Formula 1

MAX CRASHES INTO THE WALL AND GIVES MERCEDES A FRONT ROW LOCK OUT…THANK YOU!!

LCH takes pole with his loving team mate along side. Bottas said he will do everything necessary to help LCH and Mercedes win the championship this Sunday! Whilst Max waits for news from the team on his gear box and, whether he will be taking a five place grid penalty for a replacement.

“It was intense but enjoyable,” said Hamilton, who described his car as being on a knife-edge. “This was heart in your mouth for all of us. If Max had finished his lap he would have been ahead.”

Max has pushed hard all season and he was once more absolutely on the limit on his final lap. On the very edge for 26 corners it was nail-biting but superb only for him to take too much on the very final bend. For the title, these moments may prove vital with LCH’s attempt to take an eighth Formula One world championship still very much in his own hands.

“It’s extremely disappointing,” said Verstappen. “We had a good car, everything seemed to be coming together, in Q3 it was good but unfortunately I couldn’t finish the lap. At least it seems like we can fight here.”

It had been difficult to call between the two drivers throughout until the decisive minutes. Hamilton made an error on his first hot lap in Q3, briefly losing the rear, and had to abort his quick lap. He stayed out to put in another run and this time was clean. However Verstappen was immense on his first hot lap, threading the needle between the walls of this testing circuit with inch-perfect precision. He set a time of 1min 27.653sec, a fearsome target almost four-tenths up on LCH

A win for LCH at Jeddah would guarantee the championship will head to a finale at Abu Dhabi and if Hamilton also scores fastest lap to a second place for Verstappen, the two rivals would go into the decider equal on points.