There is no ‘Souffle’ value. Alonso and Aston Martin continue to surprise and seize every opportunity that comes their way to impress the competition. Some say that after the inaugural rostrum in Bahrain two weeks ago, the next stage on the calendar, Jeddah’s fast urban circuit, In Saudi Arabia, those coming from Silverstone would ‘suffocate’. But the Spanish driver’s determination and the team’s stamina have allowed for another minor ‘miracle’ as tomorrow Alonso will start the race second (18:00) and beat Red Bull, Sergio Pérez. Verstappen was eliminated in Q2 for swerving his car.

Carlos Sainz also got an excellent opportunity to fight for the pole position, but the Madrid man Russell bothered him on his return and although he tried one last time, he could not pass the fifth place. Teammate Leclerc, who is second behind Pérez, will start fourth – third if there is a sanction on Russell as he has sanctioned ten positions on the grid for replacing his Ferrari’s electronic control unit for the third time.

Q1: Aston Martin Recital

What was seen in the free tests predicted intense fighting in the midfield, a lot of doubt on the side of Ferrari and Mercedes at the top, and Red Bull’s total dominance. Few owned Aston Martins Despite the good performance of Alonso and Stroll since Friday.

Fear of another engine problem After what happened to Leclerc in Bahrain, he’s forcing Ferrari to manage its engine power conservatively until it’s time to max it out. And if that was clear in free practice, they didn’t give it all in Q1 either.

Max Verstappen, who was on the opposite side, showed his best performance from the first minute and went to the penalty area with the best time (1.28.7), half a second behind his teammate Sergio Pérez.

Alonso and Stroll remained determined to break the forecasts that pointed to problems for Aston Martin at this circuit, which was second on the calendar and completely different from Bahrain, where the Spanish driver took his first podium of the season. Fernando took third place Again behind the two Red Bulls, on the border and caressing the walls, Stroll finished fourth behind Leclerc and Sainz’s Ferraris.

Norris, who was the only one to hit the wall, confirmed the event. McLaren debacle and two Williams, Sargeant and Albon and two Alpha Tauri were eliminated along with De Vries and Tsunoda.

Q2: KO of Verstappen

In the second qualifying round, the surprise – capital – came when Verstappen had to stop his car as he approached the end of sector one due to a technical glitch that caused Red Bull to pull out their champion. At the time, Alonso was leading the timetable (1,28,757), followed by Pérez and Leclerc, Ride between two Mercedes and Sainz is looking for a quick lap to join the fray.

The Spaniard did it on his last attempt, in a final arm fight among the fastest four. Zhou, Bottas, Magnussen, Hülkenberg and logically Verstappen were left out of Q3 after the unexpected setback in the Red Bull garage.

Q3: Alonso and Sainz for all

The second pole fight of the season started without the champion and with a remarkable fact: the two Spanish drivers, Among the applicants, Alonso and Sainz and also Asturian at the beginning of the provisional classification.

The joy was short lived. Fernando started ahead (1,28,757), but as soon as Leclerc took the track, he climbed to first place with Russell behind him. Sainz failed to hit the target at the first opportunity and Sergio Pérez showed his ‘claws’ with a stratospheric tour (1.28.265) this gave him the temporary pole position.

They remained ‘low’ for all candidates and Checo seemed willing to defend Red Bull’s supremacy. in the absence of his partner.

Sainz had to cancel on a thrown lap when he was blocked by Russell. Alonso stuck himself in his last sector, Fastest, and therefore worst, second place for Aston Martin. Leclerc beat him but Asturian took first place due to Monegasque’s penalty.