Lewis Hamilton finds himself in pole position for the maiden Saudi Arabian GP after Max Verstappen crashed his last qualifying lap in Q3. Verstappen, through the qualifying session, was faster but his last-lap crash meant he starts on P3 behind even Hamilton's teammate Bottas. Mercedes locked the front row ahead of Verstappen in the Red Bull who was followed by Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari who managed an impressive P4. Verstappen's teammate Perez was P5 in the second Red Bull which represents a body blow to Red Bull's chances of winning the constructor's championship.
Pierre Gasly in the Red Bull junior team, Alpha Tauri qualified in P6 ahead of Lando Norris who managed P7 in the lead McLaren. Gasly's teammate Tsunoda was in P8. Esteban Ocon put in an impressive qualifying performance for P9 ahead of Fernando Alonso who struggled to P13 in the Alpine. Antonio Giovinazzi managed P10 in his penultimate race with the Alfa Romeo team ahead of his retiring teammate Kimi Raikkonen who managed just P12.
Red Bull was competitive but Verstappen's shunt means he starts from P3
Daniel Ricciardo's qualifying woes continued when McLaren didn't manage to qualify for the Q3 session and managed just P11. George Russell was P14 in the lead Williams ahead of his teammate Nicholas Latifi who managed P16. Carlos Sainz Jr was looking good to outqualify Charles Leclerc until a mistake in the Q2 lap meant that he couldn't register a fast enough time for Q3. He ended up P15 but has a fast enough race car to overtake the McLaren of Ricciardo as Ferrari aims to snag P3 from the Woking-based team in the constructor's championship.
Verstappen was on track for pole before his shunt
The Aston Martin duo of Vettel and Stroll just managed P17 and P18 while the grid was rounded up by the Haas pair of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin who managed P19 and P20.
Verstappen's mistake means that Hamilton has a good chance of overtaking the Dutchman in the world championship standings but this time around Red Bull seems to have a slightly faster race car than the Mercedes which could make for a very exciting race. Thanks to the fast and tight nature of the track overtaking, however, is expected to be difficult.
