keep himself in contention for the 2021 World Drivers’ Championship, has been asked to see the stewards for ignoring double yellow flags during final practice at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, as well as for impeding Uralkali Haas F1 Team’s Nikita Mazepin at turn eight.

Hamilton, who also impeded Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda’s Pierre Gasly at turn one during the session, will be required to voice his views before Qualifying, but both could see him handed potential grid spot penalties for Sunday’s first-ever race in Saudi Arabia.

The first FIA release says Hamilton has been summoned for ‘not respecting double waved yellow flags/lights at 17:22“, while release number two says Hamilton has been summoned for “unnecessary impeding at Turn 8 at 17:39.”

Title rival Verstappen was handed a five-place grid penalty for a similar yellow flag offence two weeks ago in the Qatar Grand Prix, but should Hamilton be found guilty and accountable for both offences, he could be facing an even bigger grid drop come Sunday evening.

Marcin Budkowski says he is expecting one of two different conversations during the 2022 Formula 1 season regarding the future of Fernando Alonso, with the outcome likely to affect the chances of Oscar Piastri joining the Alpine F1 Team in 2023.

Budkowski, the Executive Director of the Enstone-based team, believes Alonso will decide next year whether he wants to extend his stay with the team beyond the season, and the decision will revolve around how competitive Alpine are in 2022.

Should Alonso opt to stay – Esteban Ocon is signed until the end of 2023 – this would leave current FIA Formula 2 championship leader and Alpine’s 2022 reserve driver Piastri without a seat once more, with the Australian already having missed out on a promotion to Formula 1 for next year.

“How are we going to make that decision? Well, let’s see next year first,” Budkowski is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com.  “If the car is quick and Fernando is happy, then we’ll have one type of discussion. If that’s not the case, then we’ll have a different type of discussion.

“But certainly we have a great talent with Oscar in the wings, and if there’s no seat available at Alpine, I’m sure we’ll find a solution for him to drive a Formula 1 car and stay in the Alpine family.”

Max Verstappen finished on top of the time charts at the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in the final free practice session. Lewis Hamilton finished in second position, 0.214 seconds behind Verstappen.

Sergio Pérez was in third position to complete a good practice session for the Red Bull Racing team.

The sixty-minute long final free practice session started at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit with air temperatures at 29 degrees C and track temperatures at 35 degrees C.

The conditions were very similar to the first free practice session. As with all night and twilight races, the first practice sessions of the day take place in conditions not representative of the qualification and race conditions.

In this street circuit, the qualification is very important as it will be hard to overtake even though there are three DRS zones.

The FIA have announced a clampdown on cars running unnecessarily slowly in the final sector of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit after several near misses with faster cars during Friday’s free practice sessions.

FIA Race Director Michael Masi has announced new guidelines heading into the rest of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend after drivers felt approaching slow-moving cars whilst running a quick lap was potential dangerous.

Lewis Hamilton spoke of the dangers of slow-moving cars after Friday’s sessions, with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver feeling closing speeds were getting dangerous.

And as a result of these concerns, Masi said that drivers should not be running slowly in order to gain a clear track between corners twenty-three and twenty-five, and anyone doing so will be referred to the stewards and potentially penalised.

“Any driver intending to create a gap in front of him in order to get a clear lap should not attempt to do this around Turn 23 through to Turn 25,” said the FIA statement.  “Any driver seen to have done this will be reported to the stewards as being in breach of Article 27.4 of the Sporting Regulations.

Charles Leclerc wants to reward his mechanics with a strong weekend at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit after the Monegasque driver crashed heavily during Friday evening’s free practice session.

The Scuderia Ferrari driver crashed at turn twenty-two after losing control of his SF21, with the car suffering major damage as a result of heavy contact with the barriers. He was able to get out of the car unharmed, but the crash ended the session early.

The team says the chassis and engine have been checked and will be available to use for the rest of the weekend, alleviating fears of any kind of grid penalty for Sunday’s race.

“A day that unfortunately did not end up the way we would have wanted,” said Leclerc.  “On the upside, we ran through out planned programme and completed all the tests we wanted to in our two sessions.

“The potential is there and if we can put it all together tomorrow, we should have a good day. I am sorry for the team who will have to put in a lot of work to have the car ready tomorrow and I will do everything I can to bring home the best possible result to thank them.”

Pierre Gasly enjoyed his first taste of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit on Friday, with the Frenchman showing some good pace in both Free Practice sessions for Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda.

Gasly ended fourth fastest in the afternoon session in Saudi Arabia, while he was able to improve to third – ahead of championship leader Max Verstappen – under the floodlights in the evening session.

Heading into the rest of the weekend, Gasly admits there are things still to improve on, especially on the longer runs, but Friday’s running has given him confidence that AlphaTauri has some good pace on Formula 1’s first trip to Saudi Arabia.

“I really like driving this track, the corners are amazing and there’s a big rush of adrenalin when you’re out there,” said Gasly.  “The whole day has been really good for us and I’m pretty happy with the pace so far.

“We know that on Saturday we usually do quite well, so I’m fairly confident for tomorrow, as I think we can still improve.  I don’t feel quite as positive about the long runs though, so we still have some work to do to prepare for the race on Sunday.”