Max Verstappen, the current World Champion, set the fastest time in the free practice session for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix of Formula 1. The session took place at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, in hot and windy conditions. Verstappen’s lap time of 1:29.659s put him ahead of Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin and his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez, who won the race in Jeddah last year.
Earlier in the session, George Russell was the fastest driver on hard tires, but Verstappen edged him out by a fraction of a second when they switched to soft tires. Verstappen, who won in Jeddah in 2022, set the standard for the session, with Alonso and Perez closely following.
Charles Leclerc of Ferrari was fifth fastest, with his teammate Carlos Sainz not far behind. Leclerc and several other drivers complained about debris blowing around the track, with some even hitting loose trash bags. Despite this, there were no major incidents during the session, except when Lance Stroll brushed the wall early on. Stroll’s Aston Martin suffered some minor damage, but he was able to continue and finished in ninth place.
The top 10 was completed by Alexander Albon of Williams, Valtteri Bottas of Sauber, Daniel Ricciardo of RB, and Esteban Ocon of Alpine. Haas decided not to do any laps on soft tires during the session and remained at the bottom of the time table.
