#SaudiArabianGP FP1: @CharlesLeclerc pips @Max33Verstappen to top time-sheets. #F1

Leclerc Saudi Arabian GP FP1 – Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc pipped Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to go quickest in the opening FP1 session at the Saudi Arabian GP with Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas third.

 

 

Leclerc posted the benchmark of a 1:30.772 late in the session on the C4 red side-walled softer rubber and wound up 0.116 seconds ahead of Verstappen who set his effort on the harder C2 white-marked harder compound.

 

BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso was the first driver to head down the very dusty Jeddah Corniche Circuit pit-lane, where the opening 60-minute session was taking place in sunny, but windy conditions.

 

As Alonso pulled over to do a practice start just as the pit-exit went green for FP1 to begin, Aston Martin duo Lance Stroll and Nico Hulkenberg both moved ahead and posted the initial quickest times a few minutes later.

 

Hulkenberg’s 1:39.317 effort was rapidly beaten by his team-mate, then AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, before Verstappen established the real benchmark early of a 1:34.167.

 

Ahead of his flyer, Verstappen suffered a lock-up after running deep at the final corner – the turn where the barrier was moved back following his qualifying crash last year – as did Alfa Romeo’s Bottas then later Gasly and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, the latter duo locking front-right wheels.

 

The early proceedings saw drivers split on the C2 hards and C3 yellow-branded mediums, with the Mercedes pairing coming out for the early stint on the C4 red-marked softs.

 

As the Red Bull drivers continued in their first stints, Perez improved to a 1:32.021 on the hards, before a few moments later his team-mate Verstappen jumped in-front on a 1:31.885 using the same compound.

 

Verstappen improved again to a 1:30.888 as the first quarter ended, just after which the session was red-flagged due to a 50 metre brake marker board for turn one came loose and had dropped off the right-hand side barrier before being hit by McLaren’s Lando Norris, which meant debris was scattered over the track.

 

This took until nearly 25 minutes of the session was completed, after which the Ferrari duo emerged for the first time in FP1 – matching the Red Bull drivers by at first running the hards.

 

Season-opening Bahrain GP winner Leclerc lead from team-mate Carlos Sainz, with the latter running a few seconds slower than the former, with an opening timed-lap that came in three-seconds slower than Verstappen’s effort on the hards.

 

But like the Red Bull duo, Leclerc set a string of personal-best efforts with a long run on the harder compounds, getting to 0.582 seconds off Verstappen’s benchmark as the session hit the 40th minute mark.

 

At that point Verstappen had his first go on the red-marked softs, which he aborted after cutting the quick turn ten left in sector two – where Alonso spun in last year’s Grand Prix – having lost the rear of his RB18 racer due to a snap of over-steer from a wind impact at the preceding right hander.

 

After a brief lull with 10 minutes remaining, Verstappen attempted once more on the softs, but was unable to improve on his personal best effort on the hards.

 

It looked as if this would remain as the session’s best, especially when both Ferrari’s re-joined on a set of softs for the final five minutes and Leclerc could only reach 0.304 seconds behind Verstappen on his first flyer.

 

With two minutes left on the clock, Leclerc pipped the Dutchman with a 1:30.772 – benefiting from a slipstream coming off Lewis Hamilton’s F1 W13 as they pushed out the final corner on a hot-lap that featured no best sectors of opening practice for Leclerc.

 

The Monegasque driver did post a purple sector in the final minute, but aborted that tour when he suffered a big slide out of turn 16’s right hander in sector two.

 

Bottas ended opening practice with the third quickest time – moving up the order in the final stage of FP1 as he ran just in-front of Leclerc’s F1-75 racer on his fastest lap.

 

Sainz ended up fourth, and 0.367 off his championship-leading team-mate with a similar late stint on the softs, edging out AlphaTauri pairing Gasly and Tsunoda fifth and sixth respectively.

 

Then followed Perez and Ocon, in seventh and eighth as Hamilton came down in ninth place, with the latter reporting porpoising problems and having a light clip of the barriers.

 

Alonso, who is running a different engine to the one he used in the season-opening Bahrain GP, which has been sent to Renault’s Viry facility for inspection after a sealing issue was found after last weekend’s race, completed the top ten in the classifications.

 

McLaren’s Ricciardo and Norris were 11th and 13th in the order respectively as Aston Martin’s Stroll split the pairing in 12th.

 

Alfa Romeo Racing’s Zhou Guanyu finished FP1 in 14th and ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell who was 15th and Aston Martin’s Hulkenberg (substituting for Sebastian Vettel for a second weekend due to COVID) who took 16th

 

Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon and Nicholas Latifi ended opening practice in 17th and 18th respectively and in-front of Haas F1 Team pairing Mick Schumacher and Kevin Magnussen who brought up the rear.

 

Magnussen posted no time in the session after his VF-22 racer was hit with a hydraulics issue only two laps into his running.

 

You can see the full Formula 1 STC Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2022 Free Practice 1 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1125/saudi-arabia/practice-1.html

 

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#Formula1 STC #SaudiArabianGP 2022 Preview – #F1 #SaudiArabiaGP