Alert – Formula 1 – Saudi Arabia qualifying – Live timings and lap updates: Debutant Oliver Bearman, 18, faces stewards investigation – and his dad’s reaction is incredible!

Verstappen’s father Jos has been at loggerheads with Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, as we know, but the driver and the chief were seen in amicable conversation ahead of Q3 as they try to convince the world that it is business as usual.

No problems so far for Max Verstappen, who is in his usual place at the top of the leaderboard.

But his pole is not guranteed. Leclerc, Piastri and Alonso will all have their eyes on it in Q3.

And here’s how they finished after Q2 as Q3 gets underway.

‘That was a messy session, sorry about that,’ says Bearman on the team radio.

The 18-year-old, who grazed the wall on one of his runs, will be disappointed but will hope for better when he lines up for the race tomorrow.

‘It was tough one. Super difficult,’ his team replies.

Gutting for Bearman, but still a decent result on his historic night.

Q3 coming up very shortly.

All or nothing for Bearman here. He’s currently 11th, meaning he will drop out and won’t make Q3.

The 18-year-old takes to the track for a flying lap. Can he get there?

A great effort, but he’s 36 thousandths adrift of Hamilton and will not be making Q3.

Bearman will be 11th on the grid tomorrow. Albon, Kevin Magnussen and Daniel Ricciardo are also out, along with Hulkenberg after his car issues.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is among the stars in Jeddah enjoying the action. The Swedish legend always seems to look intense, doesn’t he?

Bearman was a little bit keen there and has aborted his run. The 18-year-old, the 14th Brit to drive for Ferrari at a Grand Prix, will have to come back and do it all again.

Thankfully, just a brief delay. The drivers are heading back out to the pit lane to join the queue to register a time in Q2.

Green flag… we’re back underway, with 14 drivers trying to get into Q3 after Hulkenberg was forced out of the session.

‘I’ve lost the power, something’s wrong,’ says Hulkenberg. Not his day for sure.

He has been forced to stop on the side of the track and the red flag has come out now.

Russell, Norris, Hamilton and Piastri were the only drivers that got a time in before the session was stopped.

Some news reaching us that Bearman will be investigated after the session has concluded for, in Layman’s terms, not driving quickly enough on his first run.

I believe the technical term is ‘maximum delta time’. One to watch, that.

Ollie Bearman’s dad, David, has been pictured in the garage as his son makes his F1 debut.

A proud moment for the Bearman family, but he certainly looked like he was feeling the nerves for his 18-year-old out on the track!

Bottas, Ocon, Gasly, Sargeant and Zhou, who did not record a time before the cut-off, are out of Q1 and will not be in Q2 for the second straight week.

A driver who will be back shortly, though, is Ferrari’s young gun Ollie Bearman.

Not a great surprise to see Verstappen’s Red Bull at the top.

Zhou in the Kick Sauber has just about made it on to the track – but it is race against time to see if he can get a lap in before the Q1 window slams shut.

It would be quite an achievement if he he can somehow wrestle himself into Q2!

Here’s the state of play as Q1 nears its end in Jeddah…

The bottom five after this session – which still has around seven minutes to go – will be eliminated and will form 15th to 20th on the grid.

Currently in those places are Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, the Alpine pair who endured a disatrous Bahrain GP last week.

Looks like the French frenemies may be down the bottom of the grid again…

A cracking lap from Bearman. The 18-year-old Brit, from Chelmsford in Essex, struggled in his first run but roars back in the second and goes faster than his Ferrari stable-mate Leclerc.

That will surely get rid of the nerves. For now, at least.

Oscar Piastri of McLaren goes ahead of Lando Norris and Alonso – but his run did not look the cleanest to this observer.

Piastri looks to have narrowly touched the wall as he came towards the end of the circuit. No damage or issues by the looks of things, though.

Fernando Alonso is P1 so far, just ahead of Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari.

Niko Hulkenberg in the Haas is heard swearing over the radio, seemingly frustrated at the early build-up of traffic.

There is a race against time for Sauber and their mechanics as they try desperately to get Zhou Guanyu’s car ready after he came off in turn eight in practice, which brought out the red flags.

What a moment this will be for the 18-year-old. Yesterday, he was merely expecting to be a reserve. Today, he will be driving the red of Ferrari for the first time at a Grand Prix.

We are off and running in Jeddah. Qualification is go!

Should be an intriguing hour or so in Saudi Arabia…

Friday night by the shores of the Red Sea is the location for Saudi Grand Prix qualification.

Drivers will tackle 27 corners in a course stretching 3.836 miles.

Five minutes from the start now. Who takes pole?

We saw a fair bit of traffic in practice earlier and that is likely to continue in Q1, before the field is gradually whittled down.

Less than 10 minutes to go now…

No surprises here but Verstappen will be the red-hot favourite to secure a second straight pole following his performance in Bahrain last week.

But the Red Bull driver has still got to deliver. Will he be affected by the off-track chaos at his team? Or will he shrug it off and ensure he takes top spot ahead of tomorrow’s race?

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner is in place and ready to watch his team take to the track in Jeddah.

On Thursday he called for the focus to return to racing but his situation amid the ‘sex texts’ scandal has dominated the build-up to this race and shows no sign of going away.

Ollie Bearman will soon be heading from this garage on to the track for his first-ever involvement in an F1 race. A penny for his thoughts right now!

Good evening! LIAM MORGAN here to guide you through qualification in Jeddah.

It should be a fascinating session. Not only do we have Verstappen, Red Bull and all the chaos surrounding them this week, but there’s an 18-year-old British debutant stepping in for Carlos Sainz for Ferrari.

Some more big news that has dropped in the last hour and it appears Audi will be back on the grid very soon, after it was announced today that the German company have agreed to take complete ownership of Sauber.

The automotive giants had announced back in 2022 that they’d be re-entering the sport as an engine supplier with hopes the organisation would come back to the grid in 2026.

‘I am convinced that by bundling responsibilities and taking over 100 per cent of Sauber Group, we will further accelerate our preparations for the launch in 2026,’ Audi head of technical development Oliver Hoffmann.

‘I am pleased we were able to secure the services of Andreas Seidl as Audi F1 Team CEO. He is exactly the right man for our ambitious plan. Thanks to his broad experience from leadership roles on the manufacturer and Formula 1 team side, he will make a significant contribution to Audi’s Formula 1 project.’

Earlier this week, Saudi Arabia revealed plans for a new Formula One circuit in Qiddiya.

Jeddah is set to host the race in the immediate future but the new track, which is likely to be completed at the earliest in 2027, will feature 21 corners, including a revolutionary ‘Blade’ as it’s first turn.

The turn will rise 70 metres off the ground and is set to have a concert space underneath it.

The track will also run alongside a theme park!

Here’s what Fernando Alonso had to say about the ambitious plans…

There was plenty of action to take stock of throughout today on the track, but there was also lots of drama in the pit lanes too!

After drivers expressed concerns over queuing last week in the pit lane, George Russell was seen getting a little bit frustrated with Nico Hulkenberg earlier on in qualifying.

The Haas driver was seen jumping the queue to leave his garage, coming very close to colliding with Russell who had to slow down to let him in!

My esteemed colleague Ed Carruthers is on hand to takeover, however, in a seamless personnel transition that would make Ferrari proud.

In other motorsport news, if you’re a motorsport fan with extremely deep pockets, former world champion Jody Scheckter may have the deal for you.

You can read more about his collection below.

Sky Sports go deep on the debutant’s initial spin in the SF-24, which was none too shabby. Without that little wobble in his flying lap, he might have ended the session with an even faster lap time.

But the true test comes in just under an hour and a half.

An about-face from the Spice Girl, who was prepared to miss out on a trip to Jeddah, as might she might have done under business-as-usual circumstances.

Halliwell normally attends only a handful of races a season, and usually significant or particularly glamorous ones – Monaco, the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, last year’s maiden race in Las Vegas, and the final race of the season, where Red Bull more often than not of late have been champion constructor.

But that might not be the case this time… as you can read more about below.

Good news from the Scuderia after an confident final practice session from the remaining drivers at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

A number of teams paid tribute to their female members of staff and women in motorsport on X (formerly Twitter) today in tribute to the auspicious date, and to share their commitment to increasing diversity both on and off the track.

There were also posts on the social media site from Williams, Haas, RB, Alpine, and Ferrari.

Very impressive to see, and very encouraging for the next generation.

You’re coming into this, and if you feel there is pressure – the expectations are very low, and if you’re given that breathing room (you can do well).

On chasing pole (or not) in qualifying:

I don’t think we’re in the race (for pole). Max is a league above everyone else.

1. VER – 1:28.41
2. LEC +0.19
3. PER +0.49
4. RUS +0.55
5. NOR +0.55
6. ALO +0.62
7. STR +0.71
8. PIA +0.80
9. HAM +0.85
10. BEA +0.89
11. MAG +1.07
12. GAS +1.13
13. TSU +1.16
14. OCO +1.16
15. HUL +1.26
16. RIC +1.32
17. ALB +1.39
18. BOT +1.67
19. ZHO +2.32
20. SAR – NO TIME

That’s the final practice session done, and Bearman’s one and only before qualifying. The Briton could have done without the stoppage to clear Zhou’s Kick Sauber, and he faltered on his flying lap after the session resumed, but there’s no point looking back now.

He finishes 10th-fastest all the same, which is impressive.

‘Well done, that was a good lap,’ Sainz’s engineer Riccardo Adami tells him.

The Essex teenager will make history several times over with his appearance on the grid on Saturday – and might even steal Hamilton’s Ferrari thunder.

You can read more on Bearman’s meteoric rise below.

Those that can are starting to come out of the pits. As things stand, the quickest in the session are:

1. VER – 1:28.412
2. LEC +0.79
3. ALO +1.06
4. MAG – OUT LAP
5. PER +1.12
6. RUS – OUT LAP
7. ALB +1.39
8. NOR +1.41
9. HUL – OUT LAP
10. PIA +1.64

He won’t be able to return for the remainder of the free practice, but will be back out at qualifying, the Williams team principal confirms.

Meanwhile, the chance of Zhou making it to qualifying looks like a slim one. The car is being wafted off the track by a crane and looks borderline unrecognisable.

He loses his rear in Turn 7, potentially impeded by the wind, and skids hard into the wall.

It’s one heck of a crash, and that Kick Sauber takes a pounding. Lots of work to do before qualifying.

The medical car has been deployed, as has the red flag. Zhou is out of the car, and seems okay.

The fastest driver out there – as things stand – Max Verstappen.

He tells his engineer:

I hit something on turn 10

I hit something with my right wheel.

One of those pesky plastic bags? Or another bit of loose shrapnel?

He’s clipped a wall in his Williams and is forced to return to box after finding himself unable to turn right.

The American is yet to record a time, but it was a faint knock, so he’ll hope he can get back out there before the end of the session.

He registers a lap-time of 1:28.893 to shunt his opponents down the standings as the track begins to warm up.

Williams’ Alex Albon was the last driver to suffer appendicitis on a race weekend – he missed the Italian Grand Prix after falling ill in Monza, but was back in his car a remarkable three weeks later to contest in Singapore.

With Verstappen and Perez next to set times, a word from Hamilton on the former’s speculated move away from the embattled constructor.

The pull of the Adrian Newey-designed RB20 is a strong one – every driver on the grid would give their right arm for it, I’d say.

But the rookie isn’t doing too shabbily so far as he sits second-fastest – behind Hamilton – of the six drivers that have posted times.

… as they flash to the Aston Martin garage while telling their viewers that the team’s star driver finished second in the Spanish Grand Prix… the day that Bearman was born.

He posts 1:33.114 on his opening lap. He’s got just shy of an hour to get to grips with the SF-24.

Driving under Sainz’s No 38, Bearman will look to history and hope fate can deal him the same 70 years later – world champion Mike Hawthorn won the Spanish Grand Prix under the same number in 1954.

After the team principal said that he was keen to ‘draw a line’ under the investigation – after being cleared following the independent findings – the Sky Sports pundit and former driver wasn’t convinced.

He can’t decide when this moves on.

It’s very difficult for anyone to draw too many conclusions, because we don’t know so many of the facts.

We don’t know the name of the KC (leading the investigation), even details like that, we don’t know under what grounds she’s been suspended…

Until that level of transparency comes out, we’re not going to be able to move on.

Words to remember, with just 10 minutes to go until the teenager gets out on the track behind the wheel of the SF-24.

I can feel for him a little bit. he would have been able to jump in yesterday in FP1 or FP2, but instead (he’ll have to start today).

But we’ve got to see the positive opportunities for him.

He’s also joining an illustrious list of Britons to drive for the legendary constructor, including mid-century greats like Peter Collins, Mike Hawthorn, and John Surtees… and next season, one Sir Lewis Hamilton.

Horner rarely shies from a definitive statement, even in the face of an episode galloping through updates as fast as this one at Red Bull.

You can read about what he hopes will be the final word on Verstappen’s future at the constructor below.

The 18-year-old does double duty in reserve, but it’s the team from Maranello’s car he gets to test out first.

Including Kevin Magnussen, halfway through his portable acai bowl.

They’ve got just over half an hour until their final practice session.

The 18-year-old is younger than Fernando Alonso’s second world championship.

… And just eight months older than his first, in 2005.

Let’s just say today’s ride will be a little bit of an upgrade on yesterday’s in F2.

Hamilton certainly thought so after yesterday’s practice sessions, describing his day as a ‘difficult’ one.

Just lacking confidence in the rear of the car and the set-up.

We did some work from session to session, changed the car quite a bit, but the underlying issue (is) with the rear end I was struggling with.

So I had a couple of really big moments out there. In these high-speed areas you need to have full faith in the rear of the car, and I’ve just not got that yet.

We’re going to have to go through the data and stuff, but George (Russell) is obviously a lot happier with his car.

It might have been easier for Christian Horner to play the ‘leave my family alone’ card if he had not paraded through the Bahrain paddock last week hand-in-hand with his wife, Geri, for all the world and its photographers to witness, writes JONATHAN MCEVOY.

This whole grubby affair has been an unedifying spectacle for all those close to it to observe, just as it has been riveting for those who have absorbed it vicariously through newsprint, with story after staggering revelation for weeks on end.

The latest twist came on Thursday when the woman in the eye of the storm, an unnamed female colleague of Horner at Red Bull, was suspended from her job in the Milton Keynes factory, albeit on full pay…

The Ferrari was sent slaloming by unwelcome floating plastic bags on the track yesterday. Here’s hoping the drivers aren’t sent more obstacles, with higher points for avoidance, at the Corniche this afternoon.

Horner has taken up his fast-becoming-habitual spot behind a plant pot in the paddock ahead of the final practice session, after last night sharing his thoughts on the possibility of his team suffering reputational damage in the wake of the alleged texts being leaked post-investigation.

The team principal made those comments before Honda’s statement, but here’s what he had to say:

Obviously there’s been an awful lot of coverage surrounding this. But one has to go back to the basics of a grievance was raised. It was fully investigated and it was dismissed. And from there, we move onwards.

I think an awful lot has been made out of this. Obviously, it has been of great interest in different elements of the media for different reasons. I think the time now is to look forward and to draw a line under it. We’re here to go racing.

We’re here as a Formula 1 team and the time now is to focus on what is going on on track and the performance of the cars and the drivers and where the spotlight should be during the course of a grand prix weekend.

Friday is the new Saturday for Saudi Arabia’s adjusted schedule, with the race moving a day earlier due to Sunday marking the start of Ramadan.

That means that the final practice session and qualifying ahead of the Grand Prix will take place today – with the former coming at 1.30pm GMT.

Qualifying will kick off hours later at 5pm and we’ll know our starting grid – barring any penalty complications – by 6pm.

The Japanese engine manufacturer will supply Red Bull Racing’s two teams with power units until their deal expires at the end of the season – and they want answers.

You can read more about Red Bull’s partners’ thoughts on the turbulence at the constructor below.

The former world champion posted a lap time of 1:28.827 in the second free practice session, 0.23seconds faster than his closest rival, George Russell of Mercedes.

Verstappen, who went fastest in the day’s first session had to settle for third-fastest as close of play. But what can last week’s race-winner pull off today?

Good question. The Ferrari reserve driver joined the Scuderia’s Driver Academy in 2021, and first hopped behind the wheel of one of their Formula One cars in October 2023 during a private test.

Currently driving with Prema Racing in Formula Two, Bearman has previously featured for in an F1 car during free practice sessions at the 2023 Mexico Grand Prix, and Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Last weekend, Bearman finished 15th in standings at Sakhir – today he’ll challenge for a shot at the front row.

There’s no shortage of surprises in the Formula One circus and this morning’s is news that Sainz has been taken ill – and his shoes are set to be filled by an 18-year-old British up-and-comer.

Mail Sport’s JONATHAN MCEVOY has the full report below.

Hello and welcome to Mail Sport’s live coverage of Friday’s final practice session and qualifying ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Things have been far from quiet since the start of the season last weekend – to say the least – but in our first spot of breaking news away from the roiling storm engulfing Red Bull, Carlos Sainz is officially out of the remainder of our time in Jeddah after being struck with appendicitus.

More news on that incoming…