Max Verstappen on pole in Jeddah as Lando Norris crashes in qualifying
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.
