Saudi Arabia GP Qualifying Report

As coverage went on air for Qualifying, Hamilton was doubly under investigation by the stewards for ignoring waved yellow flags and impeding Mazepin in FP3.  He was immediately let off on the first count as it was an error that the flags were shown for less than a second.   He was given a reprimand for the second.  Mercedes were more heavily penalised because they should have warned him to speed up earlier.

Another key focus of all the coverage of this weekend is whether F1 should be in Saudi Arabia to start off with.  Hamilton has made it very clear that he is "uncomfortable there", Vettel too.  Coverage of Sir Frank Williams' passing should have been slightly higher profile, I feel.

The first session was anyone's with Perez taking first position and Bottas' stopping in the pit lane with a broken engine (despite being through).  Latifi in the Williams, both Aston Martins and both Haas out of the game.

It's such a speedy circuit, heart in your mouth as the drivers carreer around with almost no run-off.  As we drive around with Verstappen on his final flying lap, I almost felt like this could be his weekend for a major, major accident.  Then he crashed, just a bump but deadly for the car.  Now we all had to wait to see whether the car would be damaged a la LeClerc, Monaco 2019 (?).  So he handed Hamilton pole and Bottas second, securing himself third.  Ferrari were looking stronger, with LeClerc in fourth (Sainz in 15th after being held up by Gasly).  A good showing from Norris ahead of Ricciardo in 11th, Ocon in 9th ahead of Alonso in 13th and Giovinazzi  in 10th ahead of Raikkonen in 12th.