Verstappen earns Saudi pole after Norris crashes during Q3

Red Bull's Max Verstappen earned pole position for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after McLaren's Lando Norris crashed during the Q3 portion of qualifying.

Norris' teammate, Oscar Piastri, will start in second position, with George Russell of Mercedes beginning third.

Verstappen beat the lap record of the Jeddah Corniche circuit by 0.178 seconds to earn his second pole position of the season.

"Simply lovely that," a surprised Verstappen exclaimed over the radio after securing top position.

Norris took himself out of qualifying after crashing into the wall coming out of Turn 5.

The drivers' standings leader said he was OK after the incident, but could be heard calling himself a "f---ing idiot" over the radio following the error.

Norris leads Piastri by five points in the drivers' standings and sits eight points ahead of Verstappen.

Lewis Hamilton qualified seventh after barely making it into Q3.

The Ferrari driver got through to the final session by just 0.007 seconds. He was also out-qualified by Williams' Carlos Sainz for the second consecutive race. Hamilton replaced Sainz at Ferrari ahead of this season.