Formula 1: Saudi Arabian GP 2022 - Rohan's Quali Takeaways

Could I have asked for such an amazing qualifying just in the second race weekend of the season? No. The most unexpected things happened in this qualifying and I'll try to wrap them up as a fan! Read on...

1. Race = 215. Poles = 1. Checo Perez crushes Ferrari alone!

That what you just read is a record in F1. Most races to the first pole. Now usually, I expect Max to carry the RedBulls in qualifying. Sergio Perez, Max's teammate is clearly the #2 driver in the team. Nobody expects him to put together a scintillating lap as he just did in a cool and starry night of Arabia. In practice and all through Q1, Q2, Charles (Ferrari) dominated Max followed by Sainz, trading ever quicker lap times among them. Checo was there or thereabouts. I was even expecting Sainz to snatch a pole from Charles this weekend because he is just so damn consistent and wouldn't want to be left behind in the driver's championship, now that he has an equal chance as Charles with a resurgent Ferrari. But what a lap did Checo pull off from his Mexican hat! Beating the Ferraris by two and a half tenths (0.025s) of a second. And where is Max? He qualified P4. Surprising. But here is the real shocker...

2. Hamilton Out in Q1

On a usual day before 2022, Lewis would be easing into qualifying mode considering Q1 as a warmup for himself and the all-conquering Mercedes team. He might have forgotten that he isn't in the same era anymore and should have remembered Bahrain qualifying for good measure. Lewis Hamilton was knocked out of the first qualifying. While his teammate, George Russell in the other Mercedes secured a respectable P6. All through Q1, Lewis lacked pace and complained of car balance. But again, that's what he usually does and generally makes to through Q1. We have seen him do that year after year as far as assuming his place in Q3 as an axiom. Not today. It's back to the debriefing room with him and Bono tonight. How have the fortunes turned? Speaking about fortunes...

3. Alpine embarks on its 'El Plan'...finally

Alpine was the best of the rest in today's qualifying and clearly the most improved team from Bahrain by a long mile. Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso securing P5 and P7 respectively. Frankly, I was worried about Alpine. They are the only car manufacturer with the Renault engine and the less I talk about their past performances the better. I don't see them fighting for podiums or wins. Nobody does. But they are the quiet mid of the midfield if I can put that very politely.

Alonso came out of retirement last year just to have one last shot at the title with the new regulations. At 40, his hunger is still the same when he got one of his two world championships. But as a world champion driver, his demands from the team that he drives for are also of very high standards. (Cue - GP2 engine when he drove for McLaren). So naturally, I want him to succeed as he is still a brilliant and sharp driver. Results like today will give him and the team a good boost that they are on the right track of their 'El Plan'. Whatever that is...

4. A qualifying that felt it could be red-flagged at every corner

The Jeddah Corniche Circuit (that's the official name of the circuit, FYI) is the fastest street circuit on the F1 2022 calendar. Long straights, sweeping corners, no awkward turns basically mean the drivers are at full throttle most of the time. We had a brief incident with Nicholas Latifi in the Williams in Q1 that brought out the red flag. Thanks to the barriers, Latifi was safe.

Cut to Q2, Mick Schumacher (Haas) looked like he wanted to wipe out the pain of Bahrain and get into Q3. But he suffered an awful accident in Q2 with the wheels coming off and the car breaking into two. Thankfully there were no flames but the concrete barriers didn't help Mick either. It looked very serious and an ambulance was called on the track. When that happens, it's usually not a very good sign for the viewers. Certainly not the drivers. Thankfully he looked to be safe and was airlifted on a helicopter to a nearby hospital for precautionary checks. Will he race tomorrow? We'll know that tomorrow!

But the important news is that he is safe.

And that gets me worried and at the same time excited for the race tomorrow. The red flag in Q2 lasted for almost a quarter of an hour if not more. The car had to be lifted, the track had to be cleared and what not. On a fast track like Jeddah, incidents like that of Latifi and Mick could happen in the race. So my worries are driver injuries and laps or time lost due to the red flag. I want a clean but full race barring major incidents that curtail race duration. And the excitement is because ever once in a while when such incidents happen randomly on a track, it engenders life back into an otherwise boring race. I want that as well. It sounds contradicting but that's how races get registered in your memory.

The rest of the pack looked OK. Nothing notable. Probably McLaren has improved but I won't put my money on them just yet. All Mercedes-powered cars seem to be struggling at the moment. Ferrari power is ruling the top of the grid. RedBull Powertrains have some reliability concerns as both the Alpha Tauri drivers had to swap engine components at a very early stage in the season. Now, remember there are quotas to how many replacements you can make before you start getting penalties. RedBull will have to be wary of that. Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri) did not even feature in today's qualifying due to an engine issue after it was replaced.

There you have it. My takeaways from the qualifying. We have an exciting race at our hands. Perez is on pole with both the Ferrari's hunting him down on turn 1. Max will be raring to open his points account and so would the entire RedBull garage. There wasn't much to separate the Ferraris and RedBulls in qualifying and I want the same to happen in the race. Will Ferrari's high downforce design that suits high-speed corners of a fast street circuit be enough to tame the RedBulls who are quicker on the straights? We'll find that out and more tomorrow and I'll cover that in my Race Reactions.

I'd love to read your comments and feedback about this post. And as always, shoot your questions about F1 if you don't want me to start compiling a book already. I can promise it will have to be re-published every year as a new edition...