Red Bull's Sergio Perez claimed the first pole of his Formula 1 career on the ultra-rapid Jeddah street circuit, using the P Zero Red soft C4 tyres from start to finish of qualifying, along with most of the rest of the field.

"Today was very special to me, I achieved the best lap of my life. I feel like I could do another thousand laps and there is no chance I can get the same lap, with the amount of perfection and risk. This is probably the most difficult track for qualifying all season, you know if you're on pole here then you nailed the lap," said Perez.

The track evolution seen yesterday continued throughout the day, and the gusting winds also persisted. Mercedes was the only team to use the medium during qualifying, with both cars running it at the start of Q1 and George Russell running it also at the start of Q2.

Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz will start the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix from second and third on the grid respectively. The result came at the end of a very closely contested qualifying session, which lasted two hours, with a stoppage due to a horrible accident which befell Mick Schumacher.

Fortunately, the Ferrari driver, racing for Haas, seems to have escaped any serious injury. Apart from some regrets at missing out on pole by a whisker, with Charles just 25 thousandths slower than Sergio Perez, today at the Jeddah Corniche circuit, Scuderia Ferrari confirmed that it is on the pace once again.

"The car felt good and it's good to see that we are quick around this track. It's a very fast circuit, very technical and you do have to take some risks. I almost put it in the wall in Q3 but managed to just save it," said Ocon.

BWT Alpine F1 Team's Esteban Ocon qualified a sensational fifth place for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix with team-mate Fernando Alonso seventh after a superb team qualifying result at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

Fifth place on the grid marks Esteban's best qualifying result since last year's Spanish Grand Prix, with his lap time of a 1min 29.068secs enough to sit at the top end of a five-car pack split by only two tenths of a second.

"The car felt good and it's good to see that we are quick around this track. It's a very fast circuit, very technical and you do have to take some risks. I almost put it in the wall in Q3 but managed to just save it," said Ocon.

Fernando Alonzo's lap time of a 1min 29.147secs was just 0.079secs off Esteban with the Spanish driver set to line-up in seventh for tomorrow's 50-lap race.

George Russell of Mercedes qualified in P6, after a tense path into Q3, putting together a solid first lap of the final session but aborting his second flying lap. Teammate Lewis Hamilton bowed out in Q1, after setup changes to his car fell short and he will line up for tomorrow's race in P16.

Qualifying

Pos	Driver		Team		Time		Gap

1	Perez		Red Bull	1:28.200	156.590 mph
2	Leclerc		Ferrari		1:28.225	0.025
3	Sainz		Ferrari		1:28.402	0.202
4	Verstappen	Red Bull	1:28.461	0.261
5	Ocon		Alpine		1:29.068	0.868
6	Russell		Mercedes	1:29.104	0.904
7	Alonso		Alpine		1:29.147	0.947
8	Bottas		Alfa Romeo	1:29.183	0.983
9	Gasly		AlphaTauri	1:29.254	1.054
10	Magnussen	Haas		1:29.588	1.388
11	Norris		McLaren		1:29.651	
12	Ricciardo	McLaren		1:29.773	
13	Zhou		Alfa Romeo	1:29.819	
14	Schumacher	Haas		1:29.920	
15	Stroll		Aston Martin	1:31.009	
16	Hamilton	Mercedes	1:30.343	
17	Albon		Williams	1:30.492	
18	Hulkenberg	Aston Martin	1:30.543	
19	Latifi		Williams	1:31.817	
20	Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	No Time	




FP3

Pos	Driver		Team		Time		Gap


1	Leclerc		Ferrari		1:29.735	153.911 mph
2	Verstappen	Red Bull	1:29.768	0.033
3	Perez		Red Bull	1:29.833	0.098
4	Sainz		Ferrari		1:30.009	0.274
5	Bottas		Alfa Romeo	1:30.030	0.295
6	Ocon		Alpine		1:30.139	0.404
7	Gasly		AlphaTauri	1:30.148	0.413
8	Magnussen	Haas		1:30.262	0.527
9	Alonso		Alpine		1:30.296	0.561
10	Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	1:30.415	0.680
11	Hamilton	Mercedes	1:30.707	0.972
12	Schumacher	Haas		1:30.765	1.030
13	Zhou		Alfa Romeo	1:30.946	1.211
14	Russell		Mercedes	1:30.983	1.248
15	Stroll		Aston Martin	1:31.067	1.332
16	Ricciardo	McLaren		1:31.186	1.451
17	Albon		Williams	1:31.374	1.639
18	Hulkenberg	Aston Martin	1:31.424	1.689
19	Norris		McLaren		1:31.529	1.794
20	Latifi		Williams	1:31.992	2.257