AS IT HAPPENED: Red Bull’s Sergio Perez qualifies on pole for Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

JEDDAH: Sergio Perez claimed his first ever Formula One pole at the 215th attempt when the Mexican upstaged Red Bull teammate and world champion Max Verstappen in qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Saturday.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc joins Perez on the front row with Verstappen on the second row after qualifying in fourth behind the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.

Saturday’s qualifying was marred by a horror crash suffered by Mick Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton's shock elimination in the opening Q1 session for the first time since 2017.

See how the qualifying action unfolded below (all times GMT)...

19:10 - RESULT! Sergio Perez manages to outpace Charles Leclerc and end up on pole position, an unexpected turn of events as the two Ferraris set the fastest times throughout the weekend so far.

Leclerc will start in second, his teammate Carlos Sainz in third and world champion Max Verstappen manages to climb back up to fourth.

19:00 - Valtteri Bottas and Fernando Alonso push Max Verstappen down to eighth after the two set slightly better times than the Red Bull driver.

After Bottas’ hot lap, he has found his way to sixth place where he was last weekend in Bahrain.

18:55 - Q3 is wrapping up, Carlos Sainz leads followed by Charles Leclerc. Sainz who is on used tires has managed to outpace his teammate in the first and middle sectors to beat him by 0.044 seconds.

Max Verstappen sets a time of 1 minute and 29.239 seconds to end up in sixth place for Sunday’s race. George Russell complains about no grip on his tires but manages to set a decent time granting him a place above the Dutchman in fifth.

18:40 - Q2 will get underway again at 21:40 local time...

18:25 - Lewis Hamilton told reporters that he was not