2024 F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix: Full starting grid explored as Max Verstappen wins first-ever pole position in the Gulf country

Max Verstappen will start the 2024 F1 Saudi Arabian GP in front of the grid after snatching pole position during qualifying with his teammate Sergio Perez in third place. Splitting the two Red Bulls was the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc who will start on the front row alongside Verstappen.

The qualifying session of the second round of the 2024 F1 World Championship came to an end and seemingly still, Red Bull has the upper hand and Ferrari is close to them. Fernando Alonso, despite catching a long slipstream from Lewis Hamilton on the main straight, managed to be fourth fastest on his final running lap, leaving behind both the McLarens of Oscar Piastri (P5) and Lando Norris (P6).

Here is the starting lineup for tomorrow's race:

Position	Driver	Team
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull
2	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari
3	Sergio Perez	Red Bull
4	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin
5	Oscar Piastri	McLaren
6	Lando Norris	McLaren
7	George Russell	Mercedes
8	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
9	Yuki Tsunoda	RB
10	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin
11	Oliver Bearman	Ferrari
12	Alexander Albon	Williams
13	Kevin Magnussen	Haas
14	Daniel Ricciardo	RB
15	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas
16	Valtteri Bottas	Kick Sauber
17	Esteban Ocon	Alpine
18	Pierre Gasly	Alpine
19	Logan Sargeant	Williams
20	Zhou Guanyu	Kick Sauber

F2 driver Oliver Bearman made his Formula 1 racing debut with Ferrari after Carlos Sainz had to undergo surgery because of appendicitis. While he only had one session to practice (FP3) behind the wheel of the SF-24, he was only 0.03 seconds short of making it into Q3.

Nico Hulkenberg will start the race in P15 after a suspected power issue in his car stranded him to the side of the track, also bringing in the second red flag of the day.

The first red flag was waved during FP3 when Zhou Guanyu crashed. For this reason, his car could not be prepared on time and he did not set a lap around the track. While he did leave the garage for a hot lap, he missed out by a handful of seconds.

---

Max Verstappen confident about Red Bull's race pace at Jeddah

This is the first time that the Dutchman will start the Saudi Arabian GP from the front row. This was also one of the only three races last season that Max Verstappen was not victorious in.

Heading into the 2024 edition, however, Max Verstappen feels the car has strong pace. Despite the risk of facing a safety car in the narrow streets of Jeddah, he feels confident about the car's pace, as he said during his post-qualifying interview:

"As we have seen in the past also, you know, there have been a lot of uh crazy races around here a lot can happen. Normally people always say, ah, it's a 1 Stop easy to the line. But uh, it's it's not like that around here a lot of straights as well."

"But I'm confident with the race pace that we have that tomorrow the car will work really well."

Max Verstappen currently leads the championship after winning the season-opening race last week with his teammate Sergio Perez in second place. Ferrari has looked close to the team so far but still not close enough to battle for a victory.