The Mexican Sergio Perez (Red Bull) will start first at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, following having dominated qualifying on the Jeddah street circuit; where he relegated the Monegasque Ferraris to second and third place Charles Leclerc and the Spanish Carlos Sainz; On a day marked by German accident Mick Schumacher (Haas) and in which the seven-time English world champion Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) was eliminated in the first round (Q1).
Czech, 32, achieved his first pole in F1 by covering the 6,175 meters of the fastest urban circuit in the world in one minute, 28 seconds and 200 thousandths, 25 less than Leclerc -world leader- and 202 ahead of Sainz ; that he will start third, next to the other Red Bull, that of his former Dutch teammate Max Verstappen from the second row.
On Friday there was an attack claimed by Yemen’s Houthis on an oil facility located regarding 15 kilometers from the circuit. After a long night of meetings that did not end until almost half past two in the morning, the pilots, who considered the possibility of not continuing to race because of the aforementioned attack, finally decided that the Grand Prix should continue its course; and on Saturday morning both the FIA and F1 released a statement confirming this circumstance.
The test dates were very busy not only because of that, but also because of the scare carried out by the son of the Kaiser, Mick Schumacher who suffered a brutal accident and He had to be airlifted to a hospital.
It should be noted that the young pilot will not participate in the event and following the concern caused by his accident, he spoke through social networks: “Hello everyone, I just wanted to say that I’m fine. Thanks for the kind messages. The car felt great.. Haas, we will come back stronger.”
On the technical and very fast track of Jeddah -with long straights and 27 curves, most of them fast- the first surprise of the day took place in Q1, interrupted with a red flag for a few minutes, due to the accident without consequences of the Canadian Nicholas Latifi (Williams). Hamilton was eliminated at the first changein the first round of the main timed.
The eccentric and spectacular pilot of Stevenage He did not make the cut when marking the sixteenth set. In just under four months, Hamilton went from signing the first ever pole position in Jeddah to being left out of Q1. something that didn’t happen since 2017when he had the same fate in Brazil, at the Interlagos circuit, in Sao Paulo.
Mercedes, winner of the last eight Constructors’ World Championships and which celebrated six of those with Hamilton winning the Drivers’ Championship, had suffered in preseason; and although the experts affirm that sooner or later he will fight for victories once more, this Saturday he had to settle for the sixth place of the other Englishman, George Russell, who will start from the third row next to the Frenchman Esteban Ocon, Alonso’s partner.
HOUR: 17:00 GMT (14:00 ARG-URU-CHI / 13:00 PAR-VEN-BOL / 12:00 COL-PER-ECU-MEX)
TV: ESPN +
TOP 5 OF THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
1- Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) 26 points
2- Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) 18 points
3- Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 15 points
4- George Russell (Mercedes) 12 points
5- Kevin Magussen (Haas) 10 points
KEEP READING
