Jeddah, Saudi Arabia – Max Verstappen began the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend by demonstrating his dominance in the opening free practice session on Thursday afternoon. The Red Bull driver outpaced competitors, including Fernando Alonso from Aston Martin and his teammate Sergio Perez.
Verstappen initially trailed Mercedes driver George Russell by a slim margin after the first set of laps on soft tires but improved to post a fastest time of 1m 29.659s on his second attempt, pulling ahead of the pack. Throughout the session, he maintained his lead over Alonso, with Perez closely following and Russell securing the fourth position.
Following Verstappen were Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in fifth and sixth place, respectively. Despite missing media duties the day before due to illness, Sainz managed to make it to the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in time for practice.
Lando Norris led the way for the McLaren team in seventh place, while Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes settled for eighth. Lance Stroll of Aston Martin, who brushed against the wall early on, and Alex Albon of Williams rounded out the top ten.
Further down the field, Valtteri Bottas led the charge for Sauber in 11th place, with his teammate Zhou Guanyu in 18th after a slip at the start of his soft tire run. Daniel Ricciardo of RB claimed the 12th spot, with Esteban Ocon of Alpine in 13th as the team aimed for improvement following a challenging race in Bahrain.
As the session progressed, Logan Sargeant and Oscar Piastri of Williams and McLaren lagged behind their teammates in 14th and 15th place, respectively. Yuki Tsunoda, in the other RB car, settled for 16th position while utilizing medium tires for his fastest lap.
Pierre Gasly of Alpine secured 17th place, followed by Zhou and the Haas duo of Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen. The drivers from Red Bull also posted their fastest times on medium tires during the practice session.
As teams and drivers continue to fine-tune their strategies and setups ahead of the Grand Prix, the competition is expected to intensify as they aim to secure optimal performance on the challenging Jeddah circuit.