Max Verstappen said the RB21 “came alive in the night” after he beat Oscar Piastri to take pole for the 2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

With Lando Norris putting his car in the wall, the battle for the pole became a shootout between Verstappen, Piastri and George Russell, but it was the Dutchman who ultimately came out on top.

Max Verstappen reacts after pole in Saudi Arabia quali

Following his struggles in Bahrain, FP2 at least suggested that the RB21 would be more to Verstappen’s liking and that pace duly arrived all the way through the quali hour.

Jostling for the top spot, the key moment came following Norris’ crash when Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase predicted there would be time for two laps after the red flag restart, meaning the driver could get his eye in before the crucial final run.

That tactic proved vital with Verstappen just edging Piastri to pole, finishing 0.01 seconds ahead of the Australian.

“I’m very happy, I definitely didn’t expect to be on pole here after FP3 and looking at how the whole weekend was,” he said in the immediate aftermath. “But 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, qualifying 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, 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.”

Jamie Chadwick, who was interviewing Verstappen on the grid, reminded the Dutchman that three of the past four races at this circuit have been won from the pole, but the reigning World Champion was trying to focus on this weekend rather than past results.

“We’ll do our best,” Verstappen said of his win chance. “So far, I’m just very happy that we again had a solid qualifying, much better than what we had in Bahrain and let’s see what we could do tomorrow in the race.”

As for Piastri, he was not too disappointed in his own performance, commenting that Verstappen had done a “good job” with his lap.

“I was pretty happy with it,” he recalled. “There wasn’t too much more left in that lap, so happy with the job I did.

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“I think it was just playing catch up a little bit through the first part of qualifying, and then that last lap felt more or less like the best I could have done.

“I think Max has done a good job. I think it’s another high speed circuit for them where they seem to be having a little bit more success, but he’s done a good job again, obviously.

“Still, all to play for tomorrow. I think our pace is good. It’s going to be a tough race, and the tyres are a bit softer than last year, so we’ll see if that plays to our advantage.”

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