The first night time session at Jeddah saw a tight battle between the Bulls and Fernando Alonso for the top spot. Reigning Champion Max Verstappen achieved P1, closely followed by the Spanish driver.
Alpine has shown significant improvement from the first round, with Ocon and Gasly respectively in P4 and P6, sandwiching George Russell, and Ferrari rounds up the top 10.
The first driver on track to put a time in the dark Saudi Arabian night was Lance Stroll in 1:32.392s, improved firstly by his teammate Fernando Alonso then by Carlos Sainz in 1:31.080s.
The first time under the 1:30s was posted by the leader of the earlier FP1, Max Verstappen, who had flown in a day later after recovering from a stomach bug. When his time was bested by Alonso and Perez, he almost brushed the wall in order to sign an even better lap, while also mentioning an issue with his headrest.
Charles Leclerc’s attempt to improve his P7 was hindered when he encountered the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg lapping significantly slower in his trajectory.
Fernando Alonso, on the podium in Bahrain, was caught by surprise by the tighter Turn 22, and missed out on his first push attempt on the soft compound as he had too much speed and missed Turn 23. The second one, however, put him momentarily up in P1.
Last year’s pole time signed by Charles Leclerc was improved by Sergio Perez in the first half of the session in 1:29.902, just as Carlos Sainz moved up to P11.
A notable mention is Nico Hulkenberg, whose best lap time on softs puts him in P4, ahead of both Mercedes and Ferrari drivers on the same compound. Gasly rounds up the top 5, after an impressive recovery drive in Bahrain recovering ten positions to enter in the Top 10.
With twenty minutes to go after a difficult practice session, Mercedes shows the first sign of improvement with George Russell moving up to P4, but the British driver is still not satisfied with his challenger, mentioning the “need for changes”.
In the last half hour of the session the teams focused more on race simulations, going for longer stints. Leclerc mentioned an issue with his clutch pedal, which had happened to him in Bahrain as well.
In the last ten minutes of practise, some drivers, included Leclerc and Hamilton, tested the medium tyres.
The Monegasque driver also asked his team if there was a problem with his engine, as he had felt “a big surge”, but Ferrari denied seeing it on the data collected.
Photo credit: Scuderia Ferrari
