McLaren hits back after Gasly surprise in Jeddah

Lando Norris ended the day fastest from Oscar Piastri with the duo enjoying a comfortable advantage over the pack.

It hadn’t been that way in the opening hour of running, when Pierre Gasly surprised to go fastest.

Even then, Piastri and Norris demonstrated they had pace up their sleeve without ever showing their full hand.

Piastri went fastest out of the gates but neither he nor Norris chased the outright pace as Gasly went to the top of the timesheets.

The Alpine driver’s soft tyre run benefited from a little more engine mode from his Renault power unit, thought to be down as much as 40bhp on Mercedes in normal circumstances.

Topping the opening hour was a positive headline for Alpine, but it didn’t accurately reflect its pace or that of its rivals.

That was demonstrated in Free Practice 2, as McLaren emerged comfortably at the top of the pile.

There was little between Norris and Piastri, while Max Verstappen showed promising speed.

Red Bull has historically been strong in Jeddah, the blend of high-speed corners typically suiting the characteristics of the Milton Keynes machine.

Earlier in the day, Verstappen complained of understeer before reporting high-speed instability, issues that appeared to be resolved midway through Free Practice 2.

Still, he was the better part three-tenths away from Norris, whose performance run netted a 1:28.267s.

A positive start for Yuki Tsunoda was somewhat undone by a mistake at the final corner inside the final 10 minutes of the day’s running.

He tagged the apex wall at the final corner to break the steering and send him into the outside barrier.

The Japanese driver wasn’t alone in finding the wall; most drivers did at some point (Piastri on at least two occasions), though the Red Bull driver’s impact was by some margin the most significant.

While more representative, the order at the end of the second session was still jumbled with Carlos Sainz (Williams) fifth, George Russell (Mercedes) seventh, and Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) ninth.

Isack Hadjar was the leading Racing Bulls driver in 12th, the squad having taken the unusual decision to change the rear wing on both cars during Free Practice 1.

That cost he and Liam Lawson track time, the duo around half a dozen laps shy of their rivals for the day as a consequence.

Lawson was 14th fastest in Free Practice 2, two-tenths away from Hadjar, having been warned for crossing the painted area at pit entry twice earlier in the day.

Jack Doohan was 17th at the end of the day with 45 trouble-free laps to his name.

While his performance was someway short of Gasly’s, it was a solid start around a circuit that takes no prisoners, and offers him and Alpine a platform to build on ahead of Qualifying on Saturday.

The great unknown remains Mercedes, with Russell further down the order than expected, though margins were comparatively tight and encouragingly there was no clear cause for alarm from the Silver Arrows.

Lewis Hamilton will be looking for more too, ending the day a lowly 13th for Ferrari as Leclerc managed a best more than eight-tenths quicker than the seven-time champ.

It was also a tough day for Sauber with Gabriel Bortoleto sitting out Free Practice 2 as the squad built up the spare chassis for the Brazilian.

The rookie ended the day with only 22 laps under his belt, and the slowest time in the only session he competed in.

A final hour of practice remains, set to be held in the afternoon sun from 16:30 local time (23:30 AEST), ahead of Qualifying under the lights in Jeddah at 03:00 AEST on Sunday morning.

Saudi Arabian GP: Free Practice 1 Results

Saudi Arabian GP : Free Practice 2 Results