Live: F1 Saudi Arabian GP commentary and updates - FP1 & FP2
Live commentary and updates for F1's Saudi Arabian GP Friday sessions
By: Tom Howard, Jake Boxall-Legge
Summary
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Leaderboard
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Status: Stopped
Leclerc's rear just stepped out and he took a fair old whack on the Tecpro barriers. The session will not be restarted as a result.
That's a huge crash for Leclerc down at Turn 23; he's out of the car now, thankfully, but that's a lot of damage to the Ferrari.
Norris and Sainz have a close moment on track, Sainz mounting an overtake on his former team-mate. Save it for Sunday, lads?
The AWS qualifying pace-o-meter has Perez over a second off the pace, Tsunoda ahead of Gasly, and Russell ahead of both Astons. Meanwhile, Mazepin bowls a wide around Turn 2.
We're now firmly in the long-run phase now for the final 15 minutes - with drivers back on the medium and hard tyres.
The Ferrari pair have had a couple more quicker runs too - Sainz moves from 10th to seventh, as Leclerc just dives into the pits rather than finish.
Gasly now finds a lap on the softs to fire his way up to third place, on a 1m29.099s, as Verstappen is indeed having another go at a quick lap.
Verstappen asks for another tilt at a quali sim, and says "I don't care" when told it might compromise longer runs. Ocon moves up to P5 in the meantime.
Leclerc and Sainz also improved on the softs, but it seems like the majority of red-tyre laps have been affected by traffic in some way. Q1 might be...chaotic.
Traffic has been a bit of a factor in these soft-tyre laps too, Hamilton finds a colossal gaggle of cars into the final corner and goes wide at Turn 27. A true quali sim.
Norris and Gasly improved only a tiny bit on their initial soft runs, either the teams are focusing on longer runs or the softs aren't giving much around Jeddah. Answers on a postcard, please.
Nobody's really gone much quicker on their first runs on the softs as it stands - which probably isn't what you expect to see. Russell looks like he's found some time second time around, and Norris is on a cool-down lap.
Russell reports a very long brake pedal, but has pressed on regardless - which is rather brave! All seems to be well after that initial scare.
We're at the start of some soft-tyre runs now - Latifi, Russell, Norris and Stroll are out there now.
Tsunoda goes fastest with a 1m29.597s for about two seconds, before Verstappen displaces him again by 0.3s. Tsunoda's lap, however, was on the hard tyre.
Spanish duo Sainz and Alonso move up to third and fourth, wedging between Leclerc and Hamilton on the timesheets.
Hamilton goes P2, 0.2s off Norris, but he's on a step-harder tyres. Norris did his P1 run on the softs.
Track conditions present a different prospect at night; the circuit is often cooler, which should yield a trifle more grip.
We've got some laps on the board - of the initial flurry, Esteban Ocon's 1m31.223s is the most notable.
It didn't take long for everyone to swarm the circuit - only Lewis Hamilton is yet to join the fray.
FP2 should be much more representative of Sunday's race, since it'll be run under the lights. This session is where the majority of preparation will be done.
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