Saudi Arabian GP Qualifying

Q1:

After everyone set their first laps, it seemed the session was going smoothly.

That is, until Nicholas Latifi crashed in his Williams. I’m glad Latifi was okay after spinning and hitting the wall through turn 13.

Yuki Tsunoda was unable to complete any laps because of an issue. So, now all RBPT cars have been effected by engine issues.

The most surprising result was most definitely Hamilton not making it through to Q2 for the first time since Brazil 2017. It was shocking to see him so far off pace from his teammate George Russell.

Hulkenberg put in a good effort in the Aston Martin again but couldn’t manage better than 18th.

Q2:

What a shunt for Mick Schumacher. Glad to hear he was okay after a massive crash. The replays make me wince as he slammed into the concrete wall. After the hour-long red flag caused by his crash, there were only five minutes left in the session.

McLaren improved on their results last week, but were still knocked out in 11th for Norris and Daniel Ricciardo in 12th.

Zhou was impressive qualifying P13, hopefully he can move up into the points again in the race tomorrow.

A bit of a dud again for Aston Martin with Stroll in P15.

Q3:

What an incredible session. After the first runs, Ferrari looked to be getting pole again. Magnussen got into the top ten again, starting P10 tomorrow. Gasly had a small issue with his final lap keeping him from moving up farther than P9. Bottas got another impressive P8 with Alfa Romeo.

The Alpines of Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon showed off improvements made from Bahrain finishing P7 and P5.

Russell kept Mercedes in the top 10 this weekend finishing P6. Impressive to beat Hamilton for his first time and quite handily.

Leclerc beat Sainz again qualifying P2 and P3 showing off Ferrari’s strengths in downforce.

Ultimately, they couldn’t beat their rivals, with the Red Bulls finishing P1 and P4. Not in the order one would expect though, with Sergio Perez finally getting a Pole position over two tenths of a second ahead of his teammate in fourth!

All bodes well for an interesting race tomorrow. Hopefully Mick Schumacher will recover quickly, but there is little hope that the other Haas car will compete tomorrow.