Max Verstappen topped the second free practice session in Jeddah as the teams stepped up their preparation for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Sunday.
The first quarter of the session saw the teams running on the medium and hard compound tyres to evaluate the setup changes made between the two Friday sessions but it was still Oracle Red Bull Racing setting the pace in that time, with Verstappen and Sergio Pérez leading Fernando Alonso.
While Scuderia Ferrari and Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team were struggling in the first fifteen minutes, BWT Alpine F1 Team looked to have some good pace on the harder compound tyres putting in times for fourth and fifth place. McLaren F1 Team struggled again after a disappointing FP1, with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris down in sixteenth and seventeenth.
Alonso switched onto the soft tyre and was the catalyst for the change across the grid with all the drivers putting on the quickest tyres as they looked to compete in qualifying simulations. The Spaniard, who returned to the podium last time out in Bahrain for the ninety-ninth time in his career, was looking to set the fastest time but a mistake cost him a few tenths in sector three, meaning Pérez was the first driver to put in benchmarker lap on the soft tyre with a time of 1.29.902.
Traffic was one of the biggest issues of the session and it cost a large number of drivers the chance to put in their best laps with their tyres in the optimal state. Verstappen’s final time saw him move three-tenths clear of Pérez’s first attempt on the soft. Alonso followed and continued his impressive form a further two-tenths back, while Pérez had to settle for third over three tenths away from his team-mate.
Alpine continued the strong pace that they showed early on in the session and finished it sandwiching the Mercedes of George Russell, with Esteban Ocon in fourth and Pierre Gasly in sixth. Lance Stroll put in a time good enough for seventh, but the three-time podium sitter will be hoping to be closer to his team-mate on Saturday afternoon in the qualifying session around the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
Nico Hülkenberg was a strong performer for Haas F1 Team and put in a strong lap to finish inside the top ten, the German, who returned to Formula 1 this season after a three-year break, was over six-tenths quicker than his teammate Kevin Magnussen, who has failed to extract the potential of the car so far this weekend. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. were both on the podium in Saudi Arabia last season but the Ferrari pair struggled and only just finished inside the top ten of the second practice session of the weekend, which will certainly be a worry, especially after a disappointing FP1 too.
Lewis Hamilton, who won at this circuit in 2021, struggled throughout the session for the pace and while he will certainly be higher than eleventh in qualifying tomorrow, it will be a worry for Toto Wolff and Mercedes that their star man is having struggles again in Saudi Arabia and they will hope they don’t have a repeat of last year’s performance that saw the seven-time world champion knocked out in Q1.
Williams Racing aren’t predicted to be best suited to the Jeddah Corniche Circuit but Alex Albon was able to show good pace in the early runs of the session, but the Thai driver failed to make an impression with his qualifying runs leaving him down in fourteenth, with his rookie team-mate, Logan Sargeant finishing the session in eighteenth.
McLaren would have been worried after a woeful FP1, but there will be a little bit of hope for some points this weekend with Norris finishing the session in twelfth after a strong lap on the soft compound tyre. It wasn’t the evening that Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake would have been hoping for with Guanyu Zhou and Valtteri Bottas being limited to sixteenth and twentieth respectively.
The teams and their drivers will go again tomorrow as they look to maximise the final hour of practice on Saturday before the all-important qualifying session in the evening.
