BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer Andrew Benson felt qualifying for the Saudi Arabian GP was a ‘humiliation’ for Red Bull driver Sergio Perez as Max Verstappen sealed pole.
A gap of 0.335 seconds split the teammates at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit this Friday with Charles Leclerc in between. Verstappen topped the session with a 1:27.472 lap time in Q3 to outshine the Ferrari racer by 0.319 seconds. Fernando Alonso joins Perez on the second row.
Verstappen even achieved his decisive margin over Perez after the three-time F1 champion’s first run in the top 10 shootout. Pole position this weekend would have marked Perez’s third in succession at the Saudi Arabian GP. The 34-year-old had won from P1 on the grid in 2023.
Max Verstappen takes pole at the Saudi Arabian GP with Sergio Perez only third
The Jeddah event yielded Perez’s first of only two Grand Prix wins last year after Verstappen hit mechanical issues during qualifying. Verstappen failed to set a single time in Q2 last year and started from 15th place. Yet the Dutchman charged through the field to finish in second.
Now, pole position for the 2024 meet might see Verstappen become the first two-time race-winner at the Saudi Arabian GP. Mercedes racer Lewis Hamilton beat his fierce Red Bull rival to win the debut race in Jeddah in 2021. Verstappen won his only Saudi Arabian GP in 2022.
Andrew Benson felt qualifying was a ‘humiliation’ for Sergio Perez in Jeddah
But Perez failing to get close to Verstappen during qualifying for the 2024 Saudi Arabian GP raised serious concerns about the Red Bull driver for Benson. The BBC’s chief F1 writer felt Friday’s session was humbling for the Mexican as he fights for his future in Milton Keynes.
“Perez came into this season and it was very clear from Christian Horner that he needed to up his game in qualifying if he wanted to keep his seat at the end of this season,” Benson said on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra.
“This is looking like a humiliation for him. He is about half a second behind Verstappen all the time. That is not the performance we want to see from Perez for the rest of this year.”
Perez is in the final year of his contract with Red Bull and could not get close to Verstappen at the Bahrain GP, either. The Guadalajara native could only qualify in P5 as his 26-year-old teammate took pole. Perez finished the race in second place but was 22.457 seconds back.
A margin of 0.358 seconds also split the Red Bull teammates in qualifying in Sakhir, like the 0.335-second gap in Jeddah. It has not been the start to the season that Perez would have wanted, having struggled in qualifying last year with three Q1 exits and six exits during Q2.
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