Lando Norris secures the best time in the second free training in Dschidda, Max Verstappen lands on P3, Yuki Tsunoda ends in the wall shortly before the end of the session.
The McLaren team continues to set the tone one week after Oscar Piatris victory in Bahrain in the Formula 1 season 2025. Piatri was only second in the second free training session on the Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia on Friday evening in Dschidda, but his teammate Lando Norris set the best time in 1: 28.267 minutes.
Norris already held the lead after his first soft run before the teams switched to Longrun simulations in the second half of the one-hour session. But with a used tire set, he even gave up again and expanded his lead to 0.163 seconds. Maybe also because Piatri sparked that he “touched the wall on the left”.
This time Max Verstappen, who, according to team boss Christian Horner, had driven the first free training (still in daylight) extreme set-up variants and apparently got better with his Red Bull in the first free training. In the end, he was only 0.280 seconds on Norris this time: 3rd place.
It was worse for his teammate: Yuki Tsunoda hit the last curve in the wall and ensured the only red flag of Friday almost ten minutes before the end. “I’m okay,” he stunned after his mishap, who spontaneously reminded of Verstappen’s qualifying crash in the same place in 2021.
Formula 1: Tsunoda buzzes Red Bull mechanics extra layer
Tsunoda took the last curve too far inside, struck his left front wheel on the guardrail and then slipped straight into the barriers with broken wheel suspension, where the right side of the front wheel suspension had to believe. A driving error that gives the Red Bull mechanic some additional work overnight.
According to Tsunodas Crash, there were no more changes in the classification. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) stayed fourth with almost half a second behind. He had (like some other drivers) traffic on his fast round and therefore only achieved his personal best in the second attempt. Carlos Sainz (Williams), sixth tsunoda.
Bortoleto has to watch
The fastest of the first free training, Pierre Gasly, fell back to 8th place with 0.839 seconds, which probably corresponds to the potential of the alpine. And Nico Hülkenberg (clean) was surprisingly ninth, before Alexander Albon (Williams) and Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes). Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari/+1.104) finished 13th.
By the way, Gabriel Bortoleto was not part of the game in the second free training session. After the first training session, the clean team had discovered a petrol leak on the Brazilian vehicle, which could not be repaired in time. “The cause of the leak is being examined,” it said before the evening session. “For this reason, Gabriel cannot take part in the FT2.”