Sergio Pérez clinched his maiden pole position at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Charles Leclerc was in second position, just 0.025 seconds slower than Pérez. Carlos Sainz was in third position behind his team-mate.

Max Verstappen could only finish in fourth position on a day when his team-mate took his first pole position of his career. Lewis Hamilton who was the pole-sitter last year was knocked out in the first qualification session.

The qualifying session started under the lights with air temperatures at 23 degrees C and track temperatures at 24 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: Hamilton knocked out

The two Haas F1 Team drivers, Mick Schumacher and Kevin Magnussen,were the first drivers on the track. The drivers went out on the soft compound tyres for their initial runs.

George Russell and Lewis Hamilton went out on the medium compound tyres and struggled for grip. Nicholas Latifi brought out the red flags with a crash at Turn 13.

Verstappen went to the top of the time charts with a lap time of 1m29.330s. Carlos Sainz with a storming lap of 1m28.855s went fastest to take the top spot. Leclerc was in second position behind him.

Yuki Tsunoda was called back into the pits with a fuel-related issue. Russell and Hamilton were back out on the soft compound tyres.

As the session wound down all attention was on Hamilton as he was in the drop zone. In the dying minutes, Hamilton moved into fifteenth position but was knocked out by Lance Stroll.

The session ended with Sainz at the top of the time charts ahead of Leclerc and Verstappen.

Q1 dropzone: Lewis Hamilton, Alexander Albon, Nico Hulkenberg, Nicholas Latifi, Yuki Tsunoda

Q2: Schumacher has a nasty crash

At the start of the session, Leclerc went fastest with a lap time of 1m28.883s ahead of Pérez and Verstappen.

Schumacher then had a heavy crash that brought out the red flags. Young Schumacher took some time to step out of the car and was taken by ambulance to the medical center.

The German was flown by helicopter to hospital for precautionary checks. The session resumed after almost an hour’s delay.

Sainz went to the top of the time charts as both McLaren F1 team drivers were eliminated.

Q2 dropzone: Lando Norris, Daniel Ricciardo, Zhou Guanyu, Mick Schumacher, Lance Stroll

Q3: Pérez takes pole position

The last all-important twelve minutes of the top ten shootout started with pole position being contested by the Scuderia Ferrari drivers and Verstappen.

Sainz went to the top of the time charts with a lap time of 1m28.402s. Verstappen struggled with grip and was only in sixth position.

Leclerc took provisional pole but was displaced by a stunning lap of 1m28.200s by Pérez. A first ever pole position for the Mexican.

Verstappen could only go fourth fastest ahead of Esteban Ocon and Russell. Fernando Alonso, Valtteri Bottas, Pierre Gasly and Kevin Magnussen completed the top 10 positions.

Top 10: Sergio Pérez, Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, Max Verstappen, Esteban Ocon, George Russell, Fernando Alonso, Valtteri Bottas, Pierre Gasly, Kevin Magnussen

Pos	No	Driver	Nat.	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	11	Sergio Perez	MEX	Oracle Red Bull Racing	1:29.705	1:28.924	1:28.200	20
2	16	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	1:29.039	1:28.780	1:28.225	22
3	55	Carlos Sainz	ESP	Scuderia Ferrari	1:28.855	1:28.686	1:28.402	23
4	1	Max Verstappen	NED	Oracle Red Bull Racing	1:28.928	1:28.945	1:28.461	22
5	31	Esteban Ocon	FRA	BWT Alpine F1 Team	1:30.093	1:29.584	1:29.068	19
6	63	George Russell	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:29.680	1:29.618	1:29.104	21
7	14	Fernando Alonso	ESP	BWT Alpine F1 Team	1:29.978	1:29.295	1:29.147	20
8	77	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Alfa Romeo Racing	1:29.683	1:29.404	1:29.183	22
9	10	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri	1:29.891	1:29.418	1:29.254	22
10	20	Kevin Magnussen	DEN	Haas F1 Team	1:29.831	1:29.546	1:29.588	24
11	4	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	1:29.957	1:29.651		16
12	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	McLaren F1 Team	1:30.009	1:29.773		17
13	24	Zhou Guanyu	CHN	Alfa Romeo Racing	1:29.978	1:29.819		17
14	47	Mick Schumacher	GER	Haas F1 Team	1:30.167	1:29.920		13
15	18	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team	1:30.256	1:31.009		15
16	44	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:30.343			11
17	23	Alexander Albon	THA	Williams Racing	1:30.492			9
18	27	Nico Hulkenberg	GER	Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team	1:30.543			10
19	6	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	1:31.817			4
NC	22	Yuki Tsunoda	JAP	Scuderia AlphaTauri	DNS			2