Max Verstappen grabbed his first ever pole position in Jeddah, beating Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari by three tenths of a second. It places the Dutchman perfectly ahead of the Grand Prix, as he aims to keep his winning run going.
But while it all went right for Verstappen, it went very wrong for a few other teams. Here are the best facts and stats from qualifying under the lights in Saudi Arabia…
- Verstappen and Leclerc share the front row for the fifth consecutive race.
- Verstappen’s 34th career pole puts him fifth on the all-time list, surpassing Jim Clark and Alain Prost.
- It is the 20th different venue where Verstappen has scored a pole, passing Michael Schumacher’s career total. Lewis Hamilton holds the record, with poles at 32 different tracks.
- Verstappen’s 1:27.472 is the fastest average lap speed at 254.097 KM/H / 157.886 MPH at any circuit other than Monza since Nigel Mansell took pole at the 1990 British Grand Prix, the last race on the old perimeter layout at Silverstone.
- Leclerc is on the front row for the seventh consecutive race.
- Sergio Perez starts in the top three for only the second time in the last 19 Grands Prix.
- Fernando Alonso starts two places higher than he did in Bahrain, and only missed the front row by 0.055s.
- Oscar Piastri out-qualified Lando Norris in Jeddah for the second year in a row. His P5 was also McLaren’s highest ever start here.
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- Lando Norris was sixth, his highest career start in Saudi Arabia, having been knocked out in Q1 last year.
- George Russell was seventh, out-qualifying Hamilton for the fourth consecutive race. He still has never been out-qualified in Jeddah by a team mate.
- Hamilton’s P8 means he starts the year with consecutive qualifying performances of eighth or lower.
