After a spectacular start to the 2022 season, the F1 circus will be heading to the Arabian Peninsula for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The Jeddah Corniche circuit will play host to its second F1 race within just four months, after hosting last year’s race in late November.
Qualifying for the race will take place on Saturday, March 19, ahead of the Grand Prix the following day. The hour-long session is broken up into three parts – Q1, Q2, and Q3 with each lasting for 18 minutes, 15 minutes, and 12 minutes respectively.
Drivers usually push hard during these sessions to set up a competitive lap and score an optimum starting position for the Grand Prix. During each session, the slowest 5 drivers on the bottom end of the grid are eliminated, while the rest progress into the next session. The driver to set the fastest lap in the final Qualifying session will get pole position and will start the race in P1 on Sunday.
Heading into Jeddah, Ferrari are the heavy favorites, but Red Bull are expected to bounce back after PU issues led to them scoring zero points in Bahrain. Meanwhile, Mercedes have a huge gap to fill if they want to threaten either Red Bull or Ferrari for the championship.
While their Bahrain points haul was vastly better than expected, courtesy of the two Red Bulls’ retirement, the German team knows they have a huge deficit in raw pace.
TV Schedule for 2022 F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix qualifying
Here are the timings for the official 2022 F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Qualifying for fans in the USA, UK, and India.
USA
01:00 pm EST, Saturday, March 26, 2022
UK
05:00 pm GMT, Saturday, March 26, 2022
India
10:30 pm IST, Saturday, March 26, 2022
Viewers in the U.S. can watch qualifying sessions on ESPN and ESPN Deportes. Sky Sports F1 is the official broadcaster in the United Kingdom, and covers Qualifying live. Fans in India can watch the action on Star Sports Select and Star Sports Select HD2. The sessions are also available for streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.