Lewis Hamilton led title rival Max Verstappen of Red Bull by a tiny margin in first practice at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The Mercedes driver ended up just 0.056 seconds clear of Verstappen after the first running on the spectacularly fast new Jeddah Corniche street circuit. Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas was 0.223secs off the pace
Championship leader Max Verstappen was among the early runners on track for his first look in the Red Bull at this super-fast street venue, just like Scuderia Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. Drivers clocking up plenty of early laps, unsurprisingly, as the quick laps continued to roll in with drivers gaining confidence around the narrow walls of Formula 1’s newest circuit. Surrounded by walls, there is certainly no margin for error for drivers this weekend.
At the end of FP1, Pierre Gasly’s Alpha Tauri was fourth quickest, ahead of the Alfa Romeo of Antonio Giovinazzi and the two Ferrari cars of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc. The Spanish driver completed the first practice session with a personal best lap time of 1m30.564s, just ahead of his Monegasque teammate (1m30.600s), as both drivers focused on different setup configurations and tyre compounds in both qualifying and race simulations.
Fernando Alonso was ninth for Alpine with Sebastian Vettel 10th, making it eight different constructors in the top 10. The field will return later on Friday for the second session, that will take place under the floodlights, in cooler conditions more representative of qualifying and the race.
Saudi Arabian Grand Prix – Here are the complete results from the first free practice ahead of this weekend’s 2021 F1 World Championship race in Jeddah.
Results (Classification):
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes – 1:29.786
Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing +0.056
Valtteri Bottas Mercedes +0.223
Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri +0.477
Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo +0.532
Carlos Sainz Scuderia Ferrari +0.778
Charles Leclerc Scuderia Ferrari +0.814
Daniel Ricciardo McLaren +0.822
Fernando Alonso Alpine +1.056
Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin +1.100
Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing +1.174
Esteban Ocon Alpine +1.237
Lando Norris McLaren +1.243
Lance Stroll Aston Martin +1.258
Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +1.313
Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo +1.510
George Russell Williams Racing +1.557
Mick Schumacher Haas +1.739
Nicholas Latifi Williams Racing +2.035
Nikita Mazepin Haas +3.678
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