Lewis Hamilton takes Saudi Arabian F1 GP pole as Max Verstappen crashes

Lewis Hamilton took pole for the inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix but only after this fascinating Formula One season once more delivered tense drama for the title protagonists. The world champion was on top but only because Max Verstappen pushed too hard and was left wondering what might have been over a damaged car, stranded on the track.

Hamilton had endured nervy moments before qualifying awaiting a steward’s decision in Jeddah, when the world champion’s hopes for a win and his championship ambitions hung in the balance. Cleared of any offences, however, he delivered with great execution, but it might so easily have belonged to Verstappen, who clipped a wall on his last lap when on for taking pole. He was classified only in third behind Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate, Valtteri Bottas.

Verstappen has pushed hard all season and he was once more absolutely on the limit on his final lap. On the very edge for 26 corners it was nail-biting but superb, only for him to take too much on the very final bend.

“It’s extremely disappointing,” said Verstappen. “We had a good car, everything seemed to be coming together, in Q3 it was good but unfortunately I couldn’t finish the lap. At least it seems like we can fight here.”

It had been difficult to call between the two drivers throughout until the decisive minutes. Hamilton made an error on his first hot lap in Q3, briefly losing the rear, and had to abort his quick lap. He stayed out to put in another run and this time was clean. However, Verstappen was immense on his first hot lap, threading the needle between the walls of this testing circuit with inch-perfect precision. He set a time of 1min 27.653sec, a fearsome target almost fourtenths up on Hamilton.