Max Verstappen was fastest in first practice for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the Red Bull driver set a 29.659 going just under two tenths faster than the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard managed to split the two Red Bull’s after going two hundredths faster than the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez.
Verstappen started the weekend where he left off on Saturday topping the times and as he said on Wednesday, focused on his on track performance admits the ongoing scandal around Christian Horner.
The Dutchman comfortably ahead although the conditions are not entirely representative of those set to experience in the night-time qualifying and race. Verstappen continued to impress as he reclaimed top spot after the first soft tyre runs, but taking advantage of the low tyre degradation levels at the circuit to significantly improve on the same set.
Red Bull has suspended the employee who made the initial complaint against Horner, who has already denied the allegations. Following an internal inquiry, Red Bull’s board dismissed the complaint against their F1 team principal and chief executive officer.
His teammate Perez was two-tenths behind despite being on the theoretically faster soft tyre, with the Mexican ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell. Ferrari looked as if they haven’t yet shown their full hand as Charles Leclerc was nearly a tenth of a second behind Russell.
Russell had topped the times midway through the session. The Monacan going over a tenth and a quarter faster than his Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz, in the breezy conditions on the back section it was proving difficult to extract the most from the cars.
Lando Norris was first on to the softs and eventually improved by two-tenths by the end of the session to go seventh half a second off Verstappen’s session toping time. The McLaren driver went half a hundredth faster than the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton as Lance Stroll and Alex Albon completed the top ten.
Stroll was also the only driver to run into trouble, he made contact with the inside of Turn Twenty-Two but escaped without major damaged. While Albon showed strong pace in the Williams eight hundredths behind the Canadian but a second
The session was held in daylight, while qualifying and the race are after dark, a day earlier than usual on Friday and Saturday to ensure the race weekend is over before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Daniel Ricciardo was twelfth the RB did not set his fastest time on the soft tyres, but he was still three hundredths faster than Logan Sargeant. Oscar Piastri put his McLaren fifteenth, as he was six hundredths faster than Yuki Tsunoda.
The Japanese driver former teammate Pierre Gasly was a hundredth behind, and ahead of the two Haas’s by nearly three-tenths. Nico Hulkenberg going a tenth and a half ahead of teammate Kevin Magnussen.
