F1 Saudi Arabian GP: Max Verstappen leads Red Bull one-two in opening practice
Max Verstappen bounced back from illness to set the pace in the opening practice session at the F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The double world champion, whose delayed arrival in Jeddah meant he skipped Thursday’s media duties after battling a stomach bug this week, was 0.483s faster than Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez.
Having dominated F1 2023’s season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix a fortnight ago, Verstappen and Red Bull made an ominous start to the weekend around the high-speed Jeddah track.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was best of the rest in third, 0.698s adrift of Verstappen’s FP1 benchmark and a couple of tenths faster than teammate Lance Stroll.
George Russell pipped teammate Lewis Hamilton by just 0.016s in fifth but both Mercedes drivers wound up over a second off the pace.
Carlos Sainz was seventh-quickest for Ferrari, ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, Williams’ Alex Albon and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, who completed the top-10 order.
Charles Leclerc, who is carrying a 10-place grid penalty into the weekend for power unit changes, was only 11th, while McLaren’s Lando Norris was slowest of all in 20th.
