Key events
Boy, that was close. Like last year, Verstappen comes out on top in qualifying in Jeddah. He won here last year after taking pole – as he did in his only race win this year in Suzuka.
Verstappen takes pole for Saudi Arabian GP
And he’s done it! By one hundredth of a second, Verstappen comes in ahead of Piastri as his two-lap strategy pays off in style.
Russell (third) and Leclerc (fourth) will make up the second row.
Piastri is back on top but maybe only fleetingly as Verstappen comes up to the line…
Russell is in provisional pole with a time of 1:27.407, 0.152 quicker than Verstappen. It’s hotting up!
Verstappen goes fastest by the slimmest of margins, 0.001 seconds quicker than Piastri’s initial time.
The Dutchman comes in for a pit stop before heading out again.
Verstappen seizes the initiative and it looks like he will attempt to post two competitive times before the session is out. Five minutes to go.
The rest of the drivers head back out on track as Q3 resumes. Piastri’s lap is still on the board as the only time set to far.
Norris’s mangled car is lifted off the track by a digger. Replays suggest that Piastri may not have crossed the finish line before the red flag was flown.
Piastri, who skimmed a wall on the first flying lap of the session, is the only one to set a time before the red flag was flown. Norris is out of Q3.
Red flag as Norris crashes!
Norris jumps over the curb and hits the wall on his left. He signals that he’s okay. “Fucking idiot,” he mutters over the radio.
Lando Norris
Max Verstappen
Oscar Piastri
George Russell
Kimi Antonelli
Charles Leclerc
Yuki Tsunoda
Carlos Sainz
Pierre Gasly
Lewis Hamilton
… are the 10 (in Q2 order) that will do battle for pole in Q3. Who takes it?
Hamilton scrapes through to Q3
Seven milliseconds is the difference between Hamilton in 10th and Albon in 11th as Q2 comes to an end. Phew.
Lawson (12th), Alonso (13th), Hadjar (14th) and Bearman (15th) also fail to make the third session.
Hamilton drops into the bottom five after Lawson goes 10th … but only briefly, saving his best until last to go into ninth for the time being.
Gasly, Bearman, Hadjar, Alonso and Lawson are in the danger zone heading into the final three minutes of Q2. Hamilton, Antonelli and Sainz in particular will be looking over their shoulders.
Verstappen heads back in after launching his car on a curb. The Red Bull team get to work on the bottom of the car straight away.
Verstappen leads Piastri at the start of Q2 before Norris goes five hundredths quicker.
Both Ferraris continue to be a little off the pace. Could Hamilton or Leclerc miss out on Q3?
The second session gets started with virtually everybody heading straight out on to the track. Norris waits inside for now…
Kimi Antonelli was fourth fastest, three places ahead of his Mercedes teammate Russell, in Q1. And he had to avoid a bin bag on track.
Verstappen tops Q1 standings
An intriguing first session ends with Verstappen almost three tenths faster than Norris, with Piastri in third.
Stroll (16th), Doohan (17th), Hülkenberg (18th), Ocon (19th) and Bortoleto (20th) get off here.
Verstappen is next to top the leaderboard with a lap of 1:27.778.
Gasly looks to have saved his skin by moving up to ninth, a place soon taken by Hamilton. Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll becomes the first to be eliminated.
Hamilton has been struggling in the opening stages but sneaks into the top 10, eight tenths off Norris’s new fastest time of 1:27.805.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, the fastest in first practice yesterday and fourth on the grid in Bahrain, is in danger of not making Q2.
Piastri goes fastest, just edging Norris’s time with a lap of 1:28.026.
Russell, Tsunoda and Antonelli also set decent opening times.
Norris sets the early benchmark of 1:28.026, five tenths of a second ahead of Leclerc’s first hot lap.
Verstappen, sparks flying off the underside of his Red Bull, goes just over a tenth off Norris.
Norris, Leclerc and Hamilton are among those looking to set an early time.
Qualifying gets under way
Esteban Ocon is first out on track in Jeddah. Will there be any shock exits in the first round?
Ellie Hardings gets in touch:
I’d say this is an important session for Norris after a difficult Bahrain qualifying last week, particularly for his confidence for the championship over his teammate Piastri, especially when you consider their past performance at this track. Do you think one of the McLarens will get pole?
Oof, it’s so hard to call. Piastri seems to be the man of the moment but maybe Norris has a bit of a mental edge after his time in third practice. Either way, it’s hard to look past a McLaren on pole tomorrow.
George Russell has joined the discussion regarding Verstappen’s future and a possible move to Mercedes. It’s a tantalising prospect, even the British driver admitted when speaking to PA this week:
Why wouldn’t they want to sign Max? It’s totally understandable. He’s the best at the moment. He’s a four-time world champion. That’s not anything against me or Kimi [Antonelli]. There’s two drivers for every team and he is one person. So that doesn’t concern me one bit because the performance is my currency and right now I think I am performing as good as anyone on this grid.
The main talking point in the buildup to this weekend has been the future of Max Verstappen, who was public in his criticism of his car after a disappointing sixth-placed finish in Bahrain. Could he be on the move?
“I am happy [at Red Bull], I’m just not very happy with our car,” he said this week. “But that goes for everyone, we all want to be better, there’s no secret about that. That’s what we’re trying to improve.”
Lewis Hamilton is slowing starting to get to grips with his new car having made the switch from Mercedes to Ferrari in the off-season. His fifth-placed finish in Bahrain was his highest of 2025 so far. Giles Richards has more on his progression ahead of Saudi Arabia:
Hamilton’s relationship with his new family has been under intense examination, a process not helped by the Ferrari playing catch-up at the same time Hamilton is learning his way around the new machinery.
Let’s take a look at how third practice finished up this afternoon.
There was very little to separate the two McLarens, with Lando Norris fastest by two hundredths of a second from Oscar Piastri.
Max Verstappen remains a little off the pace in his Red Bull, while Lewis Hamilton didn’t break the top 10 and sat seven places behind his Ferrari teammate, Charles Leclerc. Williams performed the best of the mid-field runners.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
All four races in 2025 have so far been won by the driver that qualified fastest, with Oscar Piastri guiding his McLaren to victory from pole in Bahrain last weekend having been 0.168 seconds quicker than George Russell’s Mercedes in Q3.
Q1 at Jeddah’s Corniche Circuit on the banks of the Red Sea gets under way under the lights at 6pm (BST). In the meantime, feel free to email me with all manner of queries, comments or predictions.
