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Already struggling for confidence in his car the world championship leader, Lando Norris, suffered another serious blow to his title ambitions, crashing out in qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. His Red Bull rival Max Verstappen claimed pole position, one-hundredth of a second clear of Norris’s teammate, Oscar Piastri.
McLaren and, indeed, Norris had looked strong all weekend, but on the first of the final runs in Q3 at the Jeddah circuit he took too much kerb through turns 4-5 and 6 and it spat him out into the wall, taking a nasty hit on the front. He was unhurt but declared himself an “idiot” when speaking to his team. The session was red-flagged and Norris will start from 10th on Sunday, his title lead hanging by the slenderest of threads and his self-belief perhaps once more undermined.
Qualifying, however, was marked by a resurgent Verstappen in a Red Bull far more to the world champion’s liking than the recalcitrant beast he had wrestled with last week. He set the pole with a blistering final lap in Q3 for 1min 27.294sec, threading the needle in Jeddah in a tense session with an attacking assurance that was a reminder of just how quick he can be when he has confidence in his ride.
Mercedes’ George Russell did superbly to claim a strong third place, Charles Leclerc was fourth for Ferrari and Kimi Antonelli in fifth for Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton once more struggled with his Ferrari, managing seventh place, almost a second off the pole time.
For Verstappen, the pole will go no little way at least to easing the tension at Red Bull. The Dutchman had taken the win in Japan, but it was very much track-specific and he has been deeply dissatisfied after managing sixth in Bahrain with a car that lacked balance and pace.
He was blunt that he did not believe he could compete for the title as things stood and the team held discussions after that race to consider how best to address the issues. They were honest in that no quick fix was expected with a disconnect between wind tunnel predictions and real world performance at the heart of their inability to solve the problems.
The somewhat mercurial car can be adapted successfully over a race weekend as they proved at Suzuka and they did very well to coax it into a peak operating window in Jeddah. Verstappen certainly found it more to his liking and as is the case when he has the car doing what he wants, most notably with a very responsive, pointy front-end on corner entry, he wielded it with no little skill. To return pole given how strong the McLarens were will be considered a huge result by the world champion and at Milton Keynes.
After Bahrain, questions were again raised about Verstappen’s future at the team, with Red Bull’s motorsport adviser, Helmut Marko, stating there was “great concern” he could leave. It prompted Verstappen to dismiss the issue this weekend and this performance will probably quiet the furore in the short term at least.
For Norris, this was another setback after he felt disappointed and frustrated to have qualified so poorly in sixth for the last round in Bahrain. The Briton has struggled to adapt to this year’s McLaren, finding it not suited to his driving style and it has been affecting his confidence entering a race weekend. The team have been looking at how they can adjust the car to accommodate him better, but it was an ongoing process not expected to yield an immediate turnaround. He had looked very comfortable in Jeddah and certainly was in position to challenge for pole until he lost it and was punished on a track where any error is costly.
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The pole may prove key for the race in what remains a very closely fought title fight, where Norris leads Piastri by three points with Verstappen eight points back in third.
Carlos Sainz was sixth for Williams, Yuki Tsunoda in eighth for Red Bull and Pierre Gasly in ninth for Alpine,
Alex Albon was in 11th for Williams, Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar in 12th and 14th for Racing Bulls, Fernando Alonso in 13th for Aston Martin and Ollie Bearman in 15th for Haas.
Lance Stroll was in 16th for Aston Martin, Jack Doohan 17th for Alpine, Nico Hülkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto in 18th and 20th for Sauber and Esteban Ocon 19th for Haas.
