Formula 1 ®
MAX ON POLE FOR SAUDI ARABIAN GP, LECLERC P2 PEREZ P3 AND, EL MACHISMO FOURTH. SETTING UP AN EXCITING START FOR TOMORROWS GRAND PRIX.
Verstappen finished a healthy 0.319s ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who prevented an all-Red Bull front row by pipping Sergio Perez to second on the grid.
“It was a very good day so far,
MAX
I am proud of today and am looking forward to the race tomorrow.
“I enjoyed the day a lot. The car was really nice to drive and it was a good improvement from yesterday. We improved the car a little bit overnight and came out with a great set up which allowed me to attack the high speed corners and improve the one lap performance. Around this track, it really depends on your confidence level and how much you can go to your limit and today I felt very comfortable with the car. The whole of qualifying has been going very well, especially Q2 and my first lap in Q3. I am proud of today and am looking forward to the race tomorrow. As a Team we are happy with our car and the race pace and we really found our stride today. It has been a great job from the whole Team.”
Checo
It is always a challenge here but you can overtake and race and there is a long way ahead of us.
“It would have been nice to have locked out the front row but I think we are in a good position to fight tomorrow. I felt like we took a back from practice, we had a positive Thursday but qualifying was not the same case unfortunately. The whole day hasn’t been as good as yesterday, I didn’t get the best out of the tyre preparation, in combination with the balance. So, we have to understand and review why that was but what we did to the car should hopefully mean we are stronger in the race. It’s important to get past Charles as soon as possible and be in the mix, especially with the DRS zones I think it is going to be important to make progress early. I believe we have stronger race pace than Ferrari but degradation can kick in and change things very quickly. It is always a challenge here but you can overtake and race and there is a long way ahead of us.”
Aston Martin
QUALIFYING P4
“It’s a nice surprise again to have a strong Qualifying in Jeddah. We are very competitive in one lap and our car is responding very well in Qualifying. I enjoyed every lap out there tonight. On my final push lap in Q3 I managed to take a tow from Lewis [Hamilton] onto the main straight but maybe I lost a tenth of a second into Turn 1, so in the end it balanced out over the lap. It’s a good result for Aston Martin but the real test is tomorrow. We have our feet on the ground and we will see where we are with our race pace.”
QUALIFYING P10
“Q1 was very good – the car felt really positive. But then I think we might have had some issues in Q3 – we need to investigate it. The car felt a bit tricky and then I lost some time in the final sector – which is basically just straights – on my last Q3 lap. We need to look into why we weren’t able to go any quicker after Q1 – we were much better at the start of Qualifying than at the end. We’ll see what we can do tomorrow – it’s going to be a long race, with a lot of degradation, so there will definitely be some opportunities.”
Ferrari
Leclerc
Ferrari are further away than they hoped. “The first lap in Q3 we tried something different doing a preparation lap but that didn’t work out well for us,” he said. “And then in the second lap I put everything together and that was what was in the car today.
“I’m really happy with the lap, shame we are a bit further away than what we hoped in qualifying but tomorrow is the race so hopefully we will have surprise and be able to challenge Red Bull.
“For sure, we did a step forward compared to last year, I feel more comfortable in the car and think the car is in a better place in race runs, so we just have to focus on ourselves and we cannot change the car now for tomorrow so we try and optimise everything else for the race and see what is possible tomorrow,”
Formula 2 ®
Verschoor dominates to score Jeddah victory for Trident
Richard Verschoor put in a dominant performance to take victory in the Jeddah Sprint Race for
Trident, crossing the line to score his fourth Formula 2 win.
The Dutchman made a lunge down the inside of leader Paul Aron on Lap 8 and from then on kept
a hold of first place. MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger was able to overtake the Hitech PulseEight rookie before the end for P2, while Aron wound up in third to score his second Formula 2
podium in as many rounds.
A fast getaway for Aron meant he retained the lead ahead of fellow front row starter Verschoor,
while Campos Racing’s Isack Hadjar kept Hauger at bay to maintain third. However, the Safety
Car was immediately called upon after ART Grand Prix driver Victor Martins ended up in the wall
at the exit of Turn 2.
There was further contact between Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Jak Crawford after the PREMA
Racing driver collided with the rear of the DAMS Lucas Oil. The Italian had damage on the front
wing but both cars continued on.
Elsewhere the Williams Academy pair Franco Colapinto and Zak O’Sullivan stalled at the start
and were forced to get going in the pit lane, dropping them to the back of the field. On Lap 4 of
20, the Safety Car period ended and Zane Maloney, having had a great start from 15th, overtook
the other Trident of Roman Stanek for P8.