Max Verstappen takes pole as teenager Ollie Bearman thrown in at deep end

Max Verstappen put Red Bull's continued off-track woes to one side by taking pole position at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc qualified second, three tenths back, with Sergio Perez coming in third.

Fernando Alonso took fourth, with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton seventh and eighth respectively for Mercedes. Hamilton was nearly one second slower than Verstappen.

Teenager Ollie Bearman, meanwhile, became the youngest British driver in the history of Formula 1, the 18-year old being thrown in at the deep end as a last-minute stand-in for Carlos Sainz, who was hospitalised with appendicitis.

Bearman impressed in the circumstances, qualifying in 11th spot. The Essex teenager, with just one hour of practice under his belt, and having never driven an F1 machine at night, came within 0.036 seconds of toppling Lewis Hamilton and progressing to Q3.

Probably to Christian Horner's relief, all eyes were off Red Bull and on Ferrari as Bearman followed in the footsteps of Britain’s first F1 champion Mike Hawthorn, and John Surtees – the only man to win a world title on two and four wheels.

In the process, Bearman became the first Englishman to drive for Ferrari since Nigel Mansell in 1990.

Bearman was just 18 months old when Hamilton made his debut in 2007, and was not even born when Fernando Alonso entered his first F1 race.

But here in Jeddah on Friday, Bearman took to the same asphalt as the men who share nine world championships between them. And, remarkably, he came within a hair’s breadth of beating Hamilton.

Forced to abort his first run in Q2, Bearman returned to the track and hauled his Ferrari into 11th. He needed to be 10th to make it into Q3.

With the clock ticking down, Bearman geared up for his final run,