F1 Saudi Arabian GP live commentary and updates - Qualifying

That was an audacious move by Red Bull to fuel Max for two runs but if anyone can deliver, it's him. McLaren will view this as an opportunity lost - especially for championship leader Lando Norris, who will start P10.

Who were the other winners and losers in that final flurry? George Russell will start P3 ahead of Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli. Russell is just 0.113s off pole and says "Realistically that was the maximum today."

Lewis Hamilton, P7 behind Carlos Sainz, will again be annoyed with himself - half a second off his teammate.

Yuki Tsunoda, P8 and 0.910s off his teammate's pole position, will be relishing that track time he'll be getting at Silverstone next week in the 2023 car.

Pierre Gasly may view P9 as a good qualifying outcome on a track Alpine didn't expect to be a happy hunting ground.

Hold the front page! Verstappen puts in a sizzlingly purple first sector and he's well on his way. The following sectors aren't all that but he still crosses the line 0.010s faster than Piastri. Pole position for Verstappen which may prove crucial here. "The car really came alive in the night," he says on the radio.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Piastri now out again and on a flier, purple in sector one. But, like Russell, sector two is no great shakes - P3 is purple though and he goes top! 1m27.304s puts Russell down to P2. 

Russell purple through sector one but his second wasn't quite so impressive - a PB in the final one puts him P1 though, 1m27.407s.

Max still out, so the auguries are that he is fuelled for another run. He radios to the pits that he had low grip in Turn 1; 'GP' advises him the tyres weren't ready. Now he comes in - and just for a change of tyres, fresh boots on, so that car was relatively heavy on Max's first flier.

Verstappen purple in sector one and this looks like a good one. Green in sector two. Purple in sector three - provisional pole by 0.001s!

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Lars Baron - Motorsport Images

Verstappen, Sainz and Gasly out now on the tyres they'd tried to use on their pre-red flag runs.

Yes, Norris was too hot out of the exit of Turn 4 and it sent him onto the kerb, rendering him a passenger as momentum conveyed his McLaren to its appointment with the barrier. His MCL39 is now making its way back to the pits on the back of a truck.

Piastri is fastest by dint of being the only driver to have posted a time before that red flag. Russell, Antonelli, Leclerc, Sainz, Gasly and Hamilton were all either beginning or shaping up to begin their push laps. Verstappen and Tsunoda were still tyre-prepping.

Russell has clonked the kerb somewhere because he's asked his team to check his floor data. Piastri goes quickest on 1m27.560s despite a kiss with the wall.

Tsunoda also on used tyres in this phase.

Antonelli, Leclerc, Sainz, Gasly and Hamilton out on used tyres. Verstappen, Norris and Russell on new ones.

Q3 begins and Oscar Piastri is first out of the pitlane  - on new tyres.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

So it's Albon out in Q2, a victim of his teammate and Tsunoda making late improvements. P11 for him. Then a disappointed Lawson, who apologises to his team over the radio. Fernando Alonso, Isack Hadjar and Oliver Bearman complete the roster of those who fell short of Q3.

George Russell, by the way, did a 1m27.599s to consolidate P4, 0.118s off Norris's benchmark.

Lawson bunks Hamilton out of the top 10 but only for a few seconds as Lewis does a 1m28.102s. It's enough for P8 but that soon becomes P10 as Sainz and Tsunoda do their final hot laps.

Whither Kimi Antonelli? He was P10, now clocking up PBs en route to... P5 for now, 1m27.798. He should be safe as the clock ticks down.

Hamilton back out on another set of new softs. This will cost him if he gets thropugh to Q3, but he needs this lap since he's currently P8.

Leclerc also going out on new tyres. Interesting that Ferrari considers him unsafe on 1m28.030s.

Albon goes P6 for now, 1m28.100. PBs in the first two sectors but he was off in the third.

Russell out on new tyres, let's see what he can do...

After a lull in the on-track action, Albon is back out on new tyres. Rightly so, since he currently rests P11.

Ferrariwatch: Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton are P5 and P7, sandwiching Yuki Tsunoda. The Ferraris are a fraction under two tenths apart for now, but on previous form Charles has been able to pull something special out at the final time of asking.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

After the first runs, among the frontrunners George Russell in P4, 0.491s off Norris, is worthy of note since he did his time on used tyres.

Take that! Lando Norris shuffles to the top with 1m27.401s, also set on new tyres.

Piastri goes top on 1m27.690s but is then immediately dethroned by Verstappen, 0.161s quicker. Remarkable scenes.

Verstappen, Piastri and Lawson out on new softs.

Alex Albon posts the first lap of Q2, 1m28.581s, on used softs. He might be tad disappointed by that since he went faster in Q1.

Interestingly, we hear McLaren has decided not to use the new diffuser it trialled in practice. More data required before that goes on the car for racing purposes.

Lando Norris, McLaren

Photo by: Peter Fox - Getty Images

Stroll's teammate Fernando Alonso went through three sets of soft tyres to get through to Q2, so that illusrates the mountain this team has to climb.

Isack Hadjar was the lucky escapee of Q1, tapping the wall on his way to P15. Gary Gannon, Lance Stroll's new race engineer, told Lance to stay in the car while potential track-limits violations were investigated.

So the Haas drivers both improved on their final laps but not by enough for Ocon - 1m29s were never going to cut it. Ocon will line up P19 tomorrow, barring penalties for others. Late spinner Gabriel Bortoleto was P20. Nico Hulkenberg also out, P18. Jack Doohan P17. Lance Stroll P16.

Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Team

Photo by: Peter Fox - Getty Images

That will come as a relief to TeamLH - Lewis posts a 1m28.372s which puts him P9.

Hamilton P15 and needing to make this one stick with others going quickly on track.

Bearman, Gasly and Ocon all going green on their final flying laps.

Piastri goes 1m7.901 to close the gap to his teammate but Verstappen bunks them both down with a 1m27.778!

Big flurry of activity coming in this last couple of minutes if the current P10 is considered unsafe.