FROM THE ENVIENT TO GEDDA. Dad Jos Verstappen beats his fists on the table after seeing his son dejectedly get off the Red Bull parked in the middle of the track at the end of qualifying for the Saudi Arabian GP. Max just “hit the wall,” as the pilots say. What’s more: he ruined a record lap and complicated the path to the title. Nothing new, it’s called experience: Verstappen is doing it, Hamilton has already accumulated a life of it and does not make more mistakes of this type with two races to go. It had also happened to him in 2007, the year of his debut in Formula 1: one step away from triumph he lost his car in the pit lane and ended up on the lawn of the Shanghai circuit.
Between the straights and blind curves of Jeddah, Verstappen was making a lap masterpiece. He knew he was in front, but he wanted to give it a show of strength. The last corner betrayed him. “A terrible mistake,” he called it. Terrible not only for the third time behind the Mercedes, but also for the risk of having to replace the damaged gearbox and losing five more positions: from potential pole position to eighth place. A blow. Mercedes was afraid of losing the first round and instead comes out strengthened by a brace in the front row: Hamilton celebrates pole number 103, Bottas next to him is ready to protect his back (even if he doesn’t always succeed very well).
Verstappen does not rest easy: «It’s a pity, we know what lap I was doing, I take comfort because the car is going fast. The consequences of the accident? I don’t know, I stopped immediately ». Red Bull has threatened yet another legal scuffle with Mercedes. “We have filed an appeal against the decision not to punish Hamilton,” summoned and then acquitted of the charge of having ignored the yellow flags. «Max in Qatar had 5 penalty positions at the start – team adviser Helmut Marko gets angry -. Now suddenly yellow is no longer yellow ». In the evening, the denial of the Austrian team: “We will not file an appeal”.
Fourth place for Charles Leclerc, “the best result we could have aspired to”, says Ferrari director Laurent Mekies -. I am really satisfied for Charles after the accident he had in free practice on Friday ». Carlos Sainz fell behind after a half spin in Q2. He will start 15th, Ferrari promises an aggressive strategy to allow him to recover.
Other placings: 5. Perez (Red Bull); 6. Gasly (AlphaTauri); 7. Norris (McLaren); 8. Tsunoda (AlphaTauri; 9. Ocon (Alpine); 10. Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo).