By Steven Luker
Verstappen takes pole for the 34th time in career ahead of Saudi Grand Prix
Qualifying recap
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen made two for two for Pole Positions from the 2024 season with a commanding performance in qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Rookie Oliver Bearman impressed on his debut as a fill-in driver for Carlos Sainz.
Qualifying itself the load down
Championship leader Max Verstappen has looked like he is all locked in and in control in Jeddah. The Dutchman looked at one with his RB20 as he popped in two laps that were good enough for his pole. Verstappen Best time was a one minute 27.742 second lap which was 0.3 seconds faster than Charles LeClare.
The Second Ferrari that is normally driven by Carlos Sainz but Sainz is out with an appendix injury so Ferrari called up 18 year old Oliver Bearman of the F2 series. Bearman is making his F1 debut this weekend and he took part in the final practice. Bearman missed Q3 by 0.036 seconds.
Exciting things in Q1
The rookie driver Oliver Bearman led the session over Max Verstappen by 0.079 seconds. During this only one of the Sauber’s took time and the other that was damaged by Zhou Guanyu was not done in time toi make a flying lap. During this session we lost five drivers that are done qualifying for the race and they are Valtteri Bottas, Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly, Logan Sargent and Zhou Guanyu.
Verstappen was on a roll during Q2
The Haas duo of Magnussen and Hulkenberg brought out a red flag during this session due to a power unit failure. Towards the end of the session Oliver Bearman was on his final lap of a two lap push in the last sector; he didn’t have the right time and missed Q3 by 0.036 seconds. The drivers that got knocked out of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prixare Oliver Bearman, Alexander Albon, Kevin Magnussen, Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg.
Verstappen unstoppable
Max Verstappen was unstoppable during this session and he led sessions one and two on pace to sweep the sessions. The two Mercedes drivers went out on some used soft tyres to make a run however Lewis Hamilton was 0.6 seconds behind and then George Russell backed out of his midway.With Max Verstappen getting his 34th career pole this puts him fifth all time passing Jim Clark and Alain Prost with most poles in their career.
The Saudi Arabian Grand Prixis set to be at 2000 local time on Saturday.
