JEDDAH: World champion Max Verstappen put Red Bull on pole position for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in track-record time on Saturday as McLaren’s Formula One leader Lando Norris hit the wall and qualified 10th.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, bidding to become the first Australian to lead the standings since Mark Webber in 2010, joined the four-times world champion on the front row for Sunday’s night race.
Mercedes’s George Russell and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc will share the second row in third and fourth at the super-fast Corniche circuit where the winner has come from pole three out of four times previously.
“The car came alive in the night,” exclaimed Verstappen after pipping Piastri by a mere 0.010 of a second.
The pole position changed hands three times in a final flurry of flying laps before the champion settled matters with a time of one minute 27.294 seconds.
“I think in the race it will be difficult to keep them behind. But we will give it a good go,” said Verstappen, winner last year.
Italian 18-year-old rookie Kimi Antonelli qualified fifth for Mercedes, with Carlos Sainz sixth for Williams and Lewis Hamilton only seventh for Ferrari.
Verstappen’s team mate Yuki Tsunoda will start eighth with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly ninth.
Norris was fastest in final practice and the second phase of qualifying, after Verstappen had led the first, but brought out red flags with eight-and-a-half minutes remaining when he hit the wall.
The Briton, who leads Piastri by three points after four races, signalled over the team radio that he was unhurt while calling himself an idiot with an exasperated expletive thrown in.
Piastri was the only one with a time on the board at that point, his 1:27.560 effort slower than Norris’s best of 1:27.481 in Q2.
Verstappen then went top when the track action resumed but Russell and Piastri went faster again before the Red Bull driver’s last effort.
Hamilton just squeezed through to the final top-10 shootout, the 40-year-old just 0.007 quicker than 11th-placed Alex Albon in the Williams.
Liam Lawson qualified 12th and ahead of his Racing Bulls rookie team mate Isack Hadjar in 14th.
Oliver Bearman, who made a sensational F1 debut with Ferrari as a stand-in at last year’s Saudi race, will line up 15th for Haas.
Aston Martin, marking their 100th Formula One race as a marque, had another difficult session with double world champion Fernando Alonso 13th and Lance Stroll 16th.
Max Verstappen on pole in Jeddah as Lando Norris crashes in qualifying
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Max Verstappen on pole in Jeddah as Lando Norris crashes in qualifying
- Dutchman seizes pole from Piastri
- Championship leader Norris crashes, qualifies 10th
Proud dad Zinedine Zidane watches Algeria beat Sudan 3-0
- Former Real Madrid legend Zidane watches his son Luca keep a clean sheet in the Algeria goal during the Africa Cup of Nations match in Rabat
- Riyad Mahrez scores twice for Algeria, one of the tournament favorites, who move top of Group E
RABAT, Morocco: France great Zinedine Zidane watched his goalkeeper son’s safe hands as Algeria started its Africa Cup of Nations campaign with a 3-0 win over 10-man Sudan on Wednesday.
Riyad Mahrez scored twice and the 20-year-old Ibrahim Maza scored his first international goal for Algeria, one of the tournament favorites, to move top of Group E.
“The most important thing was to start with a win,” Mahrez said. “The last two AFCONs, we didn’t start good. Today, we really wanted to make it happen and we did.”
Zidane, who was at the sweet-smelling Moulay El Hassan Stadium in Rabat to see his son Luca Zidane playing in the Algeria goal, was feted by the crowd every time he was shown on the big screens.
Luca Zidane opted to represent his grandfather’s country after getting the Fennec Foxes’ invitation and he’s been given his chance to shine because of an injury to Alexandre Oukidja, who might have been expected to start otherwise.
Algeria wasted little time Wednesday with Mahrez sweeping in the opener in the second minute after unselfish play from Hicham Boudaoui to set him up.
Zidane was called into action shortly afterward to deny Yaser Awad on a break.
Sudan had to play all its qualification games away from home because of the near 1,000-day old civil war ravaging the country.
Though the Algerians looked confident and played with intensity, the big chances fell at the other end, with Zidane saving again from Awad before Abdel Raouf fired over.
Salah Adil was sent off just as the rain began to fall shortly before the break with his second yellow card for a foul on Rayan Aït-Nouri, who would have been through otherwise.
But the Algerian fans, who were in a majority, needed to be patient.
Mohammed Amoura produced a brilliant cross with the outside of his boot for Mahrez to score in the 61st, and Baghdad Bounedjah headed the ball into Maza’s path for the substitute to complete the scoring in the 85th.
Drama in Casablanca
Edmond Tapsoba completed a remarkable turnaround as Burkina Faso scored two goals in stoppage time to beat 10-man Equatorial Guinea 2-1 in the early Group E game.
Tapsoba’s team had pushed hard for the opening goal after Basilio Ndong was sent off early in the second half for a bad challenge on Bertrand Traoré’s ankle.
Marvin Anieboh then stunned the Stallions when he launched himself at Carlos Akapo’s cross to score with a looping header in the 85th minute.
Georgi Minoungou equalized in the fifth minute of stoppage time and Tapsoba headed the winner three minutes after that.
Later Wednesday in Group F, defending champion Ivory Coast began its title defense against Mozambique in Marrakech and five-time champion Cameroon opened against Gabon in the coastal city of Agadir.
