Lewis Hamilton clinches Saudi Arabian GP Pole ahead of Bottas and Verstappen

Lewis Hamilton takes pole position for the inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after his title rival Max Verstappen crash at the final corner.

There was very little to choose between the two title protagonists throughout qualifying with Verstappen appearing to have the slight edge as Hamilton complained of a lack of grip.

But Verstappen was absolutely flying and put in a time that was four tenths quicker than anyone else, under the lights at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit that straddles the Red Sea.

Hamilton asked for a whole turn of front wing when he pitted, as he searched to find a solution to his understeer, and then promptly went quickest by 0.142s on his second soft run.

“What a tough track this is. It’s amazing what they’ve built, the speed and the pace around here is phenomenal. “It’s a great result for the team and a great job by Valtteri [P2] – he’s the best team mate there’s ever been in this sport”-said Lewis after clinching his 103 career

Verstappen was still out there, though. It looked all lost when he got on the throttle too early at Turn 2 and ran wide, but he caught it impressively and was up by a tenth of a second at the first sector on his final run. He then put in a sensational second sector to put him a quarter of a second ahead of Hamilton.

But he locked up at the final corner, and as he got on the throttle, slid into the wall, causing so much damage it forced him to stop.

“I don’t really understand what happened [on final flying lap]. I locked up a bit. “P3 is disappointing but today did show that the car is quick around here… so we’ll see what happens tomorrow”– Said The Dutchman after missing out important pole of his career.

Valtteri took important P2 in his F1 career. The Fin will protect Lewis tomorrow as much as possible from Max Verstappen. He said, “This was an important qualifying. I was on the limit, this track is tough but I really enjoyed it. I will do my best tomorrow”

Charles Leclerc was a brilliant fourth for Ferrari, ahead of the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez, with Pierre Gasly continuing his fine qualifying form with sixth.

Lando Norris outperformed his McLaren to take seventh with Yuki Tsunoda making it two AlphaTauris in the top-eight, as Esteban Ocon and Antonio Giovinazzi completed the top 10.