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Charles Bradley

F1 Grand Prix practice results: Leclerc fastest in Saudi Arabian GP on Friday

Bahrain GP winner Leclerc was fastest in FP1 and under the floodlights in FP2, but he hit the wall at Turn 4 in the latter and was forced to limp back to the pits, ruining his long run.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was second fastest on the day, ahead of the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.

The big talking point of the day was off the track, however, following the missile attack at the nearby Aramco oil facility.

Saudi Arabian Grand Prix FP1 results: Leclerc fastest from Verstappen

Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval km/h
1 Monaco Charles Leclerc Ferrari 17 1'30.772     244.859
2 Netherlands Max Verstappen Red Bull 24 1'30.888 0.116 0.116 244.547
3 Finland Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 22 1'31.084 0.312 0.196 244.020
4 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 14 1'31.139 0.367 0.055 243.873
5 France Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 28 1'31.317 0.545 0.178 243.398
6 Japan Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 26 1'31.505 0.733 0.188 242.898
7 Mexico Sergio Perez Red Bull 25 1'31.563 0.791 0.058 242.744
8 France Esteban Ocon Alpine 26 1'32.026 1.254 0.463 241.523
9 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 20 1'32.364 1.592 0.338 240.639
10 Spain Fernando Alonso Alpine 23 1'32.381 1.609 0.017 240.594
11 Australia Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 24 1'32.506 1.734 0.125 240.269
12 Canada Lance Stroll Aston Martin 23 1'32.582 1.810 0.076 240.072
13 United Kingdom Lando Norris McLaren 24 1'32.594 1.822 0.012 240.041
14 China Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 26 1'32.608 1.836 0.014 240.005
15 United Kingdom George Russell Mercedes 19 1'32.839 2.067 0.231 239.408
16 Germany Nico Hulkenberg Aston Martin 23 1'33.034 2.262 0.195 238.906
17 Thailand Alex Albon Williams 25 1'33.087 2.315 0.053 238.770
18 Canada Nicholas Latifi Williams 26 1'33.529 2.757 0.442 237.641
19 Germany Mick Schumacher Haas 22 1'34.429 3.657 0.900 235.376
20 Denmark Kevin Magnussen Haas 2        

What happened in Saudi Arabian GP Free Practice 1?

First practice took place in daytime, meaning it was not fully representative of either qualifying or the race, both of which will occur in cooler conditions in the evening.

Verstappen set the early pace on, working down to 1m30.888s on the hard tyres, eight tenths faster than Yuki Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri.

A red flag was required after 18 minutes when the 50-metre board on the approach to Turn 1 worked loose and fell on to the track. It was run over by a series of cars, led by Lando Norris’s McLaren, scattering its remains.

Teams re-emerged on soft rubber, and Leclerc suffered a big slide exiting Turn 14 on his first run, while Verstappen caught traffic on his opener – both bailing out of their laps.

Leclerc then ran again on hards, getting within six tenths of Verstappen’s fastest time. Gasly went P2 on softs, despite brushing the wall, and Verstappen had a big snap of oversteer at Turn 10 that led to a wild moment.

Leclerc improved to 0.304s off Verstappen on softs, and then eclipsed the world champion with a lap of 1m30.772s towards the end, which proved the quickest lap of the session.

Verstappen’s hard-tyred lap was good for P2, 0.116s slower, with Valtteri Bottas in third for Alfa Romeo, just ahead of the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.

Gasly and Tsunoda were next up, ahead of Sergio Perez’s Red Bull, Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes, who reported he clipped the wall at Turn 1) and Fernando Alonso (Alpine).

Bahrain hero Kevin Magnussen lost the entire session with a hydraulic problem on his out-lap that required a replacement radiator on his Haas.

Saudi Arabian Grand Prix FP2 results: Leclerc fastest from Verstappen

Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval km/h
1 Monaco Charles Leclerc Ferrari 15 1'30.074     246.757
2 Netherlands Max Verstappen Red Bull 23 1'30.214 0.140 0.140 246.374
3 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 12 1'30.320 0.246 0.106 246.085
4 Mexico Sergio Perez Red Bull 24 1'30.360 0.286 0.040 245.976
5 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 24 1'30.513 0.439 0.153 245.560
6 United Kingdom George Russell Mercedes 29 1'30.664 0.590 0.151 245.151
7 United Kingdom Lando Norris McLaren 26 1'30.735 0.661 0.071 244.959
8 France Esteban Ocon Alpine 26 1'30.760 0.686 0.025 244.892
9 Finland Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 14 1'30.832 0.758 0.072 244.697
10 Japan Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 26 1'30.886 0.812 0.054 244.552
11 Spain Fernando Alonso Alpine 27 1'30.944 0.870 0.058 244.396
12 France Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 29 1'30.963 0.889 0.019 244.345
13 Germany Mick Schumacher Haas 27 1'31.169 1.095 0.206 243.793
14 Canada Lance Stroll Aston Martin 28 1'31.372 1.298 0.203 243.251
15 Australia Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 23 1'31.527 1.453 0.155 242.839
16 Germany Nico Hulkenberg Aston Martin 30 1'31.615 1.541 0.088 242.606
17 China Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 27 1'31.615 1.541 0.000 242.606
18 Canada Nicholas Latifi Williams 26 1'31.814 1.740 0.199 242.080
19 Thailand Alex Albon Williams 29 1'31.866 1.792 0.052 241.943
20 Denmark Kevin Magnussen Haas 13 1'32.344 2.270 0.478 240.691

What happened in Saudi Arabian GP Free Practice 2?

FP2 was delayed by 15 minutes following a meeting between the FIA, teams and drivers to discuss the missile attack at the nearby Aramco oil facility.

From the belated start under the floodlights, Leclerc set the benchmark at 1m30.216s on medium tyres – already faster than his FP1 time. Sainz was second, 0.104s in arrears, followed by Verstappen, who was 0.335s down.

Verstappen then leapt to the top on 1m30.214s, just 0.002 faster than Leclerc. Perez rose to fourth, 0.146s down on his teammate.

Teams then switched to soft-tyred runs, Leclerc retaking P1 with 1m30.074s – getting traffic late in the lap but benefiting from a big tow from Ocon at the end. Neither Verstappen, Sainz nor Perez improved on softs.

On their long runs, Sainz glanced the wall at Turn 13 and then Leclerc clipped it at Turn 4, damaging his left-front steering arm and ending his day prematurely.

Behind Perez in fourth, Hamilton led teammate George Russell, Norris, Ocon, Bottas and Tsunoda.

Magnussen hit further problems and stopped out on track, ending the day at the bottom of the timesheets.

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