Sergio Perez wins the pole position of the Saudi Arabian GP at the Jeddah circuit. The Mexican of Red Bull hits the first pole start of his career, lapping in 1’28 “200 and ahead of the Ferraris of the Monegasque Charles Leclerc (1’28” 225) and the Spaniard Carlos Sainz (1’28 “402). place for the other Red Bull of the reigning world champion, the Dutch Max Verstappen (1’28 “461). This is the verdict of the tests of the grand prix, the second test of the season.
Here is the starting grid: 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.
The first big surprise was the elimination, in Q1, of Lewis Hamilton, struggling with enormous difficulties: on his return to the pits, the Mercedes champion apologized to his team. He will start in sixteenth position.
The tests of Q2 were marred by the bad accident that saw Mick Schumacher as protagonist. The Haas driver, son of Michael, lost control of his car at high speed and crashed hard on the side barriers. Car destroyed, almost broken in two, and moments of apprehension for the young driver who remained inside the cockpit for several minutes. Schumacher remained conscious but evidently in shock. The session was interrupted to clean the track of the many debris left by the car and to provide assistance to the driver, who was transported away by the ambulance for the necessary investigations.
