Sergio Perez produces stunning lap to seal first-ever pole at Saudi Arabian GP

Sergio Perez will start a Grand Prix from pole position for the first time in his Formula 1 career after producing a stunning final lap in qualifying on Saturday evening.

The session was a marathon, with two red flags punctuating qualifying and it wasn’t until after 10pm local time that Perez took pole, ahead of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in the Ferraris.

Here’s how it all played out, with Lewis Hamilton surprising us all in Q1…

Q1

There can only be one place to start when reviewing Q1 and that’s with Lewis Hamilton’s elimination.

The Briton appeared to be struggling with balance and set-up in practice earlier in the day and it was apparent that things had not been solved by qualifying.

He could only go 16th fastest and would join Yuki Tsunoda, Nico Hulkenberg and Alex Albon in dropping out at the first hurdle, as well as Nicholas Latifi who had red-flagged the session earlier on via a crash.

Q2

Q2 also saw a red flag, with Mick Schumacher losing control of his Haas and suffering a really big shunt, that left his car unrecognisable.

Thankfully, he remained conscious throughout and there were no immediate injuries noted on him physically, with him taken to the hospital for scans as a precaution.

Once we got the session going again after the clean-up, both McLarens were eliminated as well as Guanyu Zhou and Lance Stroll.

Q3

It was, then, Perez’s night as he sealed his first-ever pole position.

A stunning final lap saw him beat both Ferrari drivers and team-mate Max Verstappen, who could only manage the 4th-quickest time.

Behind them, Esteban Ocon, George Russell, Fernando Alonso, Valtteri Bottas, Pierre Gasly and Kevin Magnussen.