Max Verstappen recovered from a slow beginning to his weekend at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit to secure pole position for the 2025 FIA Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, narrowly surpassing Oscar Piastri. Meanwhile, championship leader Lando Norris encountered an incident in Q3 and will commence the race from tenth position.
During the initial sessions of Q1, Piastri set the fastest time with a lap of 1:28.019, narrowly ahead of his McLaren teammate Norris by seven thousandths of a second. Verstappen secured third place, approximately 0.129 seconds behind the leader, followed by Mercedes’ George Russell and the second Red Bull driver, Yuki Tsunoda. Subsequently, Norris made another run and improved his time to 1:27.805, which placed him two-tenths of a second ahead of his teammate.
“We’ll do our best. I mean, you know, so far, I’m just very happy that we again had a solid qualifying — much better than what we had in Bahrain, of course,” Verstappen said. “And, yeah, let’s see what we can do tomorrow in the race.”
Piastri enhanced his final lap, improving by only one-tenth of a second, but was unable to reclaim P1 position. With Norris remaining in the McLaren garage, the opportunity was open for others to advance, allowing Verstappen to seize the top spot with a final time of 1:27.778, surpassing the McLaren drivers. Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes finished fourth at the end of the session, followed by Tsunoda, Williams’ Alex Albon, and Mercedes’ George Russell.
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During the second session, Lance Stroll of Aston Martin was unable to advance beyond P16, finishing behind Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar, who narrowly outpaced the Canadian by seven hundredths of a second. Additionally, at the conclusion of Q1, Alpine’s Jack Doohan, Sauber’s Nico Hülkenberg, Haas’ Esteban Ocon, and Gabriel Bortoleto, also of Sauber, did not qualify for the next stage.
“The car came alive in the night. We made some final changes, and it was a lot more enjoyable to drive,” Verstappen said. “The grip was coming to me. And around here, you know, a qualifying lap is extremely difficult because of all the walls. You need to try and nail it. And, yeah, it’s really satisfying, you know, to be first here in qualifying is, of course, the best position for tomorrow. Even though I think tomorrow in the race it will be tough to keep them behind, but we’re going to give it a good go.”
In Q2, Piastri initially set the pace with a time of 1:27.690. However, shortly after, Verstappen overtook him with a lap of 1:27.529, moving into P1. Norris then improved his time and claimed the top position, edging out the Dutch driver by five hundredths of a second. Norris remained in the pit lane for his final runs, and although Verstappen used used tires for his subsequent attempts, he was unable to surpass the McLaren. He advanced to the top 10 shootout in P2, with two fresh sets of Soft tires available for his final efforts.
“I felt like it was a good lap, yes. I made a bit of a mistake on the first lap and managed to get through that corner much better on the second attempt,” Piastri said. “And, you know, when you need one hundredth, you can think of a few places. But, no, honestly, it was a good lap that I was happy with. Max did a very good job today, and that was pretty much all we had.”
At the conclusion of Q2, the drivers eliminated were Albon in P11, followed by Liam Lawson of Racing Bulls, Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin, Isack Hadjar of Racing Bulls, and Ollie Bearman of Haas.
At the beginning of the final top 10 shootout, Piastri initially secured provisional pole with a lap time of 1:27.560. However, no other competitors were able to improve their times before the session was halted, as Norris exceeded track limits in Turn 4 and subsequently lost control, resulting in a collision with the barriers on exit. The McLaren driver was unharmed, but the red flag was displayed to pause the session.
While Norris’s crash disrupted the flying laps of several drivers, Verstappen was unaffected. The Dutch driver was on an out-lap when Norris’s incident occurred, and once the session resumed, he quickly re-entered the track with scrubbed tires and a two-run fuel load in an effort to complete two qualifying laps. During his first attempt, Verstappen narrowly surpassed Piastri, claiming provisional pole position by just 0.001 seconds.
“I was really happy with the lap, but you always think there might have been a little bit more in there. But, you know, being realistic, I think this was probably the maximum today,” Russell said. “We know on the sort of high-speed circuits, we probably don’t quite have the pace of the McLarens, and obviously Max did an amazing job again. So, yeah, congrats to him.”
In the final sessions, Russell set a lap time of 1:27.407. Piastri subsequentl y improved his performance, completing his first run 0.256 seconds faster than Russell and moving into the top position.
However, with less fuel on board and the RB21 increasingly responsive, Verstappen delivered a strong performance, securing his second pole position of the season and the 42nd of his career.
Behind Piastri and Russell, Leclerc secured fourth position for Ferrari, followed by Antonelli. Carlos Sainz finished sixth for Williams, ahead of the second Ferrari driver, Lewis Hamilton. Yuki Tsunoda qualified in eighth place, ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris, who encountered some unfortunate circumstances.
2025 FIA Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix – Qualifying
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1’27.294 – –
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 1’27.304 0.010 0.011
3 George Russell Mercedes 1’27.407 0.113 0.129
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1’27.670 0.376 0.431
5 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1’27.866 0.572 0.655
6 Carlos Sainz Williams/Mercedes 1’28.164 0.870 0.997
7 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1’28.201 0.907 1.039
8 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1’28.204 0.910 1.042
9 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 1’28.367 1.073 1.229
10 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes – – –
11 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1’28.109 0.815 0.934
12 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 1’28.191 0.897 1.028
13 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 1’28.303 1.009 1.156
14 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 1’28.418 1.124 1.288
15 Oliver Bearman Haas/Ferrari 1’28.648 1.354 1.551
16 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1’28.645 1.351 1.548
17 Jack Doohan Alpine/Renault 1’28.739 1.445 1.655
18 Nico Hülkenberg Sauber/Ferrari 1’28.782 1.488 1.705
19 Esteban Ocon Haas/Ferrari 1’29.092 1.798 2.060
20 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber/Ferrari 1’29.462 2.168 2.484
