SAUDI ARABIAN GP – Charles Leclerc set the pace a tenth and a half faster than Max Verstappen in second practice
Charles Leclerc was fastest in the second practice for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the Ferrari driver set a 30.074 on the soft tyre which put him just under a tenth and a half ahead of the Red Bull of Max Verstappen. The Monacan set is the fastest time around halfway through the session on softs, while Verstappen’s fastest time came earlier in the session.
The Dutchman’s time allowed him to spilt the two Ferrari’s after going four-hundredths faster than Carlos Sainz. However Sainz’s session was limited to just nineteen laps following a nudge with the wall at Turn Thirteen, Leclerc also hit the wall damaging his front-left track rod, confining both cars to the pit lane for the second half of the session.
That leaves Ferrari without long-run data going into the race on Sunday, but Leclerc was consistent on his fastest laps while Sainz appeared to struggle with oversteer and porpoising. But both Sainz and Leclerc set their fastest times on different tyres. But the two Ferrari’s and Red Bull’s were covered by less than three tenths which could lead to another close race on Sunday.
The most valuable session of the weekend gone, as it leaves the Italian manufacturer on the back foot with limited data going into the race. Mercedes meanwhile remained a few tenths further behind, as it’s expected they are waiting an upgrade to bring them into the championship battle.
Sergio Perez put his Red Bull fourth the Mexican almost three tenths behind his teammate Verstappen. Lewis Hamilton put his Mercedes fifth four-tenths behind Leclerc as well as going a tenth and a half faster than teammate George Russell.
The seven times constructors champions looking as if they once more appeared incapable of keeping pace with the cars ahead of them.
The session had been delayed following an attack during FP1 on a nearby Aramco distribution station, the attack was claimed by Houthi rebels. An emergency meeting is due to continue this evening although the race will go ahead this weekend as planned.
An F1 statement said: “Formula 1 has been in close contact with the relevant authorities following the situation that took place today.
Lando Norris put his McLaren seventh fastest, the Englishman going a two and a half hundredths faster than the Alpine of Esteban Ocon. An encouraging start to the weekend for McLaren following a nightmare ten days in Bahrain, when the team were the third slowest on track.
Valtteri Bottas was nearly six hundredths further behind in the Alfa Romeo going five-hundredths fastest than the Alpha Tauri of Yuki Tsunoda.
Ocon’s teammate Fernando Alonso was nineteen hundredths behind Tsunoda as he spilt the Alpha Tauri’s going nearly two-hundredths faster than Pierre Gasly. Tsunoda suffering a engine failure right at the end of the session which was similar to the engine issues in Bahrain for the Red Bull teams.
Meanwhile, Alpine produced a solid showing after being forced to change Alonso’s engine ahead of Friday’s first session due a “suspected sealing issue”,
Mick Schumacher put his Haas thirteenth the German going two tenths ahead of the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll.
Daniel Ricciardo was fifteenth, going almost eight tenths slower than Norris but splitting the Aston’s with Nico Hulkenberg around a quarter of a second behind. The German set an identical lap to that of the Alfa Romeo of Guanyu Zuho, but is ahead having set his time first.
Williams drivers Nicolas Latifi and Alex Albon were eighteenth and nineteenth, the Canadian going five-hundredths of a second faster than Kevin Magnussen.