His confidence in the car already wavering, the world championship leader, Lando Norris, now has to cope with another serious blow to his title ambitions after crashing out in qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, while his Red Bull rivalMax Verstappenclaimed pole position, only one-hundredth of a second clear of Norris’s teammate Oscar Piastri.
Norris is notoriously self-critical and his costly error at the Jeddah circuit might well cause him to once more deliver a brutal self-examination. His own summation in the moments after the crash summed it up as he bluntly described himself as a “fucking idiot” over team radio.
The pressure is intense this season, Norris in a nip-and-tuck fight with Piastri and Verstappen where every mistake could be crucial, as he leads Piastri by three points with Verstappen eight points back in third. Starting from 10th on Sunday his title lead is hanging by the slenderest of threads and his self-belief perhaps once more undermined.
“I’m not going to be proud, I’m not going to be happy. I’ve let myself down and let the team down,” he said. Understandably dejected he then held his hands up and played down his chances of a comeback on Sunday.
“I’m just disappointed with today. I will go see my engineers and apologise,” he said. “See what we can do tomorrow, we need a bit of luck, it’s almost impossible to overtake around here so I’m not expecting anything magical, if I can make the top five or six I would be happy.”
McLaren and indeed Norris had looked strong all weekend but on the first of the final runs in Q3 at the Jeddah circuit he took too much kerb through turns four, five and six and it launched him into the wall, taking a nasty hit on the front from which he emerged unhurt but was clearly enormously disappointed in himself.
In stark contrast, qualifying was marked by a buoyant and resurgent Verstappen in aRed Bullthat was proving far more to the world champion’s liking than the recalcitrant beast he had wrestled with last week. He set the pole with a blistering final lap in Q3 for 1min 27.294sec, threading the needle in a tense session with an attacking assurance that was a reminder of just how quick he can be when he has confidence in his ride.
His team were also exemplary pulling a bold strategic move in having Verstappen complete two laps after the red flag caused by Norris’s crash; fuelled for two he took the first as a very strong sighter and nailed the final circuit.
Verstappen was hugely pleased with the result, the pole going no little way at least to ease the tension at Red Bull. The Dutchman had been deeply dissatisfied after managing only sixth at thelast round in Bahrainwith a car that lacked balance and pace.
He was blunt that he did not believe he could compete for the title as things stood and the team held discussions after that race to consider how best to address the issues.
The somewhat mercurial car can, however, be adapted over a race weekend successfully, as theyproved at Suzukaand once more they did very well to coax it into a peak operating window in Jeddah.
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Verstappen certainly found it more to his liking and as is the case when he has the car doing what he wants he wielded it with no little skill. To return pole given how strong the McLarens were will be considered a huge result by the world champion and at Milton Keynes.
In the wake of Bahrain questions were again raised about Verstappen’s future at the team, with Red Bull’s motorsport advisor, Helmut Marko, stating there was “great concern” he could leave. It prompted Verstappen to dismiss the issue this weekend and this performance will quieten the furore in the short term at least.
For Norris this was another real setback. The team have been looking at how to adjust the car to accommodate him better but it was an ongoing process not expected to yield an immediate turnaround. He had looked very comfortable in Jeddah however and was in position to challenge for pole until he lost it and was punished on a track where any error is costly.
Mercedes’ George Russell did superbly to claim a strong third place, Charles Leclerc was fourth for Ferrari and Kimi Antonelli in fifth for Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton once more struggled with his Ferrari, managing only seventh place, almost a second off the pole time.
Carlos Sainz was sixth for Williams, Yuki Tsunoda in eighth for Red Bull and Pierre Gasly in ninth for Alpine,Alex Albon was in 11th for Williams, Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar in 12th and 14th for Racing Bulls, Fernando Alonso in 13th for Aston Martin and Ollie Bearman in 15th for Haas.
Lance Stroll was in 16th for Aston Martin, Jack Doohan 17th for Alpine, Nico Hülkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto in 18th and 20th for Sauber and Esteban Ocon 19th for Haas.