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Formula 1 Saudi Arabian GP
F1 Grand Prix practice results: Leclerc fastest in Saudi Arabian GP on Friday
Charles Leclerc was fastest during Saudi Arabian Grand Prix practice in Jeddah on Friday, the second round of the 2022 Formula 1 World Championship, but ended his day by hitting the wall.
Charles Bradley
Edited: Mar 25, 2022, 11:47 PM
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Bahrain GP winner Leclerc was fastest in FP1 and under the floodlights in FP2, but he hit the wall at Turn 4 in the latter and was forced to limp back to the pits, ruining his long run.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was second fastest on the day, ahead of the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.
The big talking point of the day was off the track, however, following the missile attack at the nearby Aramco oil facility.
Saudi Arabian Grand Prix FP1 results: Leclerc fastest from Verstappen
Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval km/h 1 Charles Leclerc
Ferrari 17 1'30.772 244.859 2 Max Verstappen
Red Bull 24 1'30.888 0.116 0.116 244.547 3 Valtteri Bottas
Alfa Romeo 22 1'31.084 0.312 0.196 244.020 4 Carlos Sainz Jr.
Ferrari 14 1'31.139 0.367 0.055 243.873 5 Pierre Gasly
AlphaTauri 28 1'31.317 0.545 0.178 243.398 6 Yuki Tsunoda
AlphaTauri 26 1'31.505 0.733 0.188 242.898 7 Sergio Perez
Red Bull 25 1'31.563 0.791 0.058 242.744 8 Esteban Ocon
Alpine 26 1'32.026 1.254 0.463 241.523 9 Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes 20 1'32.364 1.592 0.338 240.639 10 Fernando Alonso
Alpine 23 1'32.381 1.609 0.017 240.594 11 Daniel Ricciardo
McLaren 24 1'32.506 1.734 0.125 240.269 12 Lance Stroll
Aston Martin 23 1'32.582 1.810 0.076 240.072 13 Lando Norris
McLaren 24 1'32.594 1.822 0.012 240.041 14 Zhou Guanyu
Alfa Romeo 26 1'32.608 1.836 0.014 240.005 15 George Russell
Mercedes 19 1'32.839 2.067 0.231 239.408 16 Nico Hulkenberg
Aston Martin 23 1'33.034 2.262 0.195 238.906 17 Alex Albon
Williams 25 1'33.087 2.315 0.053 238.770 18 Nicholas Latifi
Williams 26 1'33.529 2.757 0.442 237.641 19 Mick Schumacher
Haas 22 1'34.429 3.657 0.900 235.376 20 Kevin Magnussen
Haas 2 View full results
What happened in Saudi Arabian GP Free Practice 1?
First practice took place in daytime, meaning it was not fully representative of either qualifying or the race, both of which will occur in cooler conditions in the evening.
Verstappen set the early pace on, working down to 1m30.888s on the hard tyres, eight tenths faster than Yuki Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri.
A red flag was required after 18 minutes when the 50-metre board on the approach to Turn 1 worked loose and fell on to the track. It was run over by a series of cars, led by Lando Norris’s McLaren, scattering its remains.
Teams re-emerged on soft rubber, and Leclerc suffered a big slide exiting Turn 14 on his first run, while Verstappen caught traffic on his opener – both bailing out of their laps.
Leclerc then ran again on hards, getting within six tenths of Verstappen’s fastest time. Gasly went P2 on softs, despite brushing the wall, and Verstappen had a big snap of oversteer at Turn 10 that led to a wild moment.
Leclerc improved to 0.304s off Verstappen on softs, and then eclipsed the world champion with a lap of 1m30.772s towards the end, which proved the quickest lap of the session.
Verstappen’s hard-tyred lap was good for P2, 0.116s slower, with Valtteri Bottas in third for Alfa Romeo, just ahead of the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.
Gasly and Tsunoda were next up, ahead of Sergio Perez’s Red Bull, Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes, who reported he clipped the wall at Turn 1) and Fernando Alonso (Alpine).
Bahrain hero Kevin Magnussen lost the entire session with a hydraulic problem on his out-lap that required a replacement radiator on his Haas.
Read Also:
Saudi Arabian Grand Prix FP2 results: Leclerc fastest from Verstappen
Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval km/h 1 Charles Leclerc
Ferrari 15 1'30.074 246.757 2 Max Verstappen
Red Bull 23 1'30.214 0.140 0.140 246.374 3 Carlos Sainz Jr.
Ferrari 12 1'30.320 0.246 0.106 246.085 4 Sergio Perez
Red Bull 24 1'30.360 0.286 0.040 245.976 5 Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes 24 1'30.513 0.439 0.153 245.560 6 George Russell
Mercedes 29 1'30.664 0.590 0.151 245.151 7 Lando Norris
McLaren 26 1'30.735 0.661 0.071 244.959 8 Esteban Ocon
Alpine 26 1'30.760 0.686 0.025 244.892 9 Valtteri Bottas
Alfa Romeo 14 1'30.832 0.758 0.072 244.697 10 Yuki Tsunoda
AlphaTauri 26 1'30.886 0.812 0.054 244.552 11 Fernando Alonso
Alpine 27 1'30.944 0.870 0.058 244.396 12 Pierre Gasly
AlphaTauri 29 1'30.963 0.889 0.019 244.345 13 Mick Schumacher
Haas 27 1'31.169 1.095 0.206 243.793 14 Lance Stroll
Aston Martin 28 1'31.372 1.298 0.203 243.251 15 Daniel Ricciardo
McLaren 23 1'31.527 1.453 0.155 242.839 16 Nico Hulkenberg
Aston Martin 30 1'31.615 1.541 0.088 242.606 17 Zhou Guanyu
Alfa Romeo 27 1'31.615 1.541 0.000 242.606 18 Nicholas Latifi
Williams 26 1'31.814 1.740 0.199 242.080 19 Alex Albon
Williams 29 1'31.866 1.792 0.052 241.943 20 Kevin Magnussen
Haas 13 1'32.344 2.270 0.478 240.691 View full results
What happened in Saudi Arabian GP Free Practice 2?
FP2 was delayed by 15 minutes following a meeting between the FIA, teams and drivers to discuss the missile attack at the nearby Aramco oil facility.
From the belated start under the floodlights, Leclerc set the benchmark at 1m30.216s on medium tyres – already faster than his FP1 time. Sainz was second, 0.104s in arrears, followed by Verstappen, who was 0.335s down.
Verstappen then leapt to the top on 1m30.214s, just 0.002 faster than Leclerc. Perez rose to fourth, 0.146s down on his teammate.
Teams then switched to soft-tyred runs, Leclerc retaking P1 with 1m30.074s – getting traffic late in the lap but benefiting from a big tow from Ocon at the end. Neither Verstappen, Sainz nor Perez improved on softs.
On their long runs, Sainz glanced the wall at Turn 13 and then Leclerc clipped it at Turn 4, damaging his left-front steering arm and ending his day prematurely.
Behind Perez in fourth, Hamilton led teammate George Russell, Norris, Ocon, Bottas and Tsunoda.
Magnussen hit further problems and stopped out on track, ending the day at the bottom of the timesheets.
Read Also:
- Saudi Arabian GP: Leclerc stays on top in FP2 despite hitting wall
- F1 tells drivers Saudi GP will go ahead despite nearby attack
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