Max Verstappen’s reaction speaks volumes as Lando Norris gifts him Saudi GP pole position
Lando Norris called himself a “f***ing idiot” as a qualifying crash handed team-mate Oscar Piastri the chance to take control of the drivers’ championship. Norris is just three points ahead of his McLaren team-mate in the standings and will start today’s race 10th on the grid because of his crash in the final part of last night’s session.
He needed a positive result after some harsh self-criticism following his sluggish performance in Bahrain last weekend. But when he hit the raised kerb at turn five on his first run in Q3, his chances of pole evaporated with the Brit unable to stop his car sliding into the wall and condemning him to 10th place on the grid for today’s race.
Piastri could not take full advantage, though, as Max Verstappen smashed the Jeddah track record to deny McLaren. “I’m very happy – I definitely didn’t expect to be on pole here,” the Red Bull racer beamed.
“The car came alive on the night – we made some final changes and it was a lot more enjoyable to drive. The grip was coming to me and, around here, a qualifying lap is extremely difficult. With all the walls, you really need to try to nail it. It’s really satisfying to be first in qualifying.”
The last time he took pole, at Suzuka earlier this month, he was able to keep Piastri and Norris behind. The Jeddah street track also makes overtaking difficult but Verstappen is not sure he will be able to fend off the McLaren cars this time.
He added: “Tomorrow in the race it will be tough to keep them behind, but we will give it a good go. We’ll do our best. So far I’m just really happy that we had a solid qualifying, much better than we had in Bahrain.”
Piastri was naturally disappointed to have missed out on pole but held his hands up and admitted there was not much more he could have done. The Aussie said: “To be honest, I was pretty happy with it – there wasn’t too much more left in that lap, so I’m happy with what I did.
Formula 1 fans can watch every practice, qualifying and race live with Sky’s new Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle in a new deal that saves £192.
As well as Sky Sports access, this includes more than 100 TV channels and free subscriptions to Netflix and Discovery+.
“I was playing catch-up a little bit through the first part and that last lap felt more or less like the best I could have done. Max has done a good job, it’s another high-speed circuit for them where they seem to be having a little bit more success. He’s done a good job again, but it’s still all to fight for.”
McLaren chief Zak Brown concurred and was pleased with Piastri’s efforts, while feeling for Norris who he backed to bounce back immediately. The American said: “He just needs to focus on the race. We’ll do the best we can to get him further up the grid – he’ll definitely be faster than where he qualified.”
George Russell continued his fine form by going third quickest ahead of Charles Leclerc, while Lewis Hamilton had to settle for seventh on the grid in the other Ferrari. “Before the session I would have definitely taken P3,” said the Mercedes driver. But when I just saw how close it was… I was happy with the lap but you always think there might have been a little bit more in there.
“Being realistic, this was probably always the maximum today. We know that on these higher-speed circuits we probably don’t have the pace of the McLarens. And Max did an amazing job again, so congratulations to him. It was a really tricky session with the red flag. That one lap at the end was all that counted, but P3 is a good place for me to start.”
At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share my Data” button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of cookies and consent to the practices described in our Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice.