Andrea Stella: "Firstly, the most important thing from today's Qualifying session is that Lando is okay and ready to race tomorrow, after a rare accident from him.
"Today showed us we have the pace as a team to consistently fight for the top positions in Qualifying, but we have seen once again how tight the field is and how a few milliseconds can make the difference, like in Suzuka. Oscar did a great job today, narrowly missing out on Pole to Verstappen, who looked quick throughout the Qualifying session, as did Russell.
"Both Oscar and Lando have been fast all weekend, so we are confident in the pace of the car. The team and both drivers will be looking to make progress tomorrow and we believe we can fight for the victory in tomorrow's Grand Prix."
Christian Horner: "Coming into Quali off the back of FP3 it was all about who was going to be third and then suddenly in Q1 Max went quickest. In Q2 we were right there and then there was the unfortunate accident for Lando in Q3, thankfully he was okay, but it meant there was only three cars with two new sets left, which was Oscar, George and Max. We had to make a decision as a Team and the driver has to buy into that and be happy, we elected to do the two timed laps and that puts you under pressure because if there is any issue at all you have lost that margin. A great call by everyone. What was so impressive for me was because Max had to take the pitstop to change tyres, he had to carry the six or seven kilos more fuel than anyone else, and then he went quickest on that first lap. That put the pressure on the other guys and then his last lap was outstanding. To get that pole, our second in the last three races, is phenomenal and really rewarding. It was a wonderful performance by Max and the Team. The set-up changes we made definitely helped, and it gave Max a car he could attack with, we still expected to see a margin to the other cars but it seemed to disappear this evening and Max set a track record out there. We will have a fight on our hands with Oscar tomorrow but we are starting in the best possible position. It was good to have Yuki up there in Q3 as well, he is really finding his way in this car and with the Team. I have been impressed by how calm he is, he was in the ice bath 10 minutes before the session! We are super satisfied with him, and he is right up there to win good points tomorrow."
The first night on which things get serious at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, with qualifying for tomorrow's 50 lap race that starts at 20 (19 CEST) tomorrow, saw Scuderia Ferrari HP get both its drivers into the final Q3 phase. Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton gave it their best shot on their only flying lap, the results of which reflected the performance level so far this weekend. The Monegasque will start in fourth spot on row 2, while the Englishman is two rows further back in seventh place. It could be quite an open race as there are four teams represented in the top four grid positions. Behind Oscar Piastri's McLaren, the gaps are pretty close which is why preparing for the race down to the smallest detail is on the team's agenda for tonight, to try and bring home as many points as possible with both cars. Lewis will be looking for a good start to get the jump on Carlos Sainz in the Williams to then set off in pursuit of the front runners.
As expected, qualifying was very close right from the start, so that both Charles and Lewis had to resort to a second set of Softs to ensure they got to Q2. The new tyre was essential for Hamilton, although it became clear that Leclerc was definitely through by the time he had completed the first sector, so he was able to save the tyres for the next part. Here too, both drivers resorted to two sets of new Softs to make the cut to Q3. The two SF-25s went out in Q3 on used tyres, but the session was immediately red flagged after Lando Norris crashed into the barriers. At this stage, Oscar Piastri was the only driver to have crossed the line. Charles and Lewis then fitted their last sets of new Softs and left the garage for just one flying lap, with the Monegasque posting a 1'27"670 to secure fourth place, while Hamilton stopped the clocks in 1'27"670, which put him seventh on the time sheet.
Fred Vasseur: We cannot be happy overall considering the gap to pole position. However we have Charles starting from the second row and Lewis in seventh place so it will be interesting to see how the race pace will be with both our cars. No one did a proper long stint yesterday but since the beginning of the season we have performed better over a long run than on a qualifying lap.
We have to maximise what we have at the moment and we will fight to collect another good points tally, being ready to take every opportunity that the race might present. One can overtake at this track, so tonight we will be preparing for every possible scenario.
George Russell will line up third and Kimi Antonelli fifth for tomorrow's Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The team focused on its single lap tyre warm-up strategy in FP3; with a 50°C track temperature the session was not entirely representative but provided useful learnings for Qualifying in the cooler evening conditions.
Both drivers progressed serenely through to Q3, with the field at the front looking incredibly close between several cars including ourselves, the McLarens and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen.
As both drivers were on their first efforts in Q3, the red flags flew with the McLaren of Lando Norris in the wall at turn five. That left both drivers with one new set of Soft tyres and one effort to set their positions on the grid.
George came within 0.110s of pole position to take P3. Kimi meanwhile had a moment in sector one which cost him a couple of tenths; that left him a still strong P5 for tomorrow's race.
Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO: That was an exciting Qualifying session, even if we ended up on the wrong end of the top three. There was very little between ourselves, the McLarens and the Red Bull of Verstappen in the end. You would always want to be starting from pole position, but we didn't expect to be in the fight for P1 after FP3. George did a great job therefore to put the car in the mix and he will be looking forward tomorrow.
Kimi meanwhile once again put in a strong performance despite it being so early in his F1 career. He made a small mistake in the first sector which cost him a couple of tenths. Without that, he would likely have been P4, but P5 is still a great starting position.
The car seems to be provided a stable platform for us to work with. Over the first five races, we've been consistently in the fight for the podium and hopefully we can keep that going in tomorrow's race. The McLarens looked to have very strong long run pace on Friday, so we think it will be difficult to fight Piastri for the win. Let's see what happens though and, as always, we will be giving it our all.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: We had a decent final practice session, and the car was working well. Like Bahrain though, it looked like McLaren would be totally out of reach in Qualifying. In the cooler conditions later in the evening though, the W16 car was working much better than in FP2 yesterday. That was a pleasing development and meant we were able to stay close to the front. With Kimi, we used a second set of Soft tyres to get through Q1. As it turns out, he'd have just made it through with his first lap, but we rightly didn't risk that. From there on it was straightforward to get both into Q3, George with two new sets and Kimi down to one.
The timing of Norris's red flag wasn't ideal as it came out just before both our drivers would have completed their first laps. That meant it all came down to the final efforts at the end of the session. Neither lap was perfect, with both drivers quite rightly making sure we got the laps in to put a time on the board. Kimi had a poor first sequence but finished strong and we're pleased to see him secure P5 on the grid. George was looking close to the times Verstappen and Piastri set but lost a little in the final corner to put him P3. Overall, we're left with a sense we could have achieved a bit more but in many ways it's a healthy sense of frustration. We've improved a long way since last year and we'll keep pushing. The points are all to play for tomorrow and there should be plenty of opportunity as it's rarely a dull race here in Jeddah.
Andy Cowell, CEO & Team Principal: "We worked hard to unlock more performance from the car leading up to Qualifying, but it's such a tight grid with a tenth of a second covering a couple of rows. Our session was well managed by the garage and the pit wall with both drivers delivering clean and tidy laps aided by good tyre preparation. There is a long race ahead of us tomorrow. We will come out ready to take any opportunity to progress and compete for points."
Dave Greenwood, Racing Director: "Wrapping up Qualifying in Jeddah with one car in Q3 for the second consecutive weekend is satisfying but there was potential for more today from that session to have Pierre starting higher up the grid. Qualifying here at this circuit tends to throw up certain challenges, particularly with traffic management or stoppages for red flags. Pierre stringed together some strong laps to progress through each session but every lap took a lot of hard work from the team and the driver to optimise performance. We pushed after the red flag in Q3 to get Pierre two timed laps with a pit-stop between, however Pierre aborted the scrubbed lap and that put us out of sync and we then needed to hold in the box which did not help the tyre preparation. The final lap in Q3 did not see any progression from Q2 which is extremely disappointing as the pace was there today in the car. On Jack's side, the car felt much more connected for him this morning in Practice and again he felt more comfortable in the car in Qualifying, which showed being closer to Pierre at the start of the Q1 session. With where we're starting there's a strong chance to move forwards and the aim is for points again tomorrow."
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team drivers Ollie Bearman and Esteban Ocon qualified 15th and 19th respectively for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Round 5 of the 2025 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.
With Q1 underway at 20:00 local under the blaze of floodlights around the sweeping 6.174-kilometer (3.836-mile), 27-turn Jeddah Corniche Circuit - qualifying's opening sector proved a mixed bag for Ocon and Bearman. Both picked up speed throughout the session, commencing with an opening run on new Pirelli P Zero Red softs followed by an outing on used softs. Third and final laps came on a second set of fresh soft tires with Bearman progressing through to Q2 courtesy of a 1:28.850 (P11) while Ocon exited Saturday's qualifying on a 1:29.092 (P19).
Bearman ran a first lap on scrubbed softs to start the second phase of knockout qualifying - the rookie banking a 1:28.648. He failed to improve on a new set of the compound and wound up P15 and out at the checkered in Q2.
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "Unfortunately we underperformed in qualifying, I don't feel we maximized our potential. It's actually quite tricky to get the performance out of the soft tires and I think as a team we've still got a lot to learn. When we put it right, we can see the potential, but it's a fine edge. I think if we understand those things, we have potential, and tomorrow is a completely different story in the long run. We'll learn from this qualifying, but we're now focused on tomorrow and how we can move forward."
Max Verstappen is getting a taste for it. Following on from Japan, the four-time world champion snatched pole away from what looked like being another dominant qualifying performance from McLaren in Saudi Arabia. At the very last moment, Verstappen pipped Oscar Piastri by just ten thousandths of a second with a time of 1'27"294 for the Dutchman against 1'27"304 for the Australian.
In third place, having briefly been quickest, was George Russell with a lap in 1'27"407, while sharing the third row with the Mercedes driver will be Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, fourth in 1'27"670.
Apart from the first edition of this race in 2021, when Lewis Hamilton was fasting in qualifying for Mercedes, Red Bull has always taken pole at this track, in 2022 and 2023 with Sergio Perez and now for the last two years with Verstappen. It was his 42nd career pole, the 105th for Red Bull Racing.
The Pirelli Pole Position Award was presented to Verstappen by Anthony Anderson. The American actor was nominated for a Golden Globe two years in succession for his leading role in the TV series "Black-ish," which he also produces. He currently hosts "We Are Family" on FOX TV. He has also appeared in film franchises including "Scary Movie," "Transformers," "Scream" and crime series, "Law & Order" and "The Shield." His most recent role was in the film "G20" shown on Amazon Prime Video, which also stars Viola Davis.
Once again in the third free practice session, all driver studiously avoided the Hard, with just the Aston Martin and Racing Bulls drivers running their usual scrubbing in lap, the former also doing this with a set of Mediums.
Otherwise, red was the colour, with the sole exception of Gabriel Bortoleto, who used a set of Mediums to get used to the track, given that he had to miss FP2 yesterday because of a problem on his Sauber. All the other drivers used two sets each of the Soft.
Mario Isola: "What a qualifying session that was, especially Q3! In the final five minutes pole position changed hands five times, and as further proof of how close is this season there are four drivers from four different teams in the top four places.
"Of course the Soft was the sole protagonist in qualifying, and on its debut here in Jeddah we saw that the C5 is competitive not just over the first flying lap, but also good for a second attempt.
"When it comes to strategies, we don't feel the situation has changed since yesterday and it's no coincidence that, although it's not yet confirmed, the vast majority of drivers, 15 of the 20 to be precise, have all saved two sets of Hards. The C3 seems to offer the best performance and, without too much degradation a one-stop strategy is on paper the quickest way, with the order Medium-Hard being favourite, pitting between laps 14 and 20. There are a couple of reasons why many have opted to save two sets of this compound: firstly to be ready for any possible safety car situations, which have often been seen at this track and secondly, to have a backup in case there's a significant step up in degradation tomorrow.
"Those starting from the back end of the grid might aim to make up positions by swapping the order of use of the compounds, (i.e. C4 then C3) pitting from lap 30. A two-stopper is not too far off in terms of total time taken, with a difference of around 5 seconds and would again involve using the C3 and C4. The C5 could be an option for drivers looking to make the most of its superior performance over the first few laps to make up places, or if there were to be a safety car in the closing stages of the race."
