#SaudiArabianGP FP1: @Max33Verstappen heads @RedBullRacing one-two. #F1

Verstappen Saudi Arabian GP FP1 – Reigning world champion Max Verstappen was quickest in FP1 at the Saudi Arabian GP leading Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez who was second as Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso rounded out the top three.

 

 

Verstappen posted the benchmark of a 1:29.617 on the C4 red side-walled softer compounds and was 0.483 seconds faster than team-mate Perez with Alonso a further 0.698 adrift in third.

 

The second Aston Martin AMR23 entry of Lance Stroll followed in fourth place ahead of Mercedes pairing George Russell and Sir Lewis Hamilton as Carlos Sainz lead the Ferrari duo, with his penalty-hit team-mate Charles Leclerc down in 11th, but with the Scuderia running a different practice programme compared to its rivals.

 

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries lead the field out of the pits, but it was Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas who set the initial registered lap-time of a 1:35.701 on the C3 yellow-marked medium rubber.

 

Most of the running at the beginning of the opening hour of practice was completed on the C3 mediums or the C2 white-branded harder tyres, with Sainz and McLaren’s Lando Norris using one of each (Sainz on C2’s and Norris on C3’s) to move ahead of Bottas as they posted their first hot-laps.

 

Perez then jumped in-front on a 1:32.969 at the end of the opening five minutes of proceedings, but he ran the C4 softs from the get-go – as did Alonso, with the duo engaging in something of a slot-swapping for first place on the time-sheets over the next phase of Free Practice 1.

 

Alonso took the softer rubber on his Aston Martin AMR23 entry to a brief-lead at the end of the opening ten minutes with a 1:32.838, which Mercedes’ Hamilton then beat on a 1:32.665 on the harder compounds.

 

But both were soon beaten by Perez moving back into P1 with a 1:31.486 on his third timed run on his initial set of softs.

 

With 16 minutes done in the session, Alonso jumped back into first place posting a 1:31.262 but was again beaten in a short-while as Perez set a 1:30.592 to snatch P1 back.

 

Then Alonso grabbed op spot over Perez once more with a 1:30.509 as the Spaniard went into double figures of laps run on the softs, Verstappen then emerged.

 

Finally, after remaining in the pits for the opening 20 minutes, the reigning world champion Verstappen, who arrived late to Jeddah following a stomach-bug illness, came out also on a set of softs.

 

The Dutchman’s first effort came almost a second down on team-mate Perez’s personal best, but on his second flying tour Verstappen moved in-front of his team-mate and Alonso to lead the Aston Martin driver with a 1:30.494.

 

Then followed a lull in the proceedings as the drivers returned to the pits to switch from the harder tyres to the softs, whilst Verstappen continued to push around the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in his opening stint on the C4 softer rubber.

 

Despite complaining of understeer at the quick, re-profiled turn 22 left, which apparently felt like his car could not “turn at all”, Verstappen lowered the benchmark setting a 1:30.662, which moved the reigning world champion from 0.015 seconds ahead of Alonso to 0.447 seconds just past the 30-minute mark.

 

With everyone now on softs – Hamilton made a quick excursion through the turn one escape road – the Ferrari pairing both registered their efforts on the softs, which left them 1.5 seconds off Verstappen.

 

This became 1.7 seconds adrift for Leclerc and Sainz as Verstappen’s third flying lap on his first set of softer compounds was a 1:29.815, which again bettered the quickest effort, whilst Perez and Alonso remained in the pits to adjust their setups.

 

Sainz and Leclerc then found improvements on their stints, with the former getting in-front of his team-mate to sit behind the Mercedes pairing – Russell leading Hamilton.

 

Then with 15 minutes remaining, Alonso and Perez re-emerged on the softs whilst Verstappen took his turn in the pits making adjustments.

 

Alonso at first failed to beat his personal best from the session’s first half, but then cut what was a 0.664 gap to Verstappen down to 0.500 on his second hot-lap on his next set of softs.

 

Perez, who spent most of his time in the pits during the middle phase of proceedings, looked to be on his personal best run – but down on team-mate Verstappen, as the Mexican aborted his flyer on his new softs complaining he “did not have any front end” after jumping over a few kerbs.

 

He lead team-mate Verstappen out the pits with the final ten minutes of the session left and at last did improve on his personal best, to get 0.537 seconds close to the leading RB19, but still behind Alonso.

 

Then Verstappen again increased his gap, but only by a fraction, setting a 1:29.790 on his latest set of softs.

 

Whilst several drivers returned to the pits to put back on the harder compounds for the final few minutes or switched to a higher fuel run on the softs, as the Ferrari drivers did, the Red Bull pairing and Aston Martin’s continued to put in fast efforts on the C4’s.

 

Firstly, Verstappen posted another P1 benchmark with a few minutes left on the clock, then Perez finally moved ahead of Alonso once and for all with a 1:30.100, which left the Mexican 0.438 adrift of Red Bull team-mate Verstappen.

 

Also, Alonso was unable to improve on his personal best, whilst Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll pushed the other AMR23 entry into fourth place on his final hot-lap – a 1:30.577 ahead of the final moments.

 

But there was still time for Verstappen to post one last quick time, which he done so with a 1:29.617 in the Dutchman’s final tour of the session.

 

Russell and Hamilton ended up behind the leaders in fifth and sixth respectively, with Ferrari’s Sainz in seventh.

 

Sainz, like Leclerc, will have at least another set of C4 softs compared to the Red Bull and Aston Martin drivers based on the Scuderia’s FP1 practice programme.

 

BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Pierre Gasly, who complained about his brakes towards the end of proceedings was eighth, as Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda completed the top ten.

 

Scuderia Ferrari’s Leclerc placed outside the top ten in 11th place and in-front of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon who was 12th, AlphaTauri’s de Vries who took 13th and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in 14th.

 

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team pairing Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen ended opening practice in 15th and 16th respectively with Williams Racing’s Logan Sargeant 17th in the order.

 

Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake’s Bottas and Zhou Guanyu were 18th and 19th respectively as McLaren’s Lando Norris brought up the rear.

 

There were several close-calls in FP1 with near-misses in traffic as is typical with a circuit like Jeddah, whilst Norris picked up a black-and-white flag warning for dipping a wheel onto the painted surface of the pit-entry during the late proceedings.

 

This was contrary to race director Niels Wittich’s specific instructions on a move issued ahead of opening practice and came when Norris was told to come into the pits by McLaren too late to safely complete the manoevre down the main straight.

 

You can see the full Formula 1 STC Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2023 Free Practice 1 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1142/saudi-arabia/practice-1.html

 

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