SAUDI ARABIA GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING - AS IT HAPPENED

The Monegasque comes through and looks to have snatched pole from his teammate Sainz, and with Verstappen trailing in the earlier sections it looks like he'll take it.

But Perez in his Red Bull is storming through with his best time of the day and takes the pole!

The Red Bull team have their first pole of the seaosn, with the Dutchman back in fourth to booked in the Ferraris.

Russell is in sixth, just behind Ocon.

A resurgent showing from Russell, who is 0.7 seconds behind Sainz, but both Ferraris are on their outlap as they look to make sure of their lockout.

Verstappen effing and a-jeffing again, as he complains he has 'zero grip on this tyre.'

12 minutes remaining, the last chance for the drivers to put down their best lap.

A few minutes and we'll be back with Q3. There is a danger that Mercedes fall out of the running for much tomorrow, but the focus is going to be on the front four here.

After that huge break, we have Schumacher, Stroll, Ricciardo, Zhou and Norris out of the running.

Sainz is top, Leclerc second, and Perez third. Verstappen is back in fourth, and George Russell is back in 10th.

Three red flags, two qualifying sessions. Leclerc, topping the pack, is on his outlap.

We'll have the rest of Q2 soon.

'"I spoke with his Mum and kept her updated. He has no injuries that you can see, but they want to do some scans to make sure there was no impact from the forces. The impact broke up the digital [technology] so we heard nothing [on the radio] but we got word he was conscious."

That's according to Sky Sports, who report that the German has also been able to talk to his mother. After the initial crash, there was no reason to be desperately worried, but clearly that only holds as long as the good news keeps coming.

There are concerns that there is a surfeit of oil deposited on turn 12 after the crash. That means that there is no certain time for a restart as yet.

'I lost the rear under breaking, I need to try exactly what happened from the data... It caught me by surprise. More than anything I feel sorry for the team, this early in the season.'

Here is how Hamilton lost his place in a matter of seconds.

'I hope he's OK,' he says, with the focus on his colleague rather than his own struggles for now.

Of his own ride, he said: "I just struggled with the balance of the car. Not where we want to be. Unfortunately went the wrong way with the set up."

Positive news, given the initial circumstances.

Here's the crash.