Max Verstappen explained "final changes" were made to his Red Bull ahead of claiming a stunning pole position for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The Dutchman bounced back to his brilliant best at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, pipping Oscar Piastri to pole position by just 10 milliseconds. McLaren looked to have a stranglehold on qualifying after dominating the third and final practice session, but Verstappen somehow put together a lap in his RB21. It is a stark turnaround for Red Bull after struggling throughout the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend, where Verstappen qualified seventh and finished sixth. "Yeah, very happy," the four-time F1 champion said after the grid-setting session. "I definitely didn't expect to be on pole here after FP3 as well, and looking at how the whole weekend was, 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, a qualifying lap is extremely difficult because of all the walls - you need to try and nail it. And, yeah, it's really satisfying."
Aided by Lando Norris crashing in Q3 and therefore not being in contention for pole , Verstappen is nonetheless aware how difficult it will be to hold the other McLaren back in the race. "To be first here in qualifying is, of course, 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," the 64-time grand prix winner said. "We'll do our best. So far, I'm just very happy that we, again, had a solid qualifying. Much better than what we had in Bahrain, of course. Let's see what we could do tomorrow in the race."
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