Sergio Perez secured his first ever pole position at the 215th time of asking as Red Bull hit back at Ferrari in what is already looking like a two-horse title race.
Charles Leclerc led a first Ferrari 1-2 for three years a week ago in Bahrain and looked to have his team set up to do so again at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix by pipping Carlos Sainz to top spot by 0.177 seconds – only for Perez to cross quicker shortly afterwards.
The final result of the session was delayed by over an hour after a crash for Nicholas Latifi and then more seriously Mick Schumacher.
And there was racing drama too as Lewis Hamilton was eliminated in Q1 for the first time in five years.
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Just seven minutes of qualifying had elapsed when the red flag was waved as Latifi hit the wall, having lost control of his Williams on the way into Turn 13 at more than 100 miles an hour.
“F__k, I crashed guys,” a badly winded Latifi told his team over the radio.
“I don’t know how, the rear just let go there.”
He wasn’t badly hurt, walking around his car a minute later to inspect the damage that his team would have to repair before Sunday’s race. The crash guaranteed that at least one Williams would start from the back of the grid, but that was always possible given the struggles of all the grid’s Mercedes-powered runners. The Brixworth-built power units look to have gone from fastest to slowest and Hamilton was left bemused when his engineer told him he was seven tenths behind even his team-mate in the early stages.
It proved to be an ominous sign of things to come as Hamilton was unable to close the gap by more than a tenth of a second, finishing down in 16th, beating only Williams paid of Alex Albon and Latifi, supersub Nico Hulkenberg and Yuki Tsunoda, whose AlphaTauri was set by fuel issues.
2022 Saudi Arabian GP grid
- 1.Sergio Perez (Red Bull), 1:28.200
- 2. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), +0.025
- 3. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), +0.202
- 4. Max Verstappen (Red Bull), +0.261
- 5. Esteban Ocon (Alpine), +0.868
- 6.George Russell (Mercedes), +0.904
- 7. Fernando Alonso (Alpine), +0.947
- 8. Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo), +0.983
- 9. Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri), +1,054
- 10.Kevin Magnussen (Haas), +1,388
- 11. Lando Norris (McLaren)
- 12. Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren)*
- 13. Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo)
- 14. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
- 15. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
- 16. Alex Albon (Williams)
- 17. Nico Hulkenberg (Aston Martin)
- 18. Nicholas Latifi (Williams)
- 19. Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
Mick Schumacher (Haas) qualified 14th but will not start after crashing
*Ricciardo is under investigation by the stewards for blocking Ocon during qualifying
There was a second delay to the session when Mick Schumacher had a massive collision with the barriers in the middle sector. The German did not make his own way out of the car and only emerged, although conscious and talking, when he was lifted out of the Haas and into an ambulance. He spoke to his mother in the minutes after the crash and was taken to the hospital for a scan, but Haas believed he appeared physically fine.
Track officials managed to clear the wreckage of the Haas in just under half an hour but there was then cause for concern because of the oil that had been spewed onto the track by the car, and running did not get underway for nearly an hour.
“I have zero grip on this f__king tyre,” Max Verstappen complained in Q3 as he found himself fully eight tenths of a second behind the early provisional pole-sitter Sainz. Red Bull had struggled to get temperature into the brakes and tires while Ferrari, despite heavy porpoising, made the most of their superlative power unit on the fastest track of the year.
However, Perez came out of nowhere to deny Leclerc a second consecutive pole position.
