The Red Bull driver looked set to beat title rival Lewis Hamilton to a crucial pole position in Jeddah after going fastest in the first two secto💃rs on his last lap of Q3, but Verstappen hit the outside wall after locking up at the final corner. 

With damage to his suspensio🌟n, Verstappen was forced to park up, leavin💦g him only third on the grid while Hamilton headed a Mercedes front-row lockout in Saudi Arabia. 

"Yeah, it's of course terrible," Verstappen said in parc fermeღ after qualifying. "But that was generally a good quali♊fying.

"It was a bit hard of course to switch on the tyres here on the street circuit, bu𒈔t I knew the pace was there and it showed in the last segment.

Max Verstappen hits the barriers takes pole

An extr𓆏aordinary finish to qualifying in Jeddah

— Formula 1 (@F1)

"I don't really understand wh🐎at happened, but I locked up and I still tried to of course keep the car on the track, try to finish the lap but I clipped the rear and had to stop.

“P3 is a bit disappointing of course today, knowing what lap I w꧟as on. Nevertheless, it shows that the car is quick and let's see what we can do in the race.”

Asked if he is worried about potential damage to his gearbox -✨ with any change triggering a five-place grid penalty - Verstappen replied: "I don’t know. I immediately stopped, so le🦹t’s see.” 

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner f🐭elt Verstappen was on for “the lap of the season” before his session-ending crash. 

“It’s a great shame,” Horner told Sky Sports F1.

“He’ll be frustrated, I’m sure. He knows what a good lap it was. He just needs to put that behind him now, he’s still P3 on the grid, needs to hav꧂e a good start, anything can still happen in this race.

“It was a great shame because it was a mighty, mighty lap. We’re on the back foot here and that was pulling somethi🙈ng special out of the bag. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be.”