Source -
Tyres NorthamptonSergio Perez ended an 11-year wait to claim the first pole position of his Formula One career as the Mexican shone under the lights in Saudi Arabia. The Red Bull driver was the surprise package in another qualifying session where it initially looked like Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, and Perez's teammate, Max Verstappen, were the only three in contention for P1.
For the second race in succession, it will be an all Ferrari and Red Bull front two rows as the two constructors look to have the advantage over every other team on the grid. But we had to wait for over two hours to find out the starting order after multiple red flags halted yet another stop-start session at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit – although, thankfully, without any missile strikes today.
The first stoppage to on-track activity came after just six minutes of Q1 running. Nicholas Latifi lost the rear end of his Williams FW44 and spun backwards into the wall at Turn 13. The Canadian was okay, but his incident highlighted the importance of staying within the limit of adhesion that the Pirelli tyres can provide.
Latifi wasn't the only driver unable to proceed out of Q1, as Yuki Tsunoda became the fourth victim to fall foul of issues with the Red Bull Powertrain in the space of a week. His AlphaTauri team radioed the young Japanese driver to retire his AT03 from the session due to an issue with his fuel pump. The alarm bells will be ringing at Milton Keynes as his early session retirement means it's a clean sweep of engine-related problems for the four Red Bull and AlphaTauri cars running their power units.
Despite the early exits of Larifi and Tsunoda, the headline from Q1 was Lewis Hamilton's shocking lack of pace that saw the Brit bow out the first qualifying session in P16. Mercedes seemed uncertain of the best way to proceed through Q1, with both their drivers initially trying to make their way through on the yellow-walled medium tyres before switching to softs. However, no matter which Pirellis Hamilton used, he didn't have the speed and ended his Saturday early with Alex Albon and Nico Hulkenberg for company.
While the in-helmet view of Latifi's crash into the barriers was scary enough to watch, it paled in comparison to the horrific 170mph impact of Mick Schumacher losing control at Turn 9 in Q2. The Haas driver looked quick and possibly had the pace to reach Q3 for the first time in his career, sitting in P9 before his smash.
Unfortunately, the kerbs seemed to unsettle Schumacher's car, sending him skidding across the track before hitting the barriers and ricocheting down towards Turn 10. Concern grew after a lengthy stoppage with no word about Mick's condition, but the German was, thankfully, unharmed.
When the session resumed, it didn't look as though anyone would improve on the times they managed on their first Q2 run. George Russell had fared better than his teammate all day but couldn't improve on the time he set on mediums, even when using the soft Pirelli compound. Nevertheless, he still made it through to Q3 as the sole Mercedes-powered runner with the Silver Arrows engine again letting down McLaren and Aston Martin. Lando Norris, Daniel Ricciardo, Guanyu Zhou, and Lance Stroll joined Schumacher in their Q2 disappointment.
The final session would be the only one without stoppages as the top ten drivers behaved themselves, although Alpine's Esteban Ocon was close to repeating Mick Schumacher's mistake. World champion Max Verstappen was on the back foot from the off in Q3, with the Dutchman opting to take two warm-up laps to prepare his soft Pirelli tyres before trying a hot lap. Carlos Sainz, too, had an unorthodox session by finding more speed on a scrubbed set of softs than he did when running new Pirelli rubber.
Sainz took an early provisional pole for the second week in succession before his teammate bested him on a late second run. Then, with Verstappen improving but still off the pace of his Ferrari rivals, Perez took advantage to take P1 in the dying seconds. Behind the leaders, Alpine will be happy with Ocon and Fernando Alonso sandwiching Russell in P5 and P7. Valtteri Bottas, Pierre Gasly, and Kevin Magnussen rounded out the top ten, with the trio making it to Q3 in each of 2022's opening two rounds.
To find out more about our comprehensive range of services, or to book your vehicle in, contact our friendly team of experts today.