Max Verstappen has taken the pole position for the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix after championship leader Rand Norris crashed from a thrilling qualifying time in Jeddah.
Norris had just begun his first flight lap for the Q3 when he lost control of the car.
His McLaren slid into the outer barrier at speed, where the upper left corner was on the brunt of the damage and stopped Britton’s knee, and he took no time to finish 10th on the grid.
This is the moment when he spent his chance at pole position tonight on Randorris.#F1 #saudiarabiangp pic.twitter.com/qvzysuyrha
– Formula 1 (@f1) April 19, 2025
The session was suspended to clear the destroyed MCL39, as only Oscar Piastri spent time. The rap was not competitive, but it was later than his second quarter. That allowed the door to open wide to Verstappen and pinch the interim pole soon after reopening, and Dutchman independently chose to do two qualifying laps separated by a racing pit stop of fresh tires.
George Russell was next to him to rotate the top spot on the only flight lap, but both Piastri and Verstappen had the opportunity to reply.
Piastri officially moved to the top spot with an advantage of 0.103s, but Verstappen went on to the last word among his competitors, crossing the line.
He went purple in the first sector of 0.123s faster than Piastri, and then failed to improve on any of the final splits, but he did enough to snatch the pole’s position in just 0.01 seconds.
“I’m very happy,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting to be here on pole after FP3, so I was looking at how the whole weekend was going.
“The car came to life at night. We made some final changes. It was more fun to drive. The grip was coming to me.
“It’s really satisfying. Being first in qualifying here is of course the best position for tomorrow.
Piastri admitted that Paul was out of his reach and that he felt he made the most of his car.
“To be honest, I was pretty pleased with it,” he said. “It wasn’t that much left on that lap.
“I’m happy with my job. I was catching up a bit in the first part of the qualifying round. That last lap felt like the best I could do.”
Russell was surprised at how close he was to Paul’s fight, and it was only 0.113 seconds from the top spot.
“I would definitely have taken a P3 before the session,” he said. “But when I saw how close it was – I was really pleased with the lap – I always wonder if you’re always there a little more out there. P3 is the perfect place to start and tomorrow will be a long race.”
Charles Leclerc created four different teams in the top four, but the Ferrari driver was 0.376 seconds away from the pace, not a Paul mix.
Andrea Kimmi Antonelli will be in fifth place along with Williams driver Carlos Sainz.
Lewis Hamilton was seventh, 0.531 seconds from the pace of his teammate Leclair, and the gap between the two Ferrari cars hadn’t changed substantially throughout the weekend.
Tsunoda was eighth in the second Red Bull racing car, 0.91 seconds from the pace, but Pierre Guthrie set the time last out of the nine runners, lapsing 1.073 seconds from the pole to get ahead of Norris on the grid.
Alex Albon missed the spot in the third quarter with just 0.007. The Thai driver was overtaken by his teammate Sainz in a row, the second Grand Prix.
Liam Lawson will start before his teammates for the first time this season after qualifying for 12th place, which will be second to Isack Hadjar on his second Racing Bulls machine. Faenza Duo sandwiched Fernando Alonso.
Oliver Baerman qualified for Haas 15th place as the slowest driver in the second quarter.
Lance’s walk was knocked out in the first quarter in a row in the third quarter, losing his final lap before rookies Jacques Douhan, Nico Halkenberg, Esteban Ocon and Gabriel Boltreto, losing his final lap and leaving the 0.37s from behind the puck.
