Max Verstappen pipped Oscar Piastri to pole position for the Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, after Lando Norris crashed in Q3 to condemn him to a 10th place start.
The championship leader looked far more comfortable with the MCL39 around the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in all the prior practice sessions, but his crash may well dent his already frail confidence further, as he is now set to fight for his title lead from a difficult spot on the grid.
Early in the session, Norris, Piastri and Verstappen were amongst the big names to put in some good banker laps, with George Russell and Yuki Tsunoda next to follow.
The Aston Martin, Haas and Sauber cars were, perhaps predictably, the ones that looked in danger at the minutes began to tick away in Q1, with Lewis Hamilton also looking ill at ease in his Ferrari.
Both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll then moved themselves higher up, with the Spaniard lying in sixth with just five minutes to go, and Hamilton clawing his car to 10th.
Two early claimants of the infamous Jeddah walls were Isack Hadjar and Alex Albon, both men brushing the barriers in their respective cars, but managing to escape without damage.
Verstappen went quickest with a 1:27.778s, two hundredths quicker than Norris, as Andrea Kimi Antonelli moved up to fourth.
Hamilton avoids drop as Ocon fails to match Bearman
With 10 seconds remaining on the clock, Pierre Gasly and Oliver Bearman saved their best for last as both men made it through, despite the Alpine also brushing the wall towards the end of the lap.
Hamilton avoided a scare by getting himself back into the top 10 with his final run, having been back down in the danger zone when others bettered their times.
Gabriel Bortoleto’s final run confirmed his exit, as he would spin at Turn 1, right in-front of Verstappen, as the Dutchman looked to stamp his authority further.
Despite his best efforts, Jack Doohan failed to make it through, and both he and Bortoleto were joined by Stroll, Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon.
Sainz makes it through ahead of Albon as Norris sharpens-up for Q3
Q2 began with Piastri being the first of the leading drivers to go quickest, but Verstappen’s 1:27.529s blitzed it by over a tenth, but Norris went quicker still, nearly five hundredths up on the Red Bull.
Verstappen’s momentum looked to have potentially been stunted after signalling over radio that his plank needed checking after bumping it in Turns 4 and 5.
With five minutes, Hamilton was closer to the drop zone than the top, his best lap so far coming around two tenths short of his team-mate, and only two tenths faster than Gasly’s, who sat in 11th.
Both the Williams cars of Albon and Carlos Sainz looked strong, with the latter at in 10th and then setting a 1:28.024 to move up to sixth with 30 seconds remaining.
Liam Lawson looked in better form compared to Bahrain, and briefly made it into the top 10, but Hamilton relegated him as he went into eighth, but he was quickly displaced by Gasly.
With the chequered flag falling, Tsunoda went up to seventh, bumping Albon out, who joined both Racing Bulls, Alonso and Bearman to an early finish.
Norris ended it fastest, seemingly able to extract more out of his McLaren this weekend.
Norris crash leaves pole battle down to Piastri and Verstappen
Piastri was the first to step a time, with a 1:27.560s, with Norris hot on his heels looking to better it.
However, drama was to follow immediately, as Norris took too much speed into Turn 4, and with the back end snapping, the McLaren was, in a flash, in the wall at Turn 5.
After all of his improvements and increasing confidence from the practice sessions up until that very moment, Norris’ Grand Prix, was, in an instant, hugely compromised.
With the red flag now out, Norris confirmed to the team he was OK, calling himself an “idiot”.
A ten-minute delay would follow as the debris from Norris’ crash was cleared away, Verstappen quickly set about setting a time, knowing he could change tyres for a second run.
By one thousandth of a second, Verstappen went quickest, with himself, Piastri and Albon the only drivers to set a time with now only four minutes remaining.
Verstappen quickly changed for tyres, re-emerging onto the circuit as the rest of the field began to start their runs.
With just over a minute to go, Russell set a 1:27.407s to go quickest as Piastri and Verstappen were on quick laps, looking to steal the top spot at the very end.
With seven seconds to go, Piastri went quickest by a tenth, as all eyes were now on Verstappen.
Finding the sweet spot and timing everything to perfection, Verstappen clocked a 1:27.294s to snatch pole by just one hundredth of a second from Piastri.
Russell’s impressive time confirmed him for third place, with Leclerc joining him on the second row.
The second Mercedes of Andrea Kimi Antonelli was fifth, with Sainz producing his best performance for Williams to date with sixth.
Hamilton ended the day seventh, with Tsunoda eighth, as Norris will, of course, line-up in 10th, alongside Gasly.
READ MORE – F1 2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix – Qualifying Results
