JEDDAH (REUTERS) – Mexican Sergio Perez stormed to a surprising maiden pole place beneath the floodlights in a crash-interrupted qualifying session on Saturday (March 26) for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver left his greatest for final as he lapped the 6.1-km lengthy Jeddah Corniche circuit on the banks of the Red Sea in a single minute 28.200 seconds to disclaim Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz a Ferrari front-row lockout.
World champion Max Verstappen was fourth. “What a lap, unbelievable,” Perez, who edged Leclerc by simply 0.025 seconds, stated after the session.
“I can do a thousand laps and I don’t assume I can beat that lap.
“We were not really expecting to match the Ferraris on qualifying. Hopefully we beat them tomorrow,” added the 32-year-old who has two F1 profession wins.
Saturday’s session, across the difficult Jeddah structure made up primarily of high-speed blind sweeps and flat-out straights, was halted by two pink flags.
Mick Schumacher crashed closely throughout the second section of qualifying, bringing the session to a halt for almost an hour as monitor employees repaired boundaries and cleaned the monitor of particles and oil.
The German Haas driver, who didn’t seem to have any accidents following an preliminary evaluation on the monitor, was taken to an armed forces hospital in Jeddah for precautionary checks, the governing FIA stated.
Seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton made a shock early exit after failing to get previous qualifying’s opening knockout section.
The Briton, winner in Saudi Arabia final 12 months, will line up sixteenth in his Mercedes for Sunday’s race.
