The Dutch
Max Verstappen
(Red Bull), triple world champion and leader of the 2024 World Championship, will start first this Saturday at the
Saudi Arabia Grand Prix
, the second test of the
Formula 1
season , which is held on the urban circuit of Jeddah, where his teammate, the Mexican
Sergio Pérez
, will start third and the Spanish double world champion
Fernando Alonso
(Aston Martin), fourth.
Verstappen, 26, signed his thirty-fourth pole position in Formula 1 - the second of the year and the first in Jeddah - by dominating this Friday's classification, in which he covered - in the third and decisive round (Q3) - the 6,174 meters of the track that bathes the Red Sea in one minute, 27 seconds and 472 thousandths;
319 less than the Monegasque
Charles Leclerc
(Ferrari) and 335 ahead of Checo.
Alonso was 374 thousandths behind
Mad Max
.
The Asturian double world champion will start fourth this Saturday in Saudi Arabia, from the second row and next to the Mexican from Red Bull.
From third place will be the two
McLaren
drivers , the Australian Oscar Piastri -fifth this Friday- and the Englishman
Lando Norris
;
one row ahead of the Mercedes of the English
George Russell
-seventh in qualifying- and the seven-time world champion
Lewis Hamilton
. The Japanese
Yuki Tsunoda
(RB) will start ninth, from the fifth row;
in which he will be accompanied by the Canadian
Lance Stroll
, Alonso's partner.
The British
Oliver Bearman
, who improvisedly had to replace
Carlos Sainz Jr
in Ferrari's SF24 due to the Spaniard's appendicitis, was eleventh in his first participation in a qualifying session.
Bearman, aged 18 years and 10 months, will become the third youngest driver to take part in an F1 Grand Prix race on Saturday.
Sources: EFE and AFP