After another bumpy ride over some kerbs Sainz still didn't manage to improve, leaving him just a single lap in the the final minute to try to get through. Piastri, Sainz, Bottas, Zhou and Hulkenberg had to improve to make it into Q3. Meanwhile on track only 5 minutes remained. Once there he quickly stepped out of the car, resulting in 15th on tomorrow's starting grid, at best. Verstappen made it back to the pits while his car stuttered in third gear. As he continued his lap to prepare for another flyer he encountered a problem midway through the lap. Most others followed soon while Perez only left the pits 3 minutes into the session.Īs Alonso set a 1:28.757, Verstappen had a moment of oversteer in a quick corner and abandoned his first flying lap. The second part of qualifying started with the Alfas taking to the track, immediately followed by the Aston Martins of Alonso and Stroll. Out were therefore Tsunoda and Devries (who messed up the last corner on his final attempt), along with Albon, Norris (who didn't manage to return to the track following his car problems) and Sargeant (whose best recorded lap was 39s slower than Verstappen's).įrom first to 19th, the gap was only 1.9s in Q1, half a second of which was the advantage that Verstappen had on Perez. Stroll also seemed somewhat in danger but then moved up into fourth moments after Alonso recorded another improvement to improve on Leclerc's time. Norris meanwhile was sat in the pits as his crew checked out his car's front wing after clipping the wall.Īfter promising pace in the practice sessions, both Alpines were in difficulty and only managed to secure a place in Q2 with their very last attempts. Sargeant also had a spin a bit later in Turn 23, followed by the deletion of another laptime for surpassing track limits at Turn 27. His next lap was good enough for third until Leclerc went 0.030s quicker to go third himself. His Aston Martin was momentarily pointing the wrong way but with nobody close behind he made another half spin to get back underway. Moments later Alonso started his first flying lap but the Spaniard was too eager on the throttle out of Turn 2, sending him into a spin. Haas and Mercedes were next up to demote the early runners down the pecking order until the Red Bulls easily went fastest when they recorded their flying laps exactly halfway into the session. For Devries it was an opportunity to spin his AT04 on his first flying lap, meaning he would remain slowest for a long time during Q1. Qualifying was kicked off with AlphaTauri and Williams making use of the clean track early on. Charles Leclerc did get close to pole in the end but his 10 place grid penalty will see Alonso start from the front row on the grid. Sergio Perez did exactly what was expected after Verstappen retired from qualifying with a gearbox issue. “But I think the more exciting part was being able to hang on to the back of him for a few laps, and even for the rest of the race, it wasn't like he was stupidly quicker than us.F1 Grand Prix, GP Saudi Arabia, Jeddah Street Circuit When I got off the line, and I was like, 'Okay, I've got the best out of everyone here' and had to find somewhere to go, run out of space.
“Yeah, it's hurts a little bit to be P4, when we were looking on for a podium for so long and a bit unlucky with the safety car timing, but I'm just so happy that I'm disappointed with fourth place instead of what we've been disappointed with earlier in the season.”Īsked how it felt to fight Verstappen, Piastri said: “Pretty exciting, to be honest. “I think going into the race, I was maybe slightly cautious that we might hit reverse a little bit like we have done previously, but if anything, it was even stronger than Austria, so that was super exciting. But the race pace is clearly where we've made a massive jump. I think they're a good step forward over one lap. “So clearly the upgrades are a massive step forward.
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