{"id":11684,"date":"2023-03-17T19:11:24","date_gmt":"2023-03-17T19:11:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/f1vault.co.uk\/?p=11684"},"modified":"2023-03-17T19:11:24","modified_gmt":"2023-03-17T19:11:24","slug":"saudi-arabian-gp-max-verstappen-fastest-by-two-tenths-in-second-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/saudi-arabian-gp-max-verstappen-fastest-by-two-tenths-in-second-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"SAUDI ARABIAN GP \u2013 Max Verstappen fastest by two tenths in second practice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen was fastest in second practice ahead of this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver set a 29.603 on the soft tyre which put him two-tenths ahead of the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso, the Dutchman looked unstoppable although Alonso didn\u2019t set a time on the soft tyres.<\/p>\n

Verstappen set his fastest time midway through the session which put him three tenths ahead of his teammate Sergio Perez, then Alonso despite being on used tyres managed to on his next lap spilt the Red Bull\u2019s going nine hundredths faster than the Mexican. Red Bull appear to be continuing the strong form from Bahrain, where they dominated the weekend.<\/p>\n

Despite topping the session Verstappen complained that his “downshifts were really bad”, particularly at the final corner, finding latency in the switch between gears during his longer runs towards the end of the session.<\/p>\n

Esteban Ocon put his Alpine fourth going three hundredths faster than the Mercedes of George Russell. The Mercedes driver spilt the two Alpine\u2019s, Russell was again three hundredths faster than Pierre Gasly. The three drivers covered by eight-tenths of a second perhaps proving how competitive the midfield is looking this season.<\/p>\n

Russell\u2019s teammate Lewis Hamilton was eleventh following a more challenging session, as did both Ferrari\u2019s with Charles Leclerc ninth a quarter of a second faster than Carlos Sainz.<\/p>\n

There were suspicions that Ferrari were running their engines significantly below full capacity, as the team experimented after both drivers were forced to take new power units following technical issues in Bahrain.<\/p>\n

Lance Stroll put his Aston Martin seventh, the Canadian a hundredth behind Gasly. The session could suggest a competitive midfield fight tomorrow in qualifying tomorrow, Alpine looking again looking as if they made a step forwards following Bahrain.<\/p>\n

Nico Hulkenberg was eighth, ahead of Leclerc by nearly a quarter of a second. There was a near miss between the two, the Ferrari driver branding him a \u201cjoke\u201d after coming across the German moving slowly on the apex of the final corner.<\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton was eight thousandths of a second behind the Ferrari\u2019s, an underwhelming day for the Ferrari and Mercedes. Leclerc went into this weekend hoping that Ferrari could close the gap, instead the Monacan was seven-tenths off the outright pace of Verstappen.<\/p>\n

There were suspicions that Ferrari were running their engines significantly below full capacity, as the team experimented after both drivers were forced to take new power units following technical issues in Bahrain.<\/p>\n

Lando Norris was twelfth the McLaren driver going six hundredths faster than Yuki Tsunoda. Alex Albon was a further three hundredths behind, the Williams driver however didn\u2019t set a lap on the soft tyre.<\/p>\n

Kevin Magnussen was the fifteenth going ahead of the Alfa Romeo of Guanyu Zhou. Nyck De Vires put his Alpha Tauri seventeenth, though the Dutchman was given\u00a0 a warning for crossing the white line at the end of the pit lane.<\/p>\n

Hamilton was exiting the pits as de Vries was passing through the first corner, on finding the Briton on the outside line out of Turn 2, the Dutchman had to pull right to avoid contact.<\/p>\n

Logan Sargeant was eighteenth going five hundredths faster than Oscar Piastri rounding out the field.<\/p>\n

Related<\/h2>\n