De Vries stormed 🌳to pole position as he beat Venturi’s Edoa🌺rdo Mortara in qualifying.

The ♍Dutchman won the opener ahead of Mercedes teammate Stoffel Vandoorne and looked set to secure bꦇack-to-back wins in Saudi Arabia. 

De Vries lost the lead to the second Venturi of Lucas di G📖rassi when the Brazilian and Mortara opted to take their second attack modes.

His slump down the order continued when Jean-Eric Vergne aggressi💜vely overtook him into Turn 19, falling to ninth.

He ultimately finishe𝔉d𓂃 1oth in a disappointing race for Mercedes.

Reflecting on what happened, he said: “In summary, we weren't quick enough today. Also, we might have been a little late in activating Attack Mode, which mightꦚ also have been a factor in us dropping back a bit. 

“It's tough when you're down on pace. On top of that, after contact, I l💧ost four or five positions which was just too bad. In the end, though, it was down to us as I believe we simply weren't fast enough today. 

“It all goes to prove once again that things can still go ꦬwr𒐪ong, even if you've had a strong weekend up until that point. The window is very narrow and you can soon lose out as a result.”

Teamm꧑ate Stoffel Vandoorne recovered from a lacklustre qualifying to finish seventh.

The Belgian believes it was good “damage limitation” af🎀ter a poor qualif🦂ying.

“We starte🃏d 12th on the grid today, so qual🎀ifying was the downside for me,” he added. “I didn't manage to optimise the second run with the warm-up and extracting the lap time when it mattered which meant I was further down the grid. 

“From there I think we had a solid race and a good recovery back to seventh with the fastest lap, maybe today was a little bit more difficult than yesterday in terms of the race pace we had but in general it was a well-executed꧑ race from my side of 🗹the garage. 

“It was the best we coul꧅d do in thes🔯e circumstances so damage limitation today.”