British F2 driver Oliver Bearman placed P11 in his first career Formula 1 qualifying session for Ferrari in Saudi Arabia. The eager Bearman will strive for a points finish in his maiden F1 race as he will start P11 on the grid; starting near the points, but he may pick up a grid penalty setting him further down the grid on race day.
F2 Ferrari reserve driver Oliver Bearman made his Formula 1 debut in place of the ill Carlos Sainz. This early chance in an F1 car couldn't have come at a more opportune time for Bearman, as Bearman just secured pole position in the F2 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Carlos Sainz tried to tough out the weekend, skipping only media on Thursday but logging practice sessions in FP1 and FP2. Early this morning we were informed that Sainz will be unable to race this weekend due to appendicitis, in which we had all assumed his illness was the flu earlier in the week.
In Oliver Bearman knowing the track, and showing he has the pace as pole-sitter in the F2 qualifying, he got the nod very early to his first career F1 race. At the age of 18, Bearman became the youngest driver to race for Ferrari and the youngest British driver to race in Formula 1.
Ferrari made sure to prepare the young British driver in FP3 as he logged the highest lap total in the session at 22 laps. Bearman looked comfortable on track in FP3, but it didn't translate too strongly into qualifying as unfortunately he saw an early exit in Q2 and may pick up a penalty failing to follow race director instructions on maximum delta time.
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