Max Verstappen makes his feelings known after securing pole position for the F1 Saudi Arabian GP

Max Verstappen credited the Red Bull coming alive in Q3 to help him secure pole position for the F1 Saudi Arabian GP. The Dutch driver did not appear to be in contention throughout the race weekend, as it did appear that the McLaren duo had it under control.

Unlike the other competitors, the Dutch driver was quite fast in the first sector, but he still lacked those final tenths to Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Throughout qualifying, the gap was around two tenths of a second from Max Verstappen to the top of the timesheets.

Then we had Q3, and all of a sudden it was Norris who ended up in the wall. The McLaren driver crashed out and hence will start the race in P10. Then the final shootout came down to Max Verstappen, Oscar Piastri, and George Russell. In the final sequence of laps, the Red Bull appeared to be hooked up as well as it had ever been throughout qualifying.

In the end, when the checkered flag fell on the session, Max Verstappen was in pole position by the tiniest of margins. Talking to Jamie Chadwick after the session, the Red Bull driver said:

"Very happy. I definitely didn't expect to be on pole here after FP3 and 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 really nail it."

He added:

"It's really satisfying. To be first here in qualifying is of course the best position for tomorrow even though I think in the race it will be difficult to keep them behind. But we will give it a good go. We will do our best."

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George Russell credits Max Verstappen for his lap

Max Verstappen will have rival George Russell lining up in P3, as the Mercedes driver was in contention for pole right until the end. The British driver stated that he was happy with P3 in his car, but after looking at the times, he felt that maybe there was more that he could have done.

Crediting the Dutch driver for his lap, the Mercedes driver said (via Sky Sports):

"To be honest, before the session I would have taken a P3 but when I just saw how close it was, I was really happy with the lap but you always think there might have been a little bit more in there."

He added:

"But being realistic we know this was the maximum today. On these high-speed circuits we probably don't quite have the pace of the McLarens and Max did an amazing job again, so congratulations to him."

Max Verstappen has now secured two pole positions this season and is the only non-McLaren driver to even have one of them in the first five races.