Verstappen gets the better of the McLarens again

Max Verstappen is getting a taste for it. Following on from Japan, the four-time world champion snatched pole away from what looked like being another dominant qualifying performance from McLaren in Saudi Arabia. At the very last moment, Verstappen pipped Oscar Piastri by just ten thousandths of a second with a time of 1’27”294 for the Dutchman against 1’27”304 for the Australian.

In third place, having briefly been quickest, was George Russell with a lap in 1’27”407, while sharing the third row with the Mercedes driver will be Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, fourth in 1’27”670.

Apart from the first edition of this race in 2021, when Lewis Hamilton was fasting in qualifying for Mercedes, Red Bull has always taken pole at this track, in 2022 and 2023 with Sergio Perez and now for the last two years with Verstappen. It was his 42^nd career pole, the 105^th for Red Bull Racing.

The Pirelli Pole Position Award was presented to Verstappen by Anthony Anderson. The American actor was nominated for a Golden Globe two years in succession for his leading role in the TV series “Black-ish,” which he also produces. He currently hosts “We Are Family” on FOX TV. He has also appeared in film franchises including “Scary Movie,” “Transformers,” “Scream” and crime series, “Law & Order” and “The Shield.” His most recent role was in the film “G20” shown on Amazon Prime Video, which also stars Viola Davis.

THE DAY ON TRACK 

Once again in the third free practice session, all driver studiously avoided the Hard, with just the Aston Martin and Racing Bulls drivers running their usual scrubbing in lap, the former also doing this with a set of Mediums.

Otherwise, red was the colour, with the sole exception of Gabriel Bortoleto, who used a set of Mediums to get used to the track, given that he had to miss FP2 yesterday because of a problem on his Sauber. All the other drivers used two sets each of the Soft.

MARIO ISOLA - PIRELLI DIRECTOR OF MOTORSPORT

“What a qualifying session that was, especially Q3! In the final five minutes pole position changed hands five times, and as further proof of how close is this season there are four drivers from four different teams in the top four places.

“Of course the Soft was the sole protagonist in qualifying, and on its debut here in Jeddah we saw that the C5 is competitive not just over the first flying lap, but also good for a second attempt.

“When it comes to strategies, we don’t feel the situation has changed since yesterday and it’s no coincidence that, although it’s not yet confirmed, the vast majority of drivers, 15 of the 20 to be precise, have all saved two sets of Hards. The C3 seems to offer the best performance and, without too much degradation a one-stop strategy is on paper the quickest way, with the order Medium-Hard being favourite, pitting between laps 14 and 20. There are a couple of reasons why many have opted to save two sets of this compound: firstly to be ready for any possible safety car situations, which have often been seen at this track and secondly, to have a backup in case there’s a significant step up in degradation tomorrow.

“Those starting from the back end of the grid might aim to make up positions by swapping the order of use of the compounds, (i.e. C4 then C3) pitting from lap 30. A two-stopper is not too far off in terms of total time taken, with a difference of around 5 seconds and would again involve using the C3 and C4. The C5 could be an option for drivers looking to make the most of its superior performance over the first few laps to make up places, or if there were to be a safety car in the closing stages of the race.”

A one-two finish for Campos Racing in the Sprint Race, with the 17 year old English driver Arvid Lindblad winning from Spain’s Josep Maria Martì. The Red Bull rookie is now the youngest ever Formula 2 winner since the category was reintroduced in 2017.

All drivers used the Medium compound tyre and, as expected, it showed very little signs of degradation, which meant the drivers could push as hard as they liked for all 20 laps.

Ella Lloyd (McLaren operated by Rodin) won the first of the two Jeddah races, fighting off a hard-charging Maya Weug (Scuderia Ferrari operated by MP), the two girls separated by just 167 thousandths at the chequered flag. The final step of the podium went to Alisha Palmowski (Red Bull Racing operated by Campos). Doriane Pin (Mercedes operated by Prema) continues to lead the championship by three points from Weug, after finishing fourth today.