Formula 1

Hamilton leads from Verstappen and Bottas in the first practice session at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

2 Mins read
Credit: DaimlerAG Archive/LAT Images

Lewis Hamilton finished on top of the time charts at the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in the first free practice session. Hamilton pipped his title-rival Max Verstappen by just 0.056 seconds.

Valtteri Bottas was in third position, 0.223 seconds behind Hamilton. The first-ever practice session at this new venue was incident-free as the Formula 1 drivers had the measure of the track.

The first session at this newly-added race on the Formula 1 calendar took place at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The track is located in Corniche, a 30 kilometer-long stretch of a coastal resort in the city of Jeddah. The track is estimated to have an average speed of 252 km/h. This is second only in speed to Monza in Italy, the “temple of speed”, on the F1 calendar.

The track has 27 corners and is a superfast flowing track. It is a temporary street circuit with the barriers close to the track. The drivers negotiated the first session without any major incidents.

The sixty-minute long first free practice session started at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit with air temperatures at 28.4 degrees C and track temperatures at 36 degrees C. The humidity was very high as the session started at the local time of 4:30pm.

The Pirelli tyre choice at this race is the white-striped hard compound tyres (C2), yellow-striped medium compound tyres (C3), and red-striped soft compound tyres (C4), the middle range of compounds in the Pirelli tyre range.

Verstappen was immediately on track on the hard compound tyres and went to the top of the time charts. The Dutchman kept going faster with every lap and was the first driver to get into the 1m30s with a lap time of 1m30.014s.

The two Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team drivers went out on the soft compound tyres and took much longer to get the quick lap times. Behind Verstappen, Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris took turns to take second position.

It was on the second run on the soft compound tyres that Hamilton went fastest with a lap time of 1m29.786s. Bottas slotted into second position, just 0.223 seconds slower.

Verstappen initially found it difficult to find the right balance on the soft compound tyres before we went second fastest in the dying minutes of the session, just 0.056 seconds slower than Hamilton.

As the track temperatures dropped the lap times kept improving. The dusty track rubbered in and the drivers had a relatively incident free session.

Gasly had a good session and finished in fourth position ahead of Antonio Giovinazzi. The two Scuderia Ferrari drivers, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc finished in sixth and seventh positions.

The McLaren F1 team drivers, Daniel Ricciardo and Norris could only finish in seventh and thirteenth positions.

Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel rounded off the top ten positions. The second free practice session will have more representative track temperatures in terms of the qualification and the race.

2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix FP1 Results:

PosNoDriverNat.TeamTimeGapLaps
144Lewis HamiltonGBRMercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team1:29.78621
233Max VerstappenNEDRed Bull Racing1:29.842+0.056s23
377Valtteri BottasFINMercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team1:30.009+0.223s24
410Pierre GaslyFRAScuderia AlphaTauri Honda1:30.263+0.477s28
599Antonio GiovinazziITAAlfa Romeo Racing ORLEN1:30.318+0.532s27
655Carlos SainzESPScuderia Ferrari1:30.564+0.778s26
716Charles LeclercMONScuderia Ferrari1:30.600+0.814s26
83Daniel RicciardoAUSMcLaren F1 Team1:30.608+0.822s25
914Fernando AlonsoESPAlpine F1 Team1:30.842+1.056s27
105Sebastian VettelGERAston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team1:30.886+1.100s25
1111Sergio PerezMEXRed Bull Racing1:30.960+1.174s27
1231Esteban OconFRAAlpine F1 Team1:31.023+1.237s29
134Lando NorrisGBRMcLaren F1 Team1:31.029+1.243s23
1418Lance StrollCANAston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team1:31.044+1.258s25
1522Yuki TsunodaJAPScuderia AlphaTauri Honda1:31.099+1.313s26
167Kimi RäikkönenFINAlfa Romeo Racing ORLEN1:31.296+1.510s26
1763George RussellGBRWilliams Racing1:31.343+1.557s28
1847Mick SchumacherGERUralkali Haas F1 Team1:31.525+1.739s24
196Nicholas LatifiCANWilliams Racing1:31.821+2.035s27
209Nikita MazepinRAFUralkali Haas F1 Team1:33.464+3.678s23
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Avid Formula 1 and Motorsport fan for a very long time. Love researching and writing about F1. An Engineer by profession. All-round sports nut
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