Qualifying for the second event of the 2023 Formula One season got underway on Saturday, March 18th, at the Corniche Circuit F1 street circuit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia with the Red Bull of Sergio Perez taking the pole position, the second of his F1 career. Both poles for Perez came at the Corniche Circuit in Jeddah.

Perez's teammate, two time World Champion Max Verstappen, did not make it into Q3 due to a drive shaft problem in Q2.

"A tale of two qualifying sessions out there today. Firstly, a brilliant performance from [Perez]," said Red Bull Principal, Christian Horner. "[Perez] drove incredibly well and put down a fantastic lap which sees him on pole; his second pole here in Jeddah, back to back."

"On the other hand, its hugely frustrating for Max, a drive shaft failure knocked him out of qualifying when we were really just getting started in Q2," added Horner.

Verstappen qualified 15th on Saturday in Jeddah.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc qualified 2nd but will have to start in position 12 due to component replacement penalties. Leclerc's teammate, Carlos Sainz, qualified fifth.

"It was a decent quali for the team today with Charles P2, one tenth off Perez - which will become P12 with the penalty - and Carlos fifth fastest," said Frederic Vasseur, Ferarri Team Principal. "Our pace was not too bad but we need a step forward."

"It's a pity for Carlos because he had to put on a second set of Softs in Q2 and at the end, in Q3 he only had one set and made a small mistake, which probably cost him the front row," added Vasseur.

Aston Martin driver, Fernando Alonzo, continuing a strong weekend, qualified third with his teammate, Lance Stroll, qualifying sixth.

"All in all we have to be very happy with starting on the first row of the grid tomorrow. It is a very different circuit compared to Bahrain and to see us fighting in Q3 again is a positive sign," said two time World Champion Alonzo.

The Silver Arrows of Mercedes qualified fourth and eighth will George Russell leading the pair and Lewis Hamilton following.

After a disappointing start to the season McLaren's rookie driver impressed with a ninth place qualifying effort.

"Oscar kept improving session-by-session through practice and run-by-run in qualifying where he put together clean laps and extracted the maximum from the car," said Andrea Stella, Team Principal.

Alpine drivers Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly had an excellent Saturday qualifying seventh and 10th respectively.

AlphaTauri rookie driver Nyck de Vries had a new power unit for qualifying which was not tuned yet for his A423 and had an issue with the car on lap one of Q1 which kept him out of Q2.

McLaren's Lando Norris also bowed out after Q1 after hitting the wall early in the session.

Williams American rookie driver Logan Sargeant lost control of his FW-45 between turns 22 and 23 and also did not make it out of Q1.

Both Haas drivers, Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen made it out of Q1 but did not qualify for Q3.

Pos	Driver		Team		Time		Gap

1	Perez		Red Bull	1:28.265	156.500 mph
2	Leclerc		Ferrari		1:28.420	0.155
3	Alonso		Aston Martin	1:28.730	0.465
4	Russell		Mercedes	1:28.857	0.592
5	Sainz		Ferrari		1:28.931	0.666
6	Stroll		Aston Martin	1:28.945	0.680
7	Ocon		Alpine		1:29.078	0.813
8	Hamilton	Mercedes	1:29.223	0.958
9	Piastri		McLaren		1:29.243	0.978
10	Gasly		Alpine		1:29.357	1.092
11	Hulkenberg	Haas		1:29.451	
12	Zhou		Alfa Romeo	1:29.461	
13	Magnussen	Haas		1:29.517	
14	Bottas		Alfa Romeo	1:29.668	
15	Verstappen	Red Bull	1:49.593	
16	Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	1:29.939	
17	Albon		Williams	1:29.994	
18	de Vries	AlphaTauri	1:30.244	
19	Norris		McLaren		1:30.447	
20	Sargeant	Williams	2:08.510	

(image provided by Aston Martin F1 Media & Alpine F1 Media)