In Jeddah, Max Verstappen won his first pole position, besting Sergio Pérez and Charles Leclerc. While there was plenty of action during the hour-long qualifying session, the main focus of the session was Ollie Bearman’s near-misses in qualifying for his Formula 1 debut’s Q3 slot.
Watch the action from the first three sessions right here!
Q1: Exit Double Alpine
There was a lot of activity in Q1, with several run plans implemented at various points. The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team drivers caused a stir when they began the race on medium tires. However, after a few minutes, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were able to pass because of a soft tire run.
Following his incident during Free Practice Three, engineers were putting a lot of effort into getting Zhou Guanyu back on track. The Chinese driver finished at the back of the grid and had no lap time due to the team’s excellent job in allowing him to escape in time.
Logan Sargeant was also eliminated, as his last lap for Williams Racing lacked velocity. Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon were eliminated in the opening segment of qualifying, adding to the BWT Alpine F1 Team’s misery. After coming close to the second round, Valtteri Bottas was eliminated by Alex Albon in less than tenth place.
Q2: Bearman Narrowly Misses the Top Ten
In the first move of Q2, Nico Hülkenberg revealed the
