Red Bull’s Sergio Perez surprised the Ferrari duo in their final fast lap. For Saudi Arabia, the pole position is the first for Sergio Perez’s entire F1 career. The time trials were suspended for a long time due to Mick Schumacher’s wild run.
26.3. 21:21 • Updated March 26th. 21:31
Red Bullin Sergio Perez, 32, took a surprise at the time of Saudi Arabia’s F1 weekend. The Ferrari duo dominated the time trial until Perez drove his last fastest lap.
Perez stretched Ferrari by 0.025 seconds Charles Leclercin before. The third was Ferrari Carlos Sainz (+0.202).
Red Bullin Max Verstappen was the fourth. So, like last weekend’s opening race, the four fastest were Ferrari and Red Bull drivers. Last weekend, Leclerc left the pole and won the race.
Valtteri Bottas survived its Alfa Romeo again in the third time trial section. He will start the race from box eight.
You can read more about the progress of the time trials in the tracking found in this link.
Lewis Hamilton was amazingly left in the first section
Already in the first leg of the time trial, a giant surprise came when Mercedes ’seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton was only clocked at the 16th fastest time. Hamilton was confused by the first session of the time trials, among the five slowest.
The last time Hamilton had missed the opening session in 2017 in Brazil.
– It was impossible to drive the car with the settings I chose. It was my choice, I made some changes to the settings. I don’t know if that was the reason, but the car was really unstable. Tomorrow is a long way to go, Hamilton said in a Viaplay broadcast while time trials were still in progress.
Last weekend, Hamilton was fifth in the time trial and rose to third in the race, aided by Red Bull’s technical failures and interruptions.
Another problem with Mercedes is that only one driver using a Mercedes power source survived in the top 10, ie Mercedes George Russell.
Drivers from McLaren, Aston Martin and Williams, who use Mercedes power sources, and Hamilton were left out of the final section.
Schumacher’s violent shudder frightened
The second section then saw an even more dramatic situation. With five minutes left in the section, Haas was a German driver Mick Schumacherin the car left the glove in a very fast-paced bend in the middle of the track. The car left control at bend 12 when Schumacher was on the corner in the outer corners. From there, the car bounced sideways above the wall to the other side of the track.
A close-up of Schumacher’s car, or decelerations from the collision, was not shown for a long time. Only it was shown on TV that an ambulance was present. After a while, TV images showed Schumacher being taken on a helicopter. At the same time, however, facilitating news began to emerge.
The Haas stable reported that Schumacher was “physically fit” and talked to his mother. However, he was taken to hospital for more detailed examinations.