Sergio Pérez clinches a stunning pole position at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

Sergio Perez clinched his maiden pole position at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Charles Leclerc was in second position, just 0.025 seconds slower than Pérez. Carlos Sainz was in third position behind his teammate.

Max Verstappen could only finish in fourth position on a day when his team-mate took his first pole position of his career. Lewis Hamilton who was the pole-sitter last year was knocked out in the first qualification session.

The qualifying session started under the lights with air temperatures at 23 degrees C and track temperatures at 24 degrees C at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The Pirelli tire choice at this race is the white-striped hard compound tires (C2), yellow-striped medium compound tires (C3), and red-striped soft compound tires (C4), the middle range of compounds in the Pirelli tire range .

Q1: Hamilton knocked out

The two Hass F1 Team drivers, Mike Schumacher other Kevin Magussen,were the first drivers on the track. The drivers went out on the soft compound tires for their initial runs.

George Russell other Lewis Hamilton went out on the medium compound tires and struggled for grip. Nicholas Latifi brought out the red flags with a crash at Turn 13.

Verstappen went to the top of the time charts with a lap time of 1m29.330s. Carlos Sainz with a storming lap of 1m28.855s went fastest to take the top spot. Leclerc was in second position behind him.

Yuki Tsunoda was called back into the pits with a fuel-related issue. Russell and Hamilton were back out on the soft compound tires.

As the session wound down all attention was on Hamilton as he was in the drop zone. In the dying minutes, Hamilton moved into fifteenth position but was knocked out by Lance Stroll.

The session ended with Sainz at the top of the time charts ahead of Leclerc and Verstappen.

Q1 drop zone: Lewis Hamilton, Alexander Albon, Nico Hulkenberg, Nicholas Latifi, Yuki Tsunoda

Q2: Schumacher has a nasty crash

At the start of the session, Leclerc went fastest with a lap time of 1m28.883s ahead of Pérez and Verstappen.

Schumacher then had a heavy crash that brought out the red flags. Young Schumacher took some time to step out of the car and was taken by ambulance to the medical center.

The German was flown by helicopter to hospital for precautionary checks. The session resumed after almost an hour’s delay.

Sainz went to the top of the time charts as both McLaren F1 team drivers were eliminated.

Q2 drop zone: Lando Norris, Daniel Ricciardo, Zhou Guanyu, Mick Schumacher, Lance Stroll

Q3: Perez takes pole position

The last all-important twelve minutes of the top ten shootout started with pole position being contested by the Scuderia Ferrari drivers and Verstappen.

Sainz went to the top of the time charts with a lap time of 1m28.402s. Verstappen struggled with grip and was only in sixth position.

Leclerc took provisional pole but was displaced by a stunning lap of 1m28.200s by Pérez. A first ever pole position for the Mexican.

Verstappen could only go fourth fastest ahead of Esteban Ocon and Russell. Fernando Alonso, Valtteri Bottas, Pierre Gasly and Kevin Magnussen completed the top 10 positions.

Top 10: Sergio Pérez, Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, Max Verstappen, Esteban Ocon, George Russell, Fernando Alonso, Valtteri Bottas, Pierre Gasly, Kevin Magnussen