Max Verstappen also fastest in evening practice, Fernando Alonso first pursuer | formula 1

It was perhaps the most important of the three free practice sessions in the streets of Jeddah. How did the 20 cars perform in conditions similar to tomorrow’s qualifying and the race 24 hours later? The teams had to collect a lot of information in a short time and it was busy for an hour on the already chaotic circuit.

In the introductory shooting on medium tires, Max Verstappen was immediately half a second faster than the rest. After about twenty minutes of training, the drivers then switched to soft rubber. The two-time world champion was two tenths faster than another two-time world champion, Fernando Alonso. Sergio Pérez followed less than a tenth of the Spaniard.

Watch Verstappen’s fastest lap

Behind Pérez, Esteban Ocon was fifth fastest. Alpine hopes to be able to compete with Mercedes in Saudi Arabia when it comes to the place of ‘fourth team’, and so far it has been reasonably successful. He was several hundredths faster than George Russell, followed by teammate Pierre Gasly. On Lewis Hamilton’s on-board radio it was heard several times that he had no balance at the rear of his car, he ended up in P11. That was just behind the babbling Ferrari.

It promises to be another difficult qualification for Nyck de Vries tomorrow from 6 p.m. (Dutch time). After he had to start penultimate in Bahrain, he will not get further than P17 for the time being. Teammate Yuki Tsunoda was faster in both practice sessions than the rookie from Friesland, who is driving for the first time on the Jeddah Cornice Circuit.