Saudi Arabia - Qualifying

The second qualifying session of the season captured the interest of viewers long before it even started. Saturday began with the unfortunate news of Carlos Sainz being out of the rest of the race weekend. The Spaniard got appendicitis and required surgery. Due to his absence, Ferrari opted to give Oliver Bearman a chance to make his F1 debut. At 18 years old, the Brit is the youngest driver to ever steer the scarlet Ferrari during an F1 race. On top of that, Zhou Guanyu spun into the barriers during the practice session, cutting his time behind the wheel short and posing doubts about whether Sauber would be able to fix the car enough for him to perform well in qualifying. 

As Q1 began, the cars were rather quick to appear on the track. Alonso and Leclerc climbed to the top of the leaderboard during the first part of the session. Haas also seemed to be flying during the early laps. While Kick Sauber managed to get Zhou's car repaired in time to get on track before the end of the session, he didn't manage to do a time lap, putting him in the last row of tomorrow's starting grid. Bottas, both Alpines and William's Sargeant were also knocked out before the next part of qualifying began. 

Q2 started rather slow but quickly picked up the pace once Hulkenberg's Haas lost power and rolled off track. It brought out a yellow flag, quickly replaced by a red one. The session was stopped with 11 minutes still on the clock. While the German driver didn't get the chance to return to the track, the same cannot be said for the other 14 cars. In the end, Bearman, Albon, Magnussen, and Ricciardo found themselves in the elimination zone. Impressively enough, the 18-year-old early knocked out Lewis Hamilton with only 0,036s separating the two Brits. 

Q3 revealed some problems with Leclerc's tires. For a second it left the viewers wondering if the Mongaesque would be able to produce a satisfactory lap time, but in the end, he impressed once again, fighting for pole and losing only to the reining champion, Max Verstappen. Perez and Alonso followed the two, with Piastri closing out the top 5. Then we saw, in that order, Norris, Russel, Hamilton, Tsunoda, and Stroll. 

After the end of the session, we got confirmation from Ferrari that Sainz got the medical help he required and that he is currently recovering from the surgery. Still, he will not be able to participate in tomorrow's Grand Prix, meaning that the young Bearman will also drive in the race, starting from a very impressive P11. If there is anyone to watch out for during tomorrow's race, it is definitely him. 

Order of the grid:

1. Max Verstappen

2. Charles Leclerc

3. Sergio Perez

4. Fernando Alonso

5. Oscar Piastri

6. Lando Norris

7. George Russel

8. Lewis Hamilton

9. Yuki Tsunoda

10. Lance Stroll

11. Oliver Bearman

12. Alex Albon

13. Kevin Magnussen

14. Daniel Ricciardo

15. Nico Hulkenberg

16. Valtteri Bottas

17. Esteban Ocon

18. Pierre Gasly

19. Logan Sargeant 

20. Zhou Guanyu