Hamilton takes pole in Jeddah, Verstappen misses

In Jeddah, the first duel of the weekend turned to the advantage of Lewis Hamilton. Provisionally on pole while waiting for the last passage of Max Verstappen, the Englishman saw his rival hit the wall in the 27th and final corner to claim the 103rd pole position of his career!

Gaining momentum throughout the weekend, Max Verstappen seemed destined for pole position on the Saudi coast. Beaten by Lewis Hamilton on his last attempt, the Batavian was in the process of completing an anthology lap which propelled him to first place with around 3 or 4 tenths ahead of his counterpart in real time. Unfortunately, luck did not work in his favor this Saturday evening.

Intractable in the first two sectors which he lit purple, the pilot Red Bull lost everything in the space of a small turn, the very last of this route and surely one of the most important. Flying towards his 10th pole position of the year, Max Verstappen failed to brake and hit the wall on the right side of the track, seeing his chances go up in smoke in the snap of his fingers.

His RB16B damaged, the leader of the world championship had no other choice but to stop on the track, thus offering pole position for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix to his great rival, author of a lap in 1’27″511. This Sunday, Max Verstappen will start from 3rd row behind the two Silver Arrows since in the meantime Valtteri Bottas stole 2nd place on the grid. Vagueness reigns around it now and its gearbox which could be replaced in the event of serious damage to its car. If this were to happen, he would receive a penalty of 5 places on the grid, further spicing up this already crazy end of the season!

One turn from pole! 🤯

Max Verstappen ends up against the wall and it's ultimately Lewis Hamilton who will be on the front row!

With such exciting qualifiers, we can only look forward to tomorrow, we'll have to brush against the walls! 😍 #SaudiArabianGP pic.twitter.com/fmOhZwoiq8

— CANAL+ F1® (@CanalplusF1) December 4, 2021

Behind the leading trio, Charles Leclerc stood out from the crowd to once again establish itself as the “best of the rest”. Not really exciting since the start of the Saudi meeting, the Monegasque managed to hoist his SF21 up to 4th position and thus bring a smile to Ferrari after the disappointment of Carlos Sainz, victim of an exit from the track in Q2 and only 15th on the grid. Sergio Pérez completed the Top 5.

👀 Ferrari comes close to crashing a second car! #SaudiArabianGP

▶ https://t.co/7plkVVV12v pic.twitter.com/sn6yvqgGA3

— CANAL+ F1® (@CanalplusF1) December 4, 2021

We couldn't be more regular in qualifying this season, Pierre Gasly once again showed his talent by setting the 6th fastest time at the end of Q3 with a lap in 1'28″125, just 74 thousandths from a possible Top 4. The Norman managed to get ahead of Lando Norris, Yuki tsunoda, Esteban Ocon, sole representative ofAlpine in this last part, and Antonio Giovinazzi, surprisingly qualified for Q3.

Tune in this Sunday at 18:30 p.m. on AUTOhebdo to follow the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in live text.