Red Bull‘s Sergio Perez took pole place in Saudi Arabia for the second yr in a row on Saturday after Formula One champion crew mate Max Verstappen suffered a driveshaft failure and certified solely fifteenth.
Aston Martin’s 41-year-old double world champion Fernando Alonso, who had hoped for his first pole since Germany 2012 with Ferrari, will be a part of the Mexican on the entrance row for Sunday’s race in Jeddah.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc certified second quickest however has a 10-place grid penalty that may drop the Monegasque to twelfth place.
Perez’s greatest time of 1 minute 28.265 seconds across the floodlit Corniche road circuit was greater than a tenth faster than Leclerc’s effort.
“You really feel the Formula One cars coming alive in this place and maximising that lap was very important,” mentioned Perez of what was additionally his second profession pole.
“It’s a shame,” he added of Verstappen’s early departure. “Max has been really strong the whole weekend so hopefully tomorrow we can have both cars up there.”
Alonso would be the first Aston Martin driver to start out a grand prix on the entrance row since Britain’s Roy Salvadori at Silverstone in 1959.
“Qualifying was our weak spot in Bahrain but we performed very well so let’s see what we can do. It is amazing,” mentioned the Spaniard.
“We are confident, we feel very strong. The strongest part is the long-run pace so it should be better on Sunday.”
Mercedes’ George Russell and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz will share the second row.
Verstappen, final yr’s winner in Jeddah, had dominated all three observe periods and was quickest within the first part of qualifying earlier than all of it went fallacious.
“I have a problem,” he informed the crew over the radio.
“It’s almost not accelerating,” added the Dutch driver as he nursed the automotive again to the pits and was pushed again into the storage earlier than stepping out with simply over six minutes of the second session remaining.
“It will be a bit more tricky to get to the front but it will be all about scoring points,” mentioned Verstappen.
“Of course, I would have liked to have started further up the road but there is nothing I can do now. Let’s stay realistic — it is going to be tough but we have good pace so let’s move forward.”
McLaren’s woes continued after a troublesome season-opener in Bahrain, with Lando Norris set to start out nineteenth following contact with the wall that broken his automotive within the first part of qualifying.
Australian rookie crew mate Oscar Piastri made it via to the second part and can begin eighth.
Both the AlphaTauris additionally went out on the first hurdle, with Yuki Tsunoda qualifying sixteenth and Dutch rookie crew mate Nyck de Vries spinning on his strategy to 18th.
The two Williams additionally did not make it via to Q2, Alex Albon qualifying seventeenth and U.S. rookie Logan Sargeant final of all after he exceeded the observe limits.
Source: www.anews.com.tr
