Racing late into the night for qualifying, there were two red flags in Saudi Arabia.
Drivers didn’t look that comfortable bouncing along at high speeds on a track with the temperature over 24°C.
Q1:
Haas were first to take the track followed by Williams. Everyone was eager to set a time.
Most drivers started on softs or mediums to get a taste while pushing hard on the track.
A red flag was shown after Nicholas Latifi’s rear gave away when braking resulting in a crash into the barriers. It came as a surprise while he was racing at 106mph into Turn 13. The Canadian was taken to the medical centre to be checked out and came out with no issues.
The Ferraris were stunning setting the fastest lap times around 1:28:855.
It was a massive shock as Lewis Hamilton was knocked out. This hasn’t happened since Brazil in 2017. There was a struggle to balance the car.
Eliminated in Q1:
Lewis Hamilton
Alex Albon
Nico Hulkenberg
Nicholas Latifi
Yuki Tsunoda
Q2:
With just under five minutes to go from Turn 11 into Turn 12, Michael Schumacher lost it on the kerb and hit the wall. The track filled with loads of carbon fibre debris.
The session stopped. He was lifted out of his car and taken away in an ambulance. The Haas car was severely damaged. It split in two. The impact was high.
Steiner confirmed that Mick was conscious and spoke with his Mum. To be safe, he was airlifted to the hospital to under go precautionary checks and a scan.
The session resumed eventually with drivers having a reset to race their hearts out.
Eliminated in Q2:
Lando Norris
Daniel Ricciardo
Zhou Guanyu
Mick Schumacher
Lance Stroll
Q3:
Ferraris were flying fast in first ahead. Alpine impressed as well. Charles Leclerc or Carlos Sainz were expected to be top.
Red Bull surprised in the end. Checo claimed pole with a time of 1:29:705.
? QUALIFYING CLASSIFICATION ?
A maiden pole position for Checo! ?#SaudiArabianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/XhWtsv7cxB
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 26, 2022
Headline Image Credit: Formula 1.