Saudi Arabian Grand Prix: Qualifying results as Max Verstappen stuns the F1 field

Lando Norris entered the classification session on Saturday as the favorite for pole position.

But a bamboleo in his first thrust round in the third quarter saw the driver of McLaren find the wall, take out the red flag and finish his dreams of position in the pole. With his teammate Oscar Piastri, the only driver who put a while ahead of his accident, the grid was chasing the only driver of McLaren.

When the session finally resumed, Max Verstappen was placed in the provisional post in just 0.001 seconds. But there was more than enough time for some more turns to the story.

First it was George Russell who cut Verstappen for the provisional post. Then it was Piastri’s opportunity to respond, and he did, retreating Russell’s provisional post for approximately one tub.

However, the pilot defending champion was not over.

Verstappen was in his final lap with another opportunity to respond, and rumbled of the final turn to take the pole position in just 0.010.

Piastri described in second place, with Russell third. Charles Leclerc will start with Russell in P4.

Russell’s teammate, Kimi Antonelli, will begin fifth, with Carlos Sainz Jr. in sixth place when the new Williams pilot offered his best classification performance of the season. Lewis Hamilton and Yuki Tsunoda will begin with each other in row 4, and Pierre Gasly and Norris will complete the upper part in P9 and P10, respectively.

Previously in the session, Hamilton was reduced to Q2, finishing only 0.007 seconds ahead of Alex Albon, who is ready to start P11. With Yuki Tsunoda joining Verstappen in the third quarter, marked the second consecutive race week that both Red Bull drivers advanced in Q3.

While that is usual, it is not a remarkable fact, it has a slow seasonal start for the bulls.

The other four drivers eliminated in the first quarter were Liam Lawson, Fernando Alonso, Isack Hadjar and Oliver Bearman.

The five drivers eliminated in Q1 were Lance Stroll, Jack Doohan, Nico Hülkenberg, Esteban Ocon and Gabriel Bortoleto. Some notable drivers were under pressure in Q1, including Hamilton, Pierre Gasly and Bearman, but the three could move forward.

Here is the provisional initial grid for the Grandbia de Saudi 2025 F1: