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Formula 1
Saudi Arabian GP
F1 Saudi Arabian GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP3 and Qualifying
Saturday's Formula 1 action from the Jeddah Corniche Circuit
Max Verstappen took a clean sweep of top spot in Friday’s two practice sessions, with Red Bull looking dominant once again after its 1-2 in the Bahrain Grand Prix opener.
All eyes will be on what its rivals can do in response at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, and whether Aston Martin can maintain its surprise start having seen Fernando Alonso finish on the podium in the opener.
Charles Leclerc goes into the Saudi race with a 10-place grid penalty due to taking his third set of control electronics for his Ferrari after his Bahrain retirement.
Saudi Arabian GP final practice begins at 1:30pm GMT followed by qualifying at 5:00pm GMT to decide the starting grid for the race on Sunday at 5:00pm GMT.
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Sun
Unsurprisingly, the risk of rain in this session is 0% with air temperature currently 27C. And, no, we don't have a moon symbol so you'll have to make do with the sun!
Right, this is your five-minute warning! Q1 will be here very shortly.
Given the apparent closeness of the midfield in F1 this year, there is the potential for another major scalp in Q1 this year after Hamilton's elimination 12 months ago.
Green flag
And we're away! Q1 begins
Unsurprisingly, there's a queue of cars to head out on track, with the Williams machines leading the way from the AlphaTauris and the Haas cars.
The McLarens and Alfa Romeos also now head out, all keen to try and get some times in and avoid the worst of the traffic.
In terms of tyre watch, it's softs all round - as the 10 cars heading out so far all could be at risk of elimination here.
The Ferraris are next to venture out and they're also on the soft rubber.
Yellow flag
Oh and there's drama already! De Vries has spun at the first corner!
He's able to get back going again - and worth bearing in mind the Dutchman has no prior experience of this challenging venue and that could dent his chances of getting through to Q2.
Stopwatch
We've now got the early lap times coming in and Sargeant sets the early pace with a 1m29.721s.
Replays have just shown a very dramatic spin for de Vries! The rear of the car seemed to lock and left the AlphaTauri driver a passenger there.
So, Sargeant still heads the times from Hulkenberg, Albon, Magnussen, Bottas and Norris.
The big guns have headed out now with the Red Bulls and Mercedes drivers joining the fray, just leaving the Astons in the pits.
But, Sargeant now has that decent lap time deleted for track limits, so Hulkenberg is now the pacesetter.
And that's a good effort from the Haas driver as Leclerc is two tenths slower with his first effort and takes second.
Stopwatch
But now we have a familiar sight, Red Bulls back at the top of the timesheets. Verstappen puts in a 1m28.761s to go an enormous six tenths quicker than team-mate Perez and over a second better than Hulkenberg's effort.
Russell and Hamilton are now fourth and sixth in the Mercedes machines, while the Astons have now vacated the pits.
Magnussen is the next major improver as he leaps up to fourth, a tenth behind team-mate Hulkenberg. This is looking promising for the Haas squad.
Norris is riding his luck at the final corner as he clunks the wall with the front left tyre - has that done any damage to his suspension?
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"I've damaged the front left steering," Norris confirms over team radio. That could be the Briton's day done.
There's another improvements from the Ferraris as Leclerc is now up to third, just a tenth behind Perez, but still a huge chunk of time behind Verstappen.
Yellow flag
More incident! Alonso now has a spin at Turn 2 but he also avoids the barriers.
It's a bit less dramatic than de Vries' earlier effort and he's just a bit too keen to get on the throttle and make use of the Aston's pace and he does a 180-degree spin.
Alonso puts that spin behind him as he leaps up to fourth place, just a few hundreths slower than Leclerc in third.
With a few minutes of the session remaining, those in trouble are Norris (who has damaged steering and may not get back out), Tsunoda, de Vries, Gasly and Sargeant (who's yet to post a time after his earlier effort is deleted for track limits).
Yellow flag
Sargeant now compounds his misery by spinning at Turn 22! He's really going to struggle to get through to Q2 now.
Woah, the Williams driver was carrying too much speed and already arrived into the corner sideways.
Frantic work is taking place at McLaren but it's likely to be in vain as Norris almost certainly isn't going to get back out in time here.
For a team that was confident of challenging the frontrunners, Alpine is under pressure here with Gasly in the dropzone and Ocon on the bubble.
Sainz and Hulkenberg have also fallen foul of the track-limits rules, but it's not likely to cost them too much here.
Ocon now moves up to seventh after being forced into another run, while Gasly climbs to 11th. That puts Bottas now into the drop zone.
Checkered flag
Alonso improves to third and has narrowed the gap to Verstappen to half a second as the chequered flag comes out.
Bottas jumps up to 14th so now Piastri is in danger of joining team-mate Norris in being eliminated.
Tsunoda bumps Albon into trouble as well, while Piastri climbs up to 11th right at the death.
And that's it, so Tsunoda, Albon, de Vries, Norris and Sargeant are the drivers knocked out.
McLaren had shown some improved practice performance but a double Q1 elimination is not what they wanted here.
The timing screen shows that Sargeant stopped out on track on his last lap so never had chance to improve after his spin and track-limits infringement.
So, let's pause for breath after a frantic 18 minutes! And what a close battle it was to make Q2! Bottas nudged Tsunoda out by just 0.01s
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"Messed up the last corner," says a frustrated de Vries, who earlier missed FP3.
By: Autosport Staff
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