Sergio Perez has qualified in pole position for the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix following a nightmare session for Lewis Hamilton.
Seven-time world champion Hamilton had a terrible day at the office as he could only qualify 16th fastest, being eliminated in Q1. Qualifying was also marred by a horrible crash involving Mick Schumacher but the Haas driver was thankfully conscious before he was taken to hospital.
However, despite Hamilton and Mercedes' woes in qualifying it was a performance to remember for Sergio Perez who sealed pole position in style, which was also the first of his Formula 1 career. In a tremendous fight between the Red Bull drivers and both Ferraris it was Perez who triumphed at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit to take top spot on the grid for tomorrow's race.
Charles Leclerc qualified second, Carlos Sainz was third and reigning world champion Max Verstappen qualified in fourth. It was also brilliant work from George Russell who, after only just sneaking into Q3, managed to qualify sixth.
Immediately after securing pole position, with a monster lap, Perez immediately let out his excitement over team radio once it was confirmed. "YES! Thank you guys, hard work always pays off!" he shouted.
It is a long overdue pole for a racer who has been involved in Formula 1 for several years and he has finally achieved it on what will be his 220th race entry. However, the big story from qualifying was the lowly position of Hamilton who struggled badly through Q1 and was sensationally knocked out.
His exit in the first round of qualifying was the first time it had happened since Brazil in 2017 and underlined the struggles Mercedes have been enduring. But despite the problems no one had expected Hamilton to struggle for pace and balance as badly as today.
Tomorrow's main event is now set up to be a spectacular affair with Hamilton looking to claw back places as well as the battle between the two Red Bull drivers and the two Ferrari drivers. That excitement was hinted at by Sainz in his post-qualifying interview.
"The lap for P3 was pretty good," he said. "The new tyres for me were very tricky to handle. When I went on the new tyres, I didn't have any rear grip. Checo and Charles beat me a little but still ok. It is going to be exciting, battle between the Ferraris and Red Bulls. We will play together on strategies."
Second placed Leclerc, who won the first Grand Prix of the season, will also be targeting another win in the race and praised Perez for the lap he had managed to pull out. "The lap felt good honestly. I am very happy with the lap," he said.
"All qualifying was about keeping it on track and not doing any mistakes. I more or less put everything together, I didn't expect Checo to come with that lap time so congratulations to him. It is another day tomorrow and hopefully we can have a good start."
But Perez was by far the happiest driver in the paddock following his lap, which he described as one in 1,000. "It took me a couple of races, what a lap! Unbelievable!" he said regarding his first ever pole in F1.
"I can do 1,000 laps but I can't beat that lap. It was unbelievable! We weren't expecting too much, we were focusing on the race. Hopefully we get the Ferraris tomorrow!"
All attention now switches to the main event tomorrow following a busy couple of days for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The race had been thrown into doubt last night following a nearby missile strike on an oil facility, but a decision was eventually made that the event would proceed as planned.
The action has now hotted up on track with Perez hoping he can turn his pole position into a first Red Bull victory for the season, particularly after both he and team-mate Verstappen were left pointless following retirements in the opening race in Bahrain.
Qualifying results in full
1) Perez
2) Leclerc
3) Sainz
4) Verstappen
5) Ocon
6) Russell
7) Alonso
8) Bottas
9) Gasly
10) Magnussen
11) Norris
12) Ricciardo
13) Zhou
14) Schumacher
15) Stroll
16) Hamilton
17) Albon
18) Hulkenberg
19) Latifi
20) Tsunoda
