The second practice session experienced a slight delay of 10 minutes in inspecting and securing drain covers in the pit lane.
Teams emphasized single-lap simulations under conditions more indicative of actual race scenarios, which led to notable traffic congestion, especially in the first sector.
Fernando Alonso boosted the morale of Aston Martin by leading the second practice session of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The two-time Formula 1 champion set the pace with a lap time of 1:28.827, edging out Mercedes’ George Russell by 0.230 seconds.
Max Verstappen, who had the quickest time in the first practice session, secured the third-fastest time in this round, amidst prevalent traffic challenges on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
Charles Leclerc secured the fourth-fastest time for Ferrari, with Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull slotting in just behind him.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll claimed the sixth-fastest lap, trailing his teammate Alonso by half a second yet outpacing both Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton encountered difficulties with the handling of his W15 and had to return to the pits in the last five minutes due to a suspected power-related problem.
Before that, the Mercedes driver was found under scrutiny for potentially hazardous driving after an incident where Logan Sargeant had to abruptly manoeuvre his Williams to avoid a collision on exiting turn 10.
Logan Sargeant fumed on the team radio: “Mate, it’s too dangerous.” Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz who was behind both drivers at the time of the incident, added: “What Hamilton did there was super dangerous.”
In his defence, Hamilton told Mercedes: “I didn’t realise there was someone on a lap. I was trying to get out of the way of Sainz and all of a sudden there was a Williams.”
Lewis Hamilton is set to meet with the stewards following the second practice session in Saudi Arabia, due to the incident obstructing William’s Logan Sargeant.
Pierre Gasly stood out in what was Alpine’s strongest performance of the 2024 season so far, finishing ninth and notably three-tenths of a second quicker than his teammate Esteban Ocon, who came in 15th.
Yuki Tsunoda secured the 11th spot, followed by Lando Norris, Zhou Guanyu, and Alex Albon, with the latter’s performance ensuring that 14 drivers were within a second of the session’s fastest lap.
Logan Sargeant concluded the session in 16th place, while the Haas duo of Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg finished closely together.
Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas completed the list of times, with Bottas managing to recover from an early spin at turn one.
