Four-time world champion Verstappen was in irrepressible form under the floodlights on the high-speed Jeddah Corniche Circuit, grabbing the front of the grid with a 1min 27.294sec lap, one hundredth of a second quicker than Piastri.

With that same scenario playing out in the days ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix — the McLaren duo again trading times atop the leaderboard while Verstappen sounded the alarm about the RB21 being “too slow” — many wondered if the Red Bull driver would still find a way to take pole position in the desert.

Max Verstappen said the Red Bull 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,