Round 1/24: Review of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Qualifying

Max Verstappen took his first pole position at Jeddah and his 34th pole position overall ahead of Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez. The Dutchman was dominant throughout the session and finished three-tenths ahead of the Ferrari in Q3. Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin impressed with a commanding performance to take P4 and for a while looked competitive enough to take P2 behind Verstappen. Oscar Piastri unqualified his teammate Lando Norris to finish in the top five.

Carlos Sainz was reportedly unwell during practice yesterday and will be missing the action this weekend as he has undergone appendicitis surgery. Oliver Bearman, the reserve driver for both Ferrari and Haas replaced him for the weekend after taking pole position for Prema in F2 earlier making him the youngest driver for Ferrari since 1972. Elsewhere, Zhou Guyanu suffered a crash during free practice 3 which led to him not being able to take part in the qualifying session despite the team's best efforts to get him back on track with a minute and a half left in Q1.

Q1:

Bearman impressed in his debut throughout qualifying as he stayed competitive in the Ferrari despite the margins for the top 20 being just over a second last week. The start of the session was with the Mercedes drivers opting for mediums over softs as all the other drivers started with softs. Oscar Piastri had a scare as he hit both his rear and front tires against the wall but still managed to put in competitive times to reach Q2.

After the initial runs, it was the familiar faces from last week of Pierre Gasly, Logan Sargeant, Valtteri Bottas, and Esteban Ocon in the drop zone along with Zhou Guyanu who has not taken part. The driver at risk was Nico Hulkenberg initially at P15 but he managed to pull in a good performance at the end to move into Q2. Except for Bottas, none of the drivers in the drop zone managed to show any pace to improve on their times sufficiently to move into Q2, but even Bottas couldn’t manage it in the end as he was impeded by Bearman and a Williams at the same time compromising his lap. At that time, he was ahead by 0.1 seconds on his own time which would have been sufficient to move him into Q2.

Lance Stroll finished set an impressive time as he finished P2 in Q1 behind Verstappen and ahead of Leclerc. Bearman finished in P9, while Daniel Ricciardo, Kevin Magnussen, and Alexander Albon finished P13,14 and 15. The Williams which proved to be extremely competitive last year in straights has somehow lost its edge after a tweak to their concept design. Both the Alpines were disastrous again with their pace as they were nearly four-tenths away from P15.

Q2:

The Haas of Hulkenberg had an issue early into Q2 as the Ferrari engine shut down stopping him on track which brought in the red flag and a halt to the session. Hulkenberg could no longer take part in Q2 and finished in P15. Bearman in Q2 had issues right from the start possibly due to the pressure he was facing in his first qualifying session as he overshot corners and locked up multiple times compromising his times. He couldn’t set a time in his first run and Ferrari opted to go in for a push lap, cool down, push lap strategy at the end for Bearman. Unfortunately, he couldn't make it to Q3 as he missed by 0.036 seconds.

The drivers that found themselves in the drop zone at the end of the first runs in Q2 were Kevin Magnussen, Ricciardo, Albon, and Bearman himself. Lewis Hamilton on the other hand was the driver at risk and throughout the weekend the Brit couldn’t muster his form. Ricciardo couldn’t improve much on his time and finished P14 whereas Yuki Tsunoda put in an impressive performance once again as he qualified into Q3. Albon and Magnussen found it hard to improve on their times too and got eliminated in Q2.

Q3:

Coming to Q3, the battle seemed to be between Verstappen, Leclerc and Alonso. Mercedes opted for a weird strategy along with Norris as they were put onto the track with used softs. In the first runs, Verstappen set the pace ahead of Perez and Alonso while Leclerc who opted for a push lap, cool down, push lap strategy like Bearman earlier finished only P4. Russell finished in P5 ahead of the McLarens and his teammate while Tsunoda finished P9 ahead of Stroll.

In the final runs, most of the drivers couldn’t find the required improvements including the pole sitter Verstappen who was nearly two-tenths slower than his time earlier. For the Mercs, the strategy they opted for didn’t work out as Russell couldn’t improve on his own time earlier while Hamilton though improved, finished just behind his teammate. Alonso managed to get a slipstream from Hamilton at the start of his final flying lap and he was competitive for the first two sectors as he was just a tenth away from Verstappen's time but couldn’t keep up the pace in the final sector finishing fourth. Leclerc managed to improve on his time and finished ahead of Perez for P2 at the end.

References

1. Image Credits: GETTY IMAGES
2. Thumbnail Image Credits: www.formula1.com

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