Max Verstappen, the reigning F1 world champion, showcased his prowess by leading the pack in the initial practice session for the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. He outpaced Fernando Alonso by a margin of 0.186 seconds, affirming Red Bull’s continued dominance early in the season.
As in previous races, the first practice session, held in the afternoon, does not perfectly mirror the conditions teams will encounter during qualifying and the race, particularly since the latter sessions occur under floodlights.
Nonetheless, Verstappen emerged as the front-runner during FP1, posting a fastest lap time of 1 minute and 29.659 seconds.
Alonso, impressively, secured the second spot on the time sheets with his Aston Martin, hinting at a potential strong performance. However, history suggests that maintaining this position throughout the race weekend might prove challenging for the Spanish driver.
Sergio Perez, Verstappen’s teammate at Red Bull, completed the top three, trailing his colleague by 0.209 seconds. Perez, who clinched his first pole position in Jeddah back in 2022 and triumphed in the previous year’s race ahead of Verstappen, demonstrated consistent competitiveness.
George Russell claimed the fourth position, briefly leading the field during the early phase of the session when drivers utilized the hard compound tires. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz followed closely in fifth and sixth places respectively, with Lando Norris trailing by half a second behind Verstappen’s pace.
The trio of Lewis Hamilton, Lance Stroll, and Alex Albon rounded up the top ten, with Stroll encountering a minor setback as he brushed against the wall at Turn 22, causing damage to his front-left tire.
Valtteri Bottas narrowly missed out on a top-ten finish in his Sauber, trailing by 1.1 seconds. Meanwhile, Daniel Ricciardo opted for a medium tire strategy, securing the twelfth position, ahead of Esteban Ocon, Logan Sagreant, and Oscar Piastri.
Yuki Tsunoda, like Ricciardo, refrained from using the softer compound tires and settled for sixteenth place overall. Pierre Gasly, Zhou Guanyu, and the Haas duo of Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen completed the session’s lineup.
