Crimson Bull’s Sergio Perez took pole place in Saudi Arabia for the second yr in a row on Saturday after Formulation One champion workforce mate Max Verstappen suffered a driveshaft failure and certified solely fifteenth.
Aston Martin’s 41-year-old double world champion Fernando Alonso, who had hoped for his first pole since Germany 2012 with Ferrari, will be part of the Mexican on the entrance row for Sunday’s race in Jeddah.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc certified second quickest however has a 10-place grid penalty that may drop the Monegasque to twelfth place.
Perez’s finest time of 1 minute 28.265 seconds across the floodlit Corniche avenue circuit was greater than a tenth faster than Leclerc’s effort.
“You really feel the Formula One cars coming alive in this place and maximising that lap was very important,” stated Perez of what was additionally his second profession pole.
“It’s a shame,” he added of Verstappen’s early departure. “Max has been really strong the whole weekend so hopefully tomorrow we can have both cars up there.”
Alonso would be the first Aston Martin driver to start out a grand prix on the entrance row since Britain’s Roy Salvadori at Silverstone in 1959.
“Qualifying was our weak spot in Bahrain but we performed very well so let’s see what we can do. It is amazing,” stated the Spaniard.
“We are confident, we feel very strong. The strongest part is the long-run pace so it should be better on Sunday.”
Mercedes’ George Russell and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz will share the second row.
Verstappen, final yr’s winner in Jeddah, had dominated all three observe periods and was quickest within the first section of qualifying earlier than all of it went flawed.
“I have a problem,” he instructed the workforce over the radio.
“It’s almost not accelerating,” added the Dutch driver as he nursed the automotive again to the pits and was pushed again into the storage earlier than stepping out with simply over six minutes of the second session remaining.
“It will be a bit more tricky to get to the front but it will be all about scoring points,” stated Verstappen.
“Of course, I would have liked to have started further up the road but there is nothing I can do now. Let’s stay realistic — it is going to be tough but we have good pace so let’s move forward.”
McLaren’s woes continued after a troublesome season-opener in Bahrain, with Lando Norris set to start out nineteenth following contact with the wall that broken his automotive within the first section of qualifying.
Australian rookie workforce mate Oscar Piastri made it by to the second section and can begin eighth.
Each the AlphaTauris additionally went out on the first hurdle, with Yuki Tsunoda qualifying sixteenth and Dutch rookie workforce mate Nyck de Vries spinning on his approach to 18th.
The 2 Williams additionally did not make it by to Q2, Alex Albon qualifying seventeenth and U.S. rookie Logan Sargeant final of all after he exceeded the monitor limits.
