Red Bull's Sergio Perez took pole position in Saudi Arabia for the second year in a row on Saturday after Formula One champion team mate Max Verstappen suffered a driveshaft failure and qualified only 15th.
Aston Martin's 41-year-old double world champion Fernando Alonso, who had hoped for his first pole since Germany 2012 with Ferrari, will join the Mexican on the front row for Sunday's race in Jeddah.
"You really feel the Formula One cars coming alive in this place and maximising that lap was very important," said Perez of what was also his second career pole. "Of course I would have liked to start a bit further up the road but we cannot change that now. Anything is possible at this track... it's going to be tough but we have good pace so for sure we'll move forward."Alonso will be the first Aston Martin driver to start a grand prix on the front row since Britain's Roy Salvadori at Silverstone in 1959.
"We are confident...the car felt very strong. The strongest point of the car is the long-run pace and how we treat the tyres so it should be better on Sunday than Saturday." McLaren's woes continued after a tough season-opener in Bahrain, with Lando Norris set to start 19th following contact with the wall that damaged his car in the first phase of qualifying.
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