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Both cars from Haas, Sauber, Williams and Aston Martin head out first, plus Jack Doohan’s Alpine.
Q1 has begun at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit. Red Bull are looking for their fourth consecutive pole position at this track. Only Mercedes, in the inaugural 2021 event, have beaten them to pole.
Air temperature 29C, track temperature 38C as qualifying begins.
It’s another significant moment for Lando Norris, who hasn’t been as comfortable in McLaren’s car as he was last year, and faces loses the championship lead if his team mate beats him to pole position again. Oscar Piastri, of course, has two poles already, Norris and Verstappen one each.
Once again this year we head into a qualifying session with a sense that it’s McLaren’s pole position to lose. But although they were a long way ahead in practice earlier today, yesterday’s second practice session will surely prove much more representative of their rivals’ potential. Verstappen and Leclerc are not to be discounted, and potentially Russell too.
Stroll was further off his team mate than any driver in final practice, lapping 0.59s off Fernando Alonso. Andrea Kimi Antonelli was almost as far off George Russell while Lewis Hamilton was 0.408s off Charles Leclerc.
Although conditions in final practice were much hotter than in second practice, all drivers apart from Nico Hulkenberg improved their lap times. The slowest five, who therefore look most at risk of elimination in Q1, were the Sauber drivers, the Haas drivers and Lance Stroll in the Aston Martin.
Qualifying for the 2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix is coming up next.
