F1 Saudi Arabia GP 2024 LIVE: Qualifying results, times and updates as Ollie Bearman makes debut

Teenager Ollie Bearman celebrated becoming the youngest British driver in Formula One history by qualifying 11th in his Ferrari for Saturday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Bearman, 18 years and 10 months to the day, was thrown into the deepest of ends as a last-minute stand-in for Carlos Sainz, who was hospitalised with appendicitis.

But the Essex teenager, with just one hour of practice under his belt, and having never driven an F1 machine at night, came within 0.036 seconds of toppling Lewis Hamilton and progressing to Q3.

Max Verstappen put Red Bull’s continued off-track woes to one side by taking pole position, with Charles Leclerc second, three tenths back, and Sergio Perez third.

Fernando Alonso took fourth, with George Russell and Hamilton seventh and eighth respectively for Mercedes. Hamilton was nearly one second slower than Verstappen.

“I woke up thinking about my F2 race. Chucked in the deep end for FP3 and qualifying. I wish Carlos the best, it was a fun opportunity.

“The track is evolving so much, the grip level is just incredible – after my first lap I was shocked! It’s a great feeling but takes some time to get used to.

“At the moment, not so proud! The racer in me knows that car was quick enough for Q3 – but in a couple of days I’ll look back on it.

“The goal was to do as many laps as possible, especially at night. I was close to the wall! Tried to get in as many laps as possible.”

“There have been crazy races around here, a lot of straights. I’m confident with the race-pace we have, the car will work really well around here.”

“In the second lap I put everything together – I’m really happy with the lap, shame we’re a bit further away than we thought.

“We did a step forward compared to last year, car is in a better place. We will try and optimise everything else for the race.

On Bearman: “I hope Carlos will recover quickly. On Ollie’s side, he’s done an incredible job – he was straight up to speed and comfortable with the car. Very special day, I hope tomorrow we both can have a great race.”

“Didn’t get much of an improvement which is why we missed front row. Max has done a tremendous lap, that was not possible for me today. Tomorrow is a long race, anything can happen.”

For the first time ever, Max Verstappen is on pole in Saudi!

His time of 1:27:472 is 0.319 secs quicker than P2 which goes to… Charles Leclerc.

Sergio Perez in third, with Fernando Alonso strong in fourth.

5-10: Piastri, Norris, Russell, Hamilton, Tsunoda, Stroll

“I don’t know, it just doesn’t feel good with new tyres.”

Everyone back in the pits. They’ll all now have new soft tyres for their final flying run…. three minutes to go…

And by some distance! Max Verstappen top with a 1:27:472, 0.335 secs ahead of team-mate Sergio Perez in second. That Red Bull…

Fernando Alonso best of the rest with an excellent lap, five-tenths off Verstappen, with Charles Leclerc fourth and George Russell fifth.

6-10: Piastri, Norris, Stroll, Hamilton, Tsunoda