F1 Saudi Arabian GP: Max Verstappen leads Red Bull one-two in opening practice
The double world champion, whose dela💯yed 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 G🌄rand Prix a fortnight aꦓgo, 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 th🃏ird, 0.698s adrift of Verstappen’s FP1 benchm🐼ark and a couple of tenths faster than teammate Lance Stroll.
George Russell pipped teammate Lewis Hamilton by jus💮t 0.016s in fiꦗfth but both Mercedes drivers wound up over a second off the pace.
Carlos Sainz was seventh-quickest for Ferrari, ahead of Alpine’s Pier💫re 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, wh﷽ile McLaren’s Lando Norris was slowest of all in 20th.
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