CHECO ON POLE, MAX TO START RACE FROM P15

Sergio Perez was fastest at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit to score his second consecutive pole position for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, and the second overall of his F1 career.

It was made possible by the breakdown of Max Verstappen's car. The Red Bull team has already confirmed that the problem was caused by a drive shaft failure.

Charles Leclerc showed sparks of Ferrari car, which still remains powerful in qualifying, but the Mexican will be joined by Fernando Alonso on the first starting row.

Qualifying was bittersweet for Red Bull. On the one hand, Perez showed again that their 2023 car, the RB19, is simply no match and easily took pole position, but on the other hand, Verstappen had a mechanical problem in Q2 and secured only 15th grid position.

Fernando Alonso once again showed the competitiveness of the AMR23 with the third fastest time, which earned him a front row start for tomorrow, due to the penalty for Charles Leclerc.

George Russell put in another good performance in the "bad" W14, setting fourth fastest time, ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr. and Lance Stroll.

The Alpine team had a good qualifying with both drivers in the Top 10. Esteban Ocon was seventh fastest, and his teammate Pierre Gasly rounded the top 10 drivers.

Lewis Hamilton had a time deleted from his last fast lap which earned him 7th place, the previous one was only good enough for P8, ahead of McLaren rookie Oscar Piastri eith 9th fastest time.