Sergio Perez claimed his first ever Formula One pole at the 215th attempt when the Mexican upstaged Red Bull teammate and world champion Max Verstappen in qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Saturday.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc joins Perez on the front row with Verstappen on the second row after qualifying in fourth behind the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.

Saturday’s qualifying was marred by a horror crash suffered by Mick Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton’s shock elimination in the opening Q1 session for the first time since 2017.

It was a dramatic session coming just hours after it was confirmed the weekend would go ahead following lengthy talks overnight about racing in the aftermath of Friday’s missile strike by Yemen’s Huthi rebels on the nearby Aramco fuel plant.

“It took me a couple of races! But what a lap man, it was unbelievable!” said Perez, the first Mexican to head an F1 grid.

Red Bull will now be hoping for better luck in Sunday’s race than in the season-opener in Bahrain last week when both their cars failed to finish in a race won by Leclerc.

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