The Saturday in F1 Saudi Arabian GP saw Max Verstappen do his job that he does after Lando Norris’ crash, as midfield fight gets close between Williams and Alpine.
The Saturday in F1 Saudi Arabian GP saw Max Verstappen do his job that he does after Lando Norris’ crash, as midfield fight gets close between Williams and Alpine.
It was a surprise result in the end after Saturday in F1 Saudi Arabian GP after Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took pole by 0.010s from McLaren’s Oscar Piastri. The Dutchman made things work after low-key Bahrain, and his two-lap strategy in Q3 worked to leapfrog the Australian.
He feels positive after dragging the car to the top, but he is not 100% on race pace against McLaren. Teammate Yuki Tsunoda made it in Q3, but didn’t make it stick on his final lap when he had a minor snap which left him only eighth, nearly a second away from Verstappen.
He feels what he encountered was unpredictable and another thing that he learned about the car, as he hopes to get into the Top 5. He will have a faster Lando Norris to keep behind, as the Brit was left disappointed after crashing out on his first attempt in Q3.
He agreed with what he said about the situation on the radio, as he looks ahead now to pick up as many places as he can. Mercedes’ George Russell felt he could have done more adopting Verstappen’s strategy to be closer to the Top 2, even if he didn’t beat them on pace.
Teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli had a moment in Q3 to be slightly down, but he was content with a good position to start from. The Ferrari pair, though, weren’t too happy even though Charles Leclerc was fourth. He thinks the updates didn’t give him performance, even if he feels comfortable in the car.
The car seems to be slightly behind the competition ahead, as teammate Lewis Hamilton had no answers for the struggles in qualifying. He termed the Q3 laps as his worst, as he now has to go back to the drawing board to re-jig after things from Bahrain didn’t work in Saudi Arabia.
Verstappen: “I felt immediately more confident when I headed into qualifying. We made some minor changes to the car, but they were clearly big enough to feel, and I think that’s a bit the story of our car. It can be really hit and miss. When we get it right, I think it’s competitive, of course. But, yeah, when we don’t get it right, it’s a lot more difficult. But all of qualifying went well. Around here, I think it’s always important to have quite a bit of rhythm. So, naturally, you do quite a lot of laps. Also, the tyres, luckily, they hold on to do that. Of course, then the red flag in Q3 is not ideal, but everyone has to deal with that. So we opted for that two-lap strategy, and I’m happy that we did that. You just keep on trying to fine-tune before qualifying to find that perfect balance. We tried a lot of setup directions again this weekend, and I think we chose the right one going into qualifying. Then it’s just fine-tuning. We are learning. We are trying to understand our car a lot better because it has been more hit and miss than we’d have liked so far this year.
“So a positive that we did get it right here. With the crash, the only thing it meant was that you had to change your approach. I wasn’t entirely sure what to do. At the end of the day, GP said let’s fuel it for two laps. So you do the first lap on the used out-lap tyre, then pit and go onto the new. You carry more fuel, so you’re a bit slower on the first time. But it was the right call. It was definitely the right thing to do for me in terms of feeling with the car and building up to the limit. Just kept me on top of things, and it felt good. This track has few more high-speed corners. The tarmac is completely different, which has a big influence on the tyres as well. Naturally, when you have tracks where you need a lot of rotation mid-corner, and long-duration corners, which you have in Bahrain, that’s a big problem for us. Here, it just seems to be a little bit more competitive. I’m not saying that it’s solved, but at least it gave me an opportunity to push a bit better and deal with the limitations that we have a bit better.
“The main differences were yesterday where we tried a lot of things. Today, we chose the set-up that we thought was the right way forward here. From FP3 to qualifying was more like tiny adjustments. The gap in FP3 was massive. When the track is really hot, all the other teams except McLaren are lacking a lot of pace. Our tyres overheat more than theirs, and we can’t keep it as well under control as them. Up until now, not very confident, to be honest. My long runs weren’t particularly great compared to Oscar or Lando. I’m going to give it everything I have, for sure. Does it mean that I have enough? I don’t know. But the car definitely took a bit of a step forward compared to what we were testing yesterday. So I hope that will help our tyre life out as well, but difficult to say that gives an opportunity to fight. But like I said, I’m going to give it a go.”
Piastri: “At the time, I felt like it was a good lap, yes. I made a bit of a mistake on the first lap and managed to get through that corner much better on the second attempt. And, you know, when you need one hundredth, you can think of a few places. But, no, honestly, it was a good lap that I was happy with. Max did a very good job today, and that was pretty much all we had. We spoke about it [two-lap strategy], yes, but decided against it. Considering I had a lap on the board, I didn’t need to put another one on. It was going to be extremely tight. As Max said, he had to fuel for the whole run. That first lap on used tyres with a bit more fuel, you’re weighing up how much you’re learning versus how much it puts you off. When you don’t have a lap on the board, it’s a very different scenario.
“For us with a lap one the board, we had done three or four new sets in a row. We decided to go for that single lap at the end, and I think for us, it was the right decision. For the race, I think we’ve got good pace. I think the Red Bull and Max look more competitive here than they did certainly last week. Suzuka is not a completely different layout to somewhere like here with a lot of high-speed corners, so it kind of makes sense to me at least that they’re a bit more competitive, and we’ll see if that translates to the race tomorrow. I’m feeling confident in what we’ve got. There’s a lot of DRS zones around here, which is a nice difference to Suzuka. So, yeah, let’s see if we can make some progress.”
Russell: “I’m not too sure, to be honest. I’ve got mixed feelings because I felt there was a bit more on the table. There’s a lot of pressure going into that last lap because Oscar had a lap on the board. I think the run plan that Max did with the two laps was a really good one and one we didn’t really consider. Just having that lap on the board sort of takes the pressure off. When you go into Turn 1, you’ve got to really send it and you’re braking at 75 metres. When you’ve got no lap on the board, it’s like, “I’ve got no bailout here if I make the smallest of mistakes.” So, look, P3 is much better than I thought and to be so close to Oscar. Congrats to Max. He did a great job. It’s going be interesting tomorrow.
“I think it depends on Turn 1, to be honest. Max and I were just talking now. We both recognise McLaren are the standout favourites and definitely have the pace on everybody else. If Oscar gets into the lead, you’ll probably see a repeat of Bahrain. If we stay in the order we qualified, I think it could be a tight race until the pit stops. The Medium tyre this year was last year’s soft, which only one driver used in the whole race. We saw the tyres were too hard in Japan. We’ve all pushed to have softer tyres. Hopefully, it won’t make it a slam-dunk one-stop, and there could be a couple of different strategies on the table.”
Norris: “I don’t know what happened. I’ve not had time to look into it or see, but it was just a mistake, I guess, don’t know what I could have done. I was pretty comfortable and was pretty happy, so the car was strong. So, disappointed, it obviously made my life and everyone’s in the team a lot trickier and a lot harder because the guys have got a big job tonight to try and fix everything. But that’s life. That happens on a rare occasion so a tough one. But we’ve got to look on the bright side and hope that we can have a good race. I don’t it will be an easy one, it is not easy to overtake around here, but we have a strong car, clearly not as good as we would like because we are not on pole, Max is first and George is only tenth behind, it is it not like things are plain-sailing at the minute. I have a big job in the race. It makes sense [what I said myself on radio], I agree with it. I should be fighting for pole after my Q1 lap, and I shouldn’t be taking risks like I seem to have done.
“I’ll go and review. It is not a guarantee that we would have been on pole, because Max did a good job, they were quick, and it wasn’t a surprise, so it would have been nice to be in that fight. I was doing well and was feeling comfortable, and I’m not going to be proud, not going to be happy. I shunted. Again, I’m not going to be proud, I’m not going to be happy. I’ve let myself down, I’ve let the team down and the guys have got a big job to do now to fix it all. So, yeah, that’s the way it is. I agree with I said but I still look forward to tomorrow and I have to try and make up for today. It is a lot different layout, a lot gripper, we tried on few things and work a lot on my driving. This [crash] has nothing to do with it, it is separate mistake. The team are doing a good job in trying to understand these things, it will just take some time.”
Hamilton: “I hope it does. But we’ll keep working. No matter what I try, I’m a long way off. But you don’t give up, you just keep trying. I really don’t know. I’m gonna just try and race and see if I go forwards. If I can go forwards, that’d be great. If not, then you’ll be hopeful for something to happen, to try and capitalise on, but just gonna to try to extract the most from the car and strategy. I don’t look at like that, no. It wasn’t good in practice, but I’m grateful to have gotten through to to Q3, ultimately, I am lacking lot of pace. It’s just me – I’m not gelling with the car at the moment. I was feeling positive, obviously, at the last race, and hoping that I could apply some of those things. But it’s not worked. So back to the drawing board and keep working. They modified the wing but it is not an upgrade, we had stalling, so just.
“For sure, that was seven tenths to McLaren [when I got information in FP3], like, massively they got an upgrade this week. They’ve been massively quick through the first sector all weekend. I just try not think too much of it and just try to push. I wasn’t able to extract that Q3 lap, they aren’t very good. Q3 laps are pretty poor, that’s like my worst laps at the moment so I need to work on it. I really don’t know of the race]. I’m going to just try and race and see if I go forwards. If I can go forwards, that’d be great. If not, then you’ll be hopeful for something to happen, to try and capitalise on, but just going to try to extract the most from the car and strategy. I hope it does but we’ll keep working. No matter what I try, I’m a long way off. But you don’t give up. You just keep trying.”
Leclerc: “I’m not happy, I’m really not happy. Finishing P4 in qualifying is really good, I put everything out there, but for now the performance of the car is just not there. I either have massive understeer or massive oversteer, but the end result is that I don’t have enough grip to reproduce what the guys in front do. At the moment I feel good in the car. I think I found the sweet spot of the car that matches my driving style. I feel like in the last three qualifying sessions I managed to maximize the potential of the car, but the potential is just not yet at the level I want it to be. Stunned is not the right word, I think it is a gap [to the front] that we expected at the beginning of the season. I’m a bit disappointed because we had a few upgrades that should have helped but the gap [to the frontrunners] seems to be pretty similar to before. It [the upgrades] does work, but unfortunately I feel like the others have done as much of a step, which means that the gap hasn’t really changed.”
The Top 10 had Williams’ Carlos Sainz and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, with the Spaniard finding good pace to end up sixth ahead of Hamilton, Tsunoda and even Norris. But teammate Alexander Albon didn’t think the team’s strategy was right to run out of sequence in Q2 which he will review with them.
Both think that the tyre choice will be key to eke out points results, which will be on Gasly’s mind too. The Frenchman added about the minor tyre warmer hiccup too, as teammate Jack Doohan was knocked out in Q1 after things slipped up since Friday, especially on the soft compound.
He said that the team worked on it, but it was too late to get everything right for qualifying. They will have competition from Visa Cash App RB pair, where Liam Lawson felt better than ever in the car since his return. He reckoned that Q3 was possible and that they missed out by just.
Teammate Isack Hadjar made it in Q2, but didn’t have enough legs to get through it after not making as much progress as he would have liked. Haas’ Oliver Bearman felt the same as he thought Q2 was maximum on his end after not feeling too confident on Friday with his runs.
Teammate Esteban Ocon reckoned even without the snap on his fast lap, he wouldn’t have made it in Q2 after lack of pace. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso felt Q2 was maximum on his side, as Lance Stroll noted that the set-up changes they did, it did not work on his side of the garage.
Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg felt Q2 was in the car, but for the snap at Turn 1 on his fast lap. Teammate Gabriel Bortoleto missed his braking point to go wide on his fast lap, as he felt the after affects of losing FP2. He thanked the team for replacing the chassis from Friday to Saturday.
Gasly: “On the whole, it is positive that we made it back-to-back Q3 appearances after last weekend in Bahrain. Today there were certainly a few things we could have done better, which we will learn from for next time as I am sure we could have been higher than ninth place. The whole team has done a great job and the package is good at the moment. With the tyre warmer, I knew straightaway that something was not quite right on front-right when I started turn. The pitlane is obviously tight, we need quick reaction, unfortunately these things can happen. For the race, we have put ourselves in a position to fight for points tomorrow, which, of course, is the target. We will need a clean race in a tight field. We know where and who our race is against with Carlos a few places ahead. That’s our aim and I’m looking forward to it tomorrow night.”
Albon: “We will review it. I think the timing of our Q2 run was questionable. We went out when everyone else didn’t. This track is like Monza, you need the circulation, the cars are in-lap or out-lap, it doesn’t really matter there’s circulation on the track, it cools you around nicely especially in Sector 2 and Sector 3, and I was slowest in Sector 3 on my last lap because we didn’t have a tow. We need to review that, we didn’t really need to..maybe too confident in our pace to get into Q3, I don’t know. It is frustrating obviously because it is two weekends in a row where we…it feels like we should be in the points, we should be in the Top 10 in Q3 and we missed it. I was lucky in Q1 with just front wing endplate damage, nothing to the body or the floor, we missed that. Honestly, I was very happy with my lap. In the race, I feel like we will be okay. The race pace is a bit odd, the compound drop that they have done this weekend is not easy, it is quite dominant tyre – I won’t say which one, you can imagine which one it is. It might be tricky because other teams have two and we have one, lets see how it plays out.”
Lawson: “Every day it’s getting more comfortable. I think this track forces it out of you a little bit, just because of how fast and how high commitment it is. So yeah, I feel comfortable. It’s a shame to be so close to Q3, you know? It’s so close in the midfield, like tiny margins make a difference. “I think we did all the right things this weekend with the car, putting it in a good window. It’s a shame because it’s still just not quite enough. It’s hard, honestly. It’s really hard to say. Long run-wise, we didn’t really do too much of it. This weekend has been very, I guess, probably focused—it’s just the way the sessions went. I think if you have a pace advantage, there’s good overtaking here. It’s just whether we’re going to have that pace advantage or not.”
Bearman: “I honestly don’t think we had Q3 in us today. I was happy to get through Q1, it was a good lap I thought. It was a bit more difficult in Q2; I felt really good on the used tire but then jumping onto the new set, it’s really difficult to get them into the correct window and unfortunately that was the case today – I didn’t improve on my new tires. It’s difficult to say about long runs, it was a messy day yesterday with red flag interruptions, but degradation is a little higher than last year. We’ve been decent on race trim this season though, so hopefully I have the pace delta I had last year and have a good race.”
Alonso: “Jeddah is one of my favourite circuits and I think I achieved the maximum from the car with P13 in Qualifying. We managed to progress into Q2, but we used up all of our new Softs to get there, so it was always going to be difficult to progress any further than that. We have struggled again for performance this weekend and it could be a challenging race for us, but anything can happen on a street circuit like this.”
Bortoleto: “First of all, I want to thank the team for their hard work in changing the chassis and getting the car ready in time for today. Unfortunately, it was a frustrating qualifying session for me. After a decent first push lap, I wasn’t able to put together a clean run. On my second attempt, I picked up a plastic bag, which forced me to pit so it could be removed. Then on the third attempt, I got a bit too optimistic with the tow from Max, missed the braking point, and ended up spinning. We’re always pushing to the limit, doing everything we can to reach Q2, but I made a mistake, and it didn’t work out today. Missing FP2 and the long runs yesterday definitely didn’t help and tomorrow will likely be a challenging race – but we’ll give it everything and try to learn as much as we can about the car’s behaviour.”
Here’s crash for Lando Norris: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-saudi-arabian-gp-qualifying-norris-crashes-out-of-q3-while-fighting-for-pole-in-jeddah.1829855777388489535
Here’s spin of Gabriel Bortoleto: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-saudi-arabian-gp-qualifying-bortoleto-spin-sees-him-knocked-out-in-q1.1829854846345271267
Here’s how F1 Saudi Arabian GP qualifying panned out
