F1 Grand Prix practice results: Leclerc fastest in Saudi Arabian GP on Friday

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.

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.