Formula 1 News: Verstappen wins pole for 2024 Saudi Arabian GP

Max Verstappen turned a lap of 1m27.472s in his #1 Red Bull Honda to win his 34th career F1 pole in qualifying for the Saudi Arabian GP.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Verstappen set his time on his first run in Q3 and then backed off on his 2nd lap as he had pole locked up.

“A very good day so far, we improved the car a little bit overnight and that gave me confidence to attack the high-speed corners. In qualifying, it’s pretty crazy how fast you go around here.

“I had a lot of fun and the car was behaving really well. A lot can happen around here, a lot of straights, but I’m confident with the race pace we have.”

Charles Leclerc came closest to Verstappen, just 0.319s behind in his #16 Ferrari.

“The first lap in Q3 we tried something different, in the second lap I put everything together and that is what was in the car today,”said Leclerc. “A shame we are a bit further away than we hoped, but tomorrow is a new day.

“We did a step forward compared to last year, the car is in a better place on race runs. We will try and optimize everything else for the race. I hope Carlos will recover quickly – and on Oliver’s side, he’s done an incredible job, straight up to speed and comfortable in the car.”

Sergio Perez was a close third, 0.335s behind in the 2nd Red Bull Honda.

“I didn’t get much of an improvement on the final lap, which is where we missed the front row,” said Perez. “Max has done a tremendous lap, which was not possible for me today. But we are in the fight for tomorrow, I think it will be a long, fun race with plenty of action.”

Fernando Alonso was 4th for Aston Martin, 0.374s. 2nd through 4th were all very close. Leclerc was only 0.015s ahead of Perez, who in turn was 0.039s ahead of Alonso.  Alonso grabbed a brilliant tow from Hamilton to slingshot and start his lap, but it was not enough to get pole.

Related Article: Formula 1 News: Alonso tops 2nd Saudi Arabian GP practice

Oscar Piastri rounded out the top-5 for McLaren, 0.617s behind.

Two qualifying sessions, two pole positions for Max Verstappen. And you’d be hard-pressed to argue a case for him not doing something similar to last weekend in the race too.

He’s in incredible form, with that RB20 looking every bit as impressive as the RB19 proved to be.

It might not have been as tidy as he hoped for, but all things considered, P11 for Ollie Bearman subbing for Carlos Sainz Jr. is an incredibly impressive starting slot for the teenage rookie. He was only four hundredths off making it into Q3 as well, which considering how disrupted Q2 was with the red flags, is a very decent effort.

2024 Saudi Arabian GP Qualifying Results