Max Verstappen backed up his season-opening victory in Bahrain by taking pole position in Saudi Arabia; Ferrari's Charles Leclerc took second to prevent Sergio Perez from sealing a Red Bull one-two; watch the Saudi Arabian GP live on Sky Sports F1 at 5pm on Saturday
Friday 8 March 2024 19:22, UK
Max Verstappen continued his faultless start to the defence of his Formula 1 world championship by beating Charles Leclerc to pole position for Saturday's Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Having led Red Bull to a dominant one-two at last weekend's season opener in Bahrain, Verstappen sent an ominous message to the chasing pack by cruising to pole by 0.3s at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
Ferrari's Leclerc produced an excellent lap of his own to narrowly deny Red Bull a one-two on the grid, as Sergio Perez took third.
Fernando Alonso continued an encouraging weekend for Aston Martin, after a disappointing showing in Bahrain, to take fourth, ahead of McLaren duo Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
George Russell was seventh after having appeared capable of sealing a higher finish before making an error on his final flying lap, but was still quicker than his struggling Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton in eighth.
Yuki Tsunoda bounced back from a moment of ill discipline following team orders in Bahrain to take an impressive ninth for RB, while Aston Martin's Lance Stroll rounded out the top 10.
Britain's Oliver Bearman, driving for Ferrari in place of Carlos Sainz after the Spaniard underwent surgery for appendicitis earlier on Friday, qualified 11th after narrowly missing out on a place in Q3.
After Verstappen's dominant showing in Bahrain, which saw him begin his quest for a fourth successive drivers' title with a victory margin of over 20 seconds, there had been hope that the vastly-different layout in Jeddah would bring the chasing pack closer.
Over one lap, those predictions proved to be highly inaccurate, with the Dutchman's path to pole far simpler than it had been a week earlier.
Having topped Q1 and Q2, Verstappen produced a stunning first run in Q3 to sit more than 0.3s clear of team-mate Perez, with Alonso and Leclerc more than half a second back at that point.
Verstappen made a small error in the early stages of his second run, but by that point it had become clear that no other driver was going to come close.
Perez also failed to improve, which gave Leclerc the opportunity to sneak between the Red Bulls by little more than a hundredth of a second.
Alonso also found improvement on his final effort but was four hundredths of a second back from Perez in fourth.
"It was a very good day," Verstappen said. "We improved the car a little bit overnight and that gave me a bit more confidence to attack the high-speed corners and around here it depends a lot on your confidence level and how much you can go to the limit.
"Today I felt very comfortable in the car. Throughout qualifying, it was pretty crazy how fast you go around here,
"In my first lap in Q3, I felt pretty happy with the lap. It felt almost a bit like the failed 2021 lap, except I made the last corner. It was very good. I had a lot of fun and the car behaved very well."
Piastri appeared to have an edge over Norris throughout the session, and backed that up in Q3 as he edged out the Brit by half a tenth.
Russell has been the far more impressive of the Mercedes drivers this week, with Hamilton only just scraping through to Q3, and was fifth after the first runs in the final session.
However, a significant error in the opening moments of his final flying run left him with no option but to abort the lap, leaving Mercedes facing a challenging Saturday at a circuit where overtaking can be tough.
Tsunoda had been under major scrutiny after losing his cool having been asked to let through team-mate Daniel Ricciardo in the closing stages in Bahrain, but offered the perfect response by finishing six places above the Australian on this occasion.
Amid his continued brilliance, Verstappen had to share the spotlight with a name many casual fans of F1 would not have heard before Friday.
After Sainz was diagnosed with appendicitis on Friday morning, 18-year-old Bearman was called up just a couple of hours before final practice to be informed he would become only the 14th British to driver to represent Ferrari in F1.
Having shown his ability around the challenging circuit by taking F2 pole on Thursday, the Ferrari Driver Academy product made a solid start by taking 10th in final practice.
With the pressure ramped up under the lights, he continued to impress, with the second of his three Q1 runs enough to ease him through to the second part of qualifying.
A safety car, caused by the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg stopping, reduced his running time in Q2, before an error on his first flying lap attempt left him in further bother.
He would finally complete a lap that left him in the drop zone, but had one more chance to sneak into the top 10 in the closing seconds.
Using worn tyres that he had already completed the previous flying lap on, Bearman put in a game attempt and finished just three hundredths of a second back from Hamilton, who is set to become the next Brit to drive for Ferrari when he departs Mercedes next year.
While Leclerc's performance showed there was more pace in the Ferrari, Bearman equipped himself well given the situation and will be out to further prove himself when he becomes the third youngest driver of all time to compete in an F1 race on Saturday.
"At the moment, [I'm] not so proud, the racer in me knows that the car was quick enough to be in Q3, so a little bit disappointed with that," Bearman told Sky Sports F1.
"But I know that when I look back in a couple of days I'll be quite proud of what I've managed to do today. The goal was to do as many laps as possible. Especially at night, I missed FP2 which is not ideal. That was the goal.
"The soft tyre lasts quite well, it's quite durable, so just tried to get as many laps in Q1. Q2 was a bit more messy, a few mistakes on my side, so that's where I'm disappointed."
Saturday March 9
Watch the second round of the new F1 season - the Saudi Arabian GP - live on Sky Sports F1. Stream every F1 race and more with a NOW Sports Month Membership for just £21 a month for 12 months
Anthony Joshua's heavyweight showdown with Francis Ngannou takes place on Friday March 8, live on Sky Sports Box Office with the main event expected around 11pm. Book Joshua v Ngannou now!
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