John N
Qualifying in Jeddah was full of surprises, with the big ones being the elimination of Lewis Hamilton in Q1 and Sergio Perez taking pole position.
Here are some of the most interesting facts and stats from qualifying in Saudi Arabia
- Red Bull Powertrains take their maiden F1 pole thanks to Sergio Perez.
- Perez is the first Mexican driver to ever take pole position in Formula 1.
- Perez’s first pole in his 215th race weekend is a new record for the longest career before taking pole, beating Mark Webber’s 130 races.
- This is only the second time Perez has out-qualified Max Verstappen in a straight battle since he joined Red Bull, the other being Imola last year.
- Charles Leclerc has only started second once before, in Japan in 2019.
- Carlos Sainz starts third for the second consecutive weekend.
- Verstappen’s P4 is his worst Q3 performance since Monza 2020 when he qualified fifth.
- Esteban Ocon’s fifth matches his best performance of 2021 when he qualified P5 in Spain.
- As George Russell finished P6, that means both he and Perez have out-qualified their teammates in Jeddah.
- Russell was also the only driver in a Mercedes-powered car to make Q3, and he only made it by 0.034s.
- Valtteri Bottas was eighth, as Alfa Romeo reached Q3 in Jeddah for the second year running.
- That also moves the Finn to 103 consecutive Q3 appearances.
- Kevin Magnussen made Q3, the first time he has had back-to-back top 10s since Monaco – Canada in 2019.
- Both McLaren cars qualified higher than they managed last weekend.
- Lewis Hamilton’s last Q1 elimination was Brazil 2017 when he crashed out.
- The last time Hamilton was knocked out on pure pace (rather than due to wet weather or grid penalties) was Silverstone back in 2009.
- Lance Stroll was the first Aston Martin driver to make Q2 this season, which was also his first Q2 in Saudi Arabia.
- The slowest five cars to set a lap time in Q1 were powered by Mercedes.
