Saudi Arabian GP: Alonso finishes on top in second practice

Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was quickest in second practice for the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah, finishing more than two tenths clear of Mercedes' George Russell and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen.

It was the first session of the weekend to be held after nightfall under the floodlights, in much cooler conditions than first practice but still bedevilled by gusty winds and on-track traffic contributing to a number of near misses.

But there were no major incidents during the session which was delayed by ten minutes for drain covers on pit lane, although Sauber's Valtteri Bottas went for an harmless early spin and Lewis Hamilton suffered a late loss of power.

• 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix - Free Practice 2 results

Much like last weekend's season opener in Bahrain, first practice had been held in the full heat of daytime while FP2 was scheduled to be held in more representative qualifying/race conditions after the sun had set, taking place under the brilliant glare of the floodlights. And just like Bahrain, there were more concerns about drain covers coming loose - this time on pit lane at Jeddah Corniche Circuit - resulting in a brief inspection and maintenance which delayed the start of the one-hour session by ten minutes.

Once the track finally opened for business, it was Oscar Piastri, Zhou Guanyu and Alexander Albon were among those leading the cars out. They were on a mixture of medium and hard compound tyres, with just RB duo Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda opting to get straight onto a set of softs having not done so in FP1. All 20 cars had departed pit lane within the first two minutes with George Russell last out; Valtteri Bottas suffered a very early spin when he lost the rear of the Sauber into the first corner, but he quickly resumed.

Red Bull soon went top of the timesheets with Sergio Perez's initial lap clocking in at 1:30.427s, pipping that of Max Verstappen by two hundredths ahead of Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso, and Ricciardo putting his softs to good use with a first flier good enough for fourth.

Alonso pushed on with a time of 1:29.846s next time around to go ahead of new efforts from Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris (the latter still running hard tyres), pushing Perez down to fourth ahead of Lance Stroll who was back up and running after his contact with the barrier in the first session. Perez and Verstappen then improved, but the Red Bulls still fell half a tenth short of Alonso's benchmark even before the Aston proceeded to go even quicker with a time of 1:29.560s.

Verstappen soon went top by 0.017s from Alonso, as Carlos Sainz slipped into third for Ferrari. Russell meanwhile was up to fifth despite grumbling about the new Mercedes feeling unstable, while his team mate Lewis Hamilton annoyed Sainz and Logan Sargeant by getting in their way on his cool-down lap, with the stewards noting the incident for post-session review. Sainz wasn't in the best of moods anyway, having been pretty poorly suffering from a stomach bug in the run-up to the weekend.

First stint complete, the teams started switching to soft tyres for qualifying runs with Bottas among the first to do so, improving to P7 as a result. It allowed Alonso to jump back to the front by seven tenths. Verstappen also improved but not by nearly as much, allowing Leclerc to slip into second, Perez third and Stroll fourth. Norris meanwhile was only eighth at the halfway point of the session, complaining about too much bottoming in the McLaren.

Alonso remained at the top although Verstappen moved to the front of the chasing pack with his latest effort. Russell subsequently improved to second despite a near-miss incident when he was squeezed toward the barriers by a slow Tsunoda. Traffic in general was definitely a major headache, with Leclerc being obliged to cut a corner to dive out of the path of a flying Alonso.

Alonso didn't improve on his existing time of 1:28.827s as Aston returned to medium tyres for more race simulations. Lapping on average up to six seconds slower than on the softs meant that the order of the five cars behind him - Russell, Verstappen, Leclerc, Perez and Stroll - was now set for the day. However when it came to long run race pace, Verstappen still had a clear and significant upper hand over his rivals.

Sainz and Hamilton were next quickest. However Hamilton cut a corner in the closing minutes and went off-track at speed, before radioing to the Mercedes pit wall that he had no power as he slowly returned to pit lane. Fortunately he was still able to get out in time to take past in practice starts after the chequered flag. Alpine will be happy to see Pierre Gasly showing some decent pace finishing the evening in ninth ahead of Piastri in P10, after the French team's dismal showing in Bahrain last week.

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