The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix is heating up as the first two practice sessions have taken place. Championship leader Max Verstappen continued to dominate the track, setting the fastest time in both FP1 and FP2. Red Bull and Aston Martin also showed promising performances, with Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez placing second and third in FP2.

During the scorching hot conditions of FP1, Perez and Alonso started with soft tyres, trading places at the top of the leaderboard for the first 30 minutes of the session. However, Verstappen soon caught up, equipping soft tyres and eventually setting the fastest time of 1m 29.617s, with Perez trailing 0.438s behind. Alonso managed to clinch the third spot, followed by his teammate Lance Stroll in the fourth.

Meanwhile, Mercedes finished behind the top four, with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton taking fifth and sixth place, respectively. Hamilton, who made his Mercedes debut ten years ago, expressed his difficulty finding grip while rounding the track on soft tyres.

In FP2, the conditions were much cooler, with the floodlights turned on, creating an atmosphere more representative of qualifying and the race. Verstappen continued his dominance, leading the way in the customary FP2 qualifying simulation runs with a time of 1m 29.603s. Alonso trailed 0.208s behind, followed by Perez, who was 0.299s behind his teammate.

It was a strong showing from Alpine on Friday, with Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly finishing fourth and sixth in the session. Russell was sandwiched between the French pair, finishing in fifth place. Stroll finished seventh fastest, followed by the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg and the Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.

Hamilton, who won the first race in Jeddah back in 2021, finished 11th fastest after his first run on the soft tyre was impeded by yellow flags. Lando Norris finished 12th for McLaren, with Yuki Tsunoda taking 13th place for AlphaTauri. Alex Albon finished 14th for Williams, followed by the sister Haas of Kevin Magnussen and the Alfa Romeo of Zhou Guanyu in 16th.

The session ended with Nyck de Vries in 17th place, followed by fellow rookies Logan Sargeant and Oscar Piastri. Valtteri Bottas finished at the rear of the field for Alfa Romeo.

This weekend, Leclerc will take a 10-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race for exceeding his allocation of control electronics. He will also have a new ICE and MGU-H for the Grand Prix. Meanwhile, Norris has a new exhaust, MGU-H, MGU-K turbocharger, and internal combustion engine but will not be penalised as he has not exceeded any allocations.

Interestingly, since the beginning of 2022, the FP1 pace-setter has only won the Grand Prix once, which was when Verstappen claimed victory at the 2022 Canadian Grand Prix. With Verstappen leading the pack, seeing how the rest of the weekend unfolds will be interesting. Join us again for the third practice session in less than one hour’s time as the drivers prepare for qualifying and Sunday’s Grand Prix.