Giedo van der Garde drops 2-word reaction to Max Verstappen's pole position at the F1 Saudi Arabian GP

Former F1 driver Giedo van der Garde gave a short reaction to Red Bull driver Max Verstappen clinching pole position at the 2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix qualifying. The Dutch driver produced another spectacular lap under the lights at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit on Saturday and posted a time a mere 0.010s faster than McLaren driver Oscar Piastri.

Heading into qualifying, many had predicted a front row lockout for the McLaren duo of Piastri and his teammate Norris, given the pace advantage of the MCL39 over its rivals. However, the championship leader's crash in the opening few minutes of Q3 had opened the field for a surprise result.

Max Verstappen went fastest by the barest of margins on both his Q3 laps and timed them to perfection as he put on two sets of soft tires in the last part of qualifying. On his official social media platform, the four-time F1 world champion posted a series of pictures from the session and wrote in the caption:

"Let’s go!! Simply lovely that, well done everyone @redbullracing ☝️ bring on the race."

Former Caterham driver and fellow Dutchman van der Garde was impressed by his countryman's exploits over a single lap and gave a two-word reaction in the comments, saying:

"My man."

Snapshot of Giedo van der Garde's comment on Max Verstappen...Credits-Instagram

The Red Bull driver clinched his second pole position of the year after he had pulled off another eye-catching performance in Suzuka a couple of weeks back.

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Max Verstappen analyzes his pole position lap in Jeddah

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen stated that he did not expect to be in pole position after the deficit to the McLarens in FP3, but felt that the car "came alive" under the night sky in Jeddah.

Speaking with F1.com, the 27-year-old spoke about his 42nd pole position and said:

“I definitely didn’t expect to be on pole here, especially after FP3, looking at how the whole weekend was. The car came alive in the night, we made some final changes, and it was a lot more enjoyable to drive. The grip was coming to me, and around here, a qualifying lap is extremely difficult because of all the walls; you need to try and nail it.

"It’s really satisfying to be first here in Qualifying, it is, of course, the best position for tomorrow, even though I think tomorrow in the race it will be tough to keep them behind, but we’re going to give it a good go.”

With Lando Norris starting from P10, Max Verstappen will have the chance to take over the championship lead if Oscar Piastri, who starts alongside him, also finishes outside the podium places, as he has a gap of eight points to the former.