The Latest Breaking News from Aston Martin Racing

Leclerc was top in all three sectors on Friday as only a later Max Verstappen effort denied Ferrari a 1-2. 

Lando Norris was fastest in first practice, setting a 1m18.564s lap, while Leclerc paced FP2 with a quickest time of 1m17.277s.

Verstappen will start ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and his Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez after the one-hour qualifying session, which is split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3.

Verstappen produced a 1m27.472s on his first run in Q3, but did not improve on his second attempt and so that stood as the time to beat.

Charles Leclerc finished second for Ferrari, with Sergio Perez third in the other RB20 and Carlos Sainz’s illness-replacement, Oliver Bearman, taking 10th in the second of the Scuderia’s machines.

The F1 race in Saudi runs to a similar schedule to Bahrain, which means qualifying will take place a day earlier than usual on Friday.

The flurry of early season action concludes with the Jeddah event this weekend, with opening practice topped by Max Verstappen before Alonso followed up to head FP2 in the evening.

The start of the second one-hour session on Thursday in Jeddah was delayed by 10 minutes as the FIA checked drain covers in the pitlane, but it ran to time under the lights in what is the only representative practice night-time running ahead of qualifying and the race.

F1 veteran Bell's official job title will be executive director – technical, which means he will oversee the technical, engineering and performance functions of the Silverstone squad, reporting directly to team principal Mike Krack. Bell's appointment further shores up Aston's technical department, led by technical director Dan Fallows, as it…