Saudi Arabian GP: Verstappen leads tight field in opening practice

Max Verstappen took charge from the outset in Saudi Arabia, the Red Bull driver leading Thursday’s opening practice at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit from Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and teammate Sergio Perez.

The Dutchman’s edge equated to just 0.186s while 0.371s separated the top five runners.

Behind the leading trio, George Russell provided Mercedes with a decent start in fourth place while Charles Leclerc led Ferrari’s early efforts, the Monegasque followed in sixth place by teammate Carlos Sainz

• Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Free Practice 1 - Results

The field to the track with a fair bit of wind blowing through the palm tree, with air temperature at 26.9 °C while track temperature was sat at 41.5 °C.

However, like in Bahrain, the conditions prevailing in the afternoon session were very different to those that drivers will encounter in qualifying and on race day.

Unsurprisingly, hard and medium compounds were the tyres of choice to kick things off, and as a reminder, the C2 is the hard rubber here, with C3 the medium and C4 the soft.

Hamilton promptly set the session’s first benchmark with a 1m32.590s on the hards, the Mercedes car coming out of the box very nicely.

But as times tumbled, Leclerc went top of the pile, the Ferrari driver running, like Sainz, a skinny rear wing that caters to Jeddah’s high-speed layout.

Rotations at the top continued, with a medium-shod Norris taking charge and followed by fellow McLaren charger Oscar Piastri running on the hards.

However, Verstappen – also on the hards – quickly popped up to second ahead of Leclerc with Hamilton demoted to fourth.

A replay showed Lance Stroll dangerously clipping the inside wall at the final corner, a mishap that required a pitstop and a few repairs.

Fifteen minutes in, a flurry of improvements refreshed the top three, with Russell taking control from Verstappen and Leclerc. All three drivers setting their time on the hards.

As the session reached it halfway mark, Norris exited the pits wearing a soft set of boots, the Briton unsurprisingly going quickest with a 1m30.424s.

But minutes later, Verstappen followed suit on the softs as duly displaced Norris by a comfortable four tenths. In hot pursuit, Russell also made good use of his red-rimmed rubber but ended up 0.003s adrift from Max.

Pressing on, the Mercedes driver reclaimed the top spot, until Verstappen surged back to the top on a 1m29.659s. Meanwhile, Sainz improved to third but was still half a second down on Verstappen.

This leading trio was disrupted by Perez who slotted into second making it a Red Bull 1-2 that shuffled Leclerc down to third.

But with ten minutes left on the clock, Alonso opted to show his hand, the Spaniard carrying his Aston up to P2, 0.186s behind Verstappen.

The session thus concluded with positions unchanged among the top five, with Verstappen leading Alonso, Perez, Russell and Leclerc, with Sainz, Norris, Hamilton , Stroll and Albon closing out the top ten.

Once again it was a tight field with just 0.371s separating the top five, and like n Bahrain it was a relatively slow start for Ferrari. So one would expect the Scuderia to creep up the order later today under the floodlights.

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