Dutch maximum verstappen (Red Bull) set the best time this Friday in front of his teammateIn the first free practice of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the runner-up of the F1 World Cup held at the Jeddah city circuit, featuring Mexican Sergio Pérez, Spaniards Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) and Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) marked the third and seventh time trials, respectively.
Aiming for the third title in a row, Verstappen is in his best period of 18 laps.– He covered 6.174 meters of the track on the Red Sea in one minute, 29 seconds and 662 thousandthss, 483 less than ‘Checo’ who gave 20 and 698 advantage over the Asturian double world champion, who finished third of the session for the third time in his twenty laps; as before, with soft compound rubber.
Alonso’s new teammate, Canadian Lance Stroll, has set a ‘Mad Max’ of 960,000 for the fourth time. the aston martin They lined up behind Red Bull and ahead of Mercedes: British George Russell finished fifth, while his compatriot seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton finished sixth.
Sainz had 23 laps and set the seventh time of the session, three-tenths and one second behind Verstappen. nothing significant happened and it ended up with 26 degrees Celsius and 40.5 degrees on asphalt.
His partner, Charles Leclerc of Monaco, who lost ten places on the grid on Sunday, had replaced his SF23’s controller twice and was eleventh on the timeline: a second and a half behind Verstappen. As announced in Jeddah this Friday, both Ferraris swapped engines; but an action that does not amount to a punishment.
The second free app it will be much more meaningfulIt will be held from eight o’clock in the afternoon (six o’clock in the Spanish peninsula: 17:00 GMT) as it will coincide with the qualifying and race time.