F1 grid for tomorrow as Max Verstappen is forced to retire and Sergio Perez claims pole in Jeddah

Verstappen will only finish 15th, but Perez saved some joy for Red Bull by beating Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc into second, with Fernando Alonso third ahead of Aston Martin.

George Russell finished fourth, but his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton only qualified eighth. Verstappen was the odds-on favorite to race to first place under the lights in Jeddah after topping all three practice sessions in his dominant Red Bull machine.

But drama struck for the Dutchman in Q2 when a driveshaft problem hit his Red Bull. Verstappen cautiously limped back to the pits, but with less than seven minutes to go his mechanics were unable to rectify the fault.

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“It’s the first time I’m hearing about it [the issue]. It’s very unfortunate that it happens, we’ve had a really good weekend, the car worked really well – now it’s getting a bit more difficult to get up front, but it’s all about scoring points.

“Anything is possible on this track, but it will be tough. We have a good pace.”

Sergio Perez took a surprise pole position for Sunday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after his Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen suffered a mechanical failure during qualifying.

Verstappen will only finish 15th, but Perez saved some joy for Red Bull by beating Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc into second, with Fernando Alonso third ahead of Aston Martin.

George Russell finished fourth, but his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton only qualified eighth.

Verstappen was the odds-on favorite to race to first place under the lights in Jeddah after topping all three practice sessions in his dominant Red Bull machine.

But drama struck for the Dutchman in Q2 when a suspected driveshaft problem hit his Red Bull.

“I really enjoyed it, always a lot of fun here during qualifying. A few years ago we had a good car, it’s a lot of fun. Bit of a pain, thought there was a bit more lap time in it – screwed up in turn 22, went a bit wrong, can still fight tomorrow.

“It is certainly possible [a podium]. We have a good race pace, go get some good points.”

“It’s where we expected to be, we know the shortfalls we had. We have to make big steps forward in the coming races.

“It looked a bit sticky in sector one for Lewis, we need to see the differences in setup.

“Maybe they did it on purpose, to win it all the way from the back! We should be able to play, Perez has a different car.”

“I would have taken that, very happy, very nice to drive around the track. Car felt good, lacked downforce, but in the end that’s all we can do.

“When I was with Williams and Fernando at Alpine, we had a few struggles. It will be an interesting race, we have a better race car than a qualifying car, happy with P3.

“When you have a car as fast as Red Bull, you saw what Max did from P15 at Spa, credit to them. We need to focus on ourselves and find some more performance.

About Verstappen: “We have to get in the car and see what happened. That one lap in Q1 would have put him fourth on the grid, but we have a fast race car.”

About Perez: “There was no problem in the race. Something happened and we need to get to the bottom of it and make sure it doesn’t happen tomorrow.

“That lap from Checo, phenomenal. I’m happy for him today.”

On the race: “It’s a tough race here, stay out of trouble. Lots of carnage, should make for a thrilling race. Great opportunity for Checo, important to convert that.”

“It was a very good weekend for us. Qualifying was a weak point in Bahrain, but today the car did very well in one lap. We start in the front row, it’s just great.

“We have every confidence in it. The long run yesterday was hampered by traffic, it should be better on Sunday than on Saturday – starting from the front row feels really, really good!”