What we learned in Friday practice for the 2025 Saudi Arabian GP

The flutter of a red flag and the clutter of a Red Bull rather scotched the best-laid long-run plans of the Formula 1 field. It was only a minor fault from Yuki Tsunoda, who had otherwise looked in good form around the Jeddah circuit in his third Red Bull outing, but a fault that shattered the right-hand side of his RB21 steed.

It was as expected in the top four of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix's second practice session; two McLarens hogging the floodlights' glare, with Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc separating them from the rest of the order. There was toil elsewhere, as George Russell could only get his Mercedes as high as seventh in the qualifying simulations, his team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli ensconced within the midfield, and Lewis Hamilton glumly forming the (vegan) meat in a Racing Bulls sandwich on the timing board. 

Getting a good soft-tyre run chalked up hardly seemed like a painless endeavour, as traffic was prevalent through the lap; it won't be entirely unexpected to see a queue of cars in lock-step at the final corner during qualifying, with frantic radio messages asking them part like the neighbouring Red Sea to escape being penalised for impeding a driver finishing a hot lap. Turbulent air through the high-speed corners will also be perilous to navigate.

Unhelpfully, nobody put together much of a long run; Tsunoda's inopportune wall-crunch stopped the action but not the clock – leaving just the final vapours of the session for drivers to revisit the wiggling, winding Saudi Arabian circuit for a final sighter. But there's still something we can glean from the lap time data to determine what we might expect on Sunday's night-time festivities.

Long run analysis – with few long runs available

The only driver to cobble together more than a five-lap run on the medium tyres was Verstappen, who racked up an eight-lap stint with an average 1m35.046s time. The opening four of them were sitting in the high 1m34s, before plunging into the 1m35s. Extrapolating that stint suggests the mediums can be expected to fall away for the Red Bulls, even with the lower degradation expected in Jeddah versus last weekend's Bahrain encounter.

There's only really Oscar Piastri's four-lap stint on mediums to compare that to, but the Australian opened with a stronger baseline; he did an average of a 1m33.949s across those laps before his stint was put prematurely on hold. 

Long runs were hard to come by in FP2, but McLaren still look the strongest having finished 1-2

Photo by: Lars Baron - Motorsport Images

What we know is that, with the less abrasive track surface compared to last week's venue, McLaren's tyre degradation advantage won't be quite so compelling. Nonetheless, it should still have good pace; with some degradation still expected and with opportunities to overtake (unlike Suzuka), the McLarens should hit the front even with any qualifying misfires.

The only other long-run stint of note was Carlos Sainz's five-lap 1m35.281s average; last year's Saudi Arabia absentee logged the fifth-best timed lap of the session, so there's reason for Williams to be relatively cheerful. But there's not much to show where the team stacks up on race pace, as its immediate rivals did a maximum of three laps over a stint.

If anyone is indeed curious to pick out the bones from the meagre stints clocked in, then we should observe the other three-lap stinters; Alex Albon did a 1m34.970s on his three-lap run on the hard tyres, Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly did the same on mediums to log 1m35.185s and 1m34.539s averages respectively, and Esteban Ocon's 1m35.558s average on softs rounded out those comparative stints.

"At the minute I would say we feel confident, but the others are not far behind. I probably was hoping for a bigger gap than what we had today. We know we're fast, we know we have a great car, but certainly not as comfortable as what we would like" Lando Norris

Pirelli's assessment after FP2 confirmed that, indeed, there was very little data to truly predict how the tyres performed on the longer runs, but the decision to go a step softer with all the compounds (transitioning from the C2-3-4 set used last year to a C3-4-5) hadn't really changed much. The tyre company's motorsport chief Mario Isola noted that graining was only circumstantial but could play a small part if teams weren't careful. 

"It’s hard to see there being a major change in strategy," Isola noted, "with the one-stop on paper the quickest route, while the two-stop is a bit more competitive than before but not sufficiently so to be a valid alternative.”

Given the picture of the tyre choices in FP2, strategy might vary slightly; although Ocon didn't show particularly good pace in his token showing on the softs, it might be an option for the brave to employ as a race tyre. Expect most to start on the soft or medium, with a confluence towards the hard tyre for the second stint. The white-walled tyre should be a good race tyre, and careful management means it'll last for the majority of the race.

Pirelli's motorsport chief Isola expects the Saudi Arabian GP to be a one-stop race

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

But the contra-strategy might be of use here; starting on the hard and then graduating to the softer constructions for a late-race flourish should be an option for anyone looking to try a heavy overcut. It's not going to be as unilateral as Suzuka, thankfully, as there's overtaking to be done...and ample opportunity for a safety car or two.

McLaren demonstrates early advantage, but not a "comfortable" one

For all of the pessimism that has suffused Red Bull of late, the team has been adept at taking a miserable Friday and putting some overnight polish on it. As sim driver Sebastien Buemi is at Imola racing for Toyota in the World Endurance Championship, it might well be his Formula E rival Jake Dennis' opportunity to affect the picture with some virtual Jeddah laps.

In any case, McLaren knows that it cannot bank on there being no threats from behind. Lando Norris, who noted that he spent much of Friday simply trying to work on his own driving and on restoring his fraying confidence with the MCL39, reckoned that the team didn't have much leeway to the rest of the order.

"I think at the minute I would say we feel confident, but the others are not far behind," the championship leader surmised. "I probably was hoping for a bigger gap than what we had today. We know we're fast, we know we have a great car, but certainly not as comfortable as what we would like. We'll keep our heads down, keep focused on ourselves and see what we can do."

Since Verstappen usually performs well in Saudi Arabia, he can never be discounted; he'll be on hand to pick up any pieces if the McLarens encounter any strife throughout the weekend. Tsunoda's pace showed that he can be there too, but the Japanese will have to shake off his FP2 crash and work out a way to deliver that next step up in pace to match his team-mate.

Mercedes and Ferrari endured mixed sessions, and there's no real long-run pace from either; Antonelli clipped the wall on a lap and had to retreat to the pits, leaving both cars dormant in the garage for a spell as Russell's machine required set-up work to help the car chime slightly more with the demands of the high-speed Jeddah circuit. 

Norris is still wary of those behind despite McLaren's advantage

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

"It was a bit of a messy session to be honest," Russell rued. "Obviously we didn't get many laps in at the end, definitely a bit worse off than we were in FP1 – we were pretty good in FP1. But I'm sure there's nothing we can't solve overnight and come back stronger tomorrow.

"We tried some things, Kimi did some different things which were valuable to try and learn, I think we got a bit of a direction from that. I was intrigued to see the long-run pace, but unfortunately with the red [flag] at the end, we didn't manage to see that. But I think it'll be a close battle again for the next best team and hopefully we can try and sneak up there. McLaren are very good again."

Ferrari's one-lap pace, courtesy of Leclerc, appeared solid enough – although not a match for the McLarens. Suggestions are that the team believes that its Bahrain floor upgrades should offer a more visible uptick in performance versus last weekend, particularly when encountering the plethora of quick-fire high-speed turns. Ferrari experimented with differing set-ups for both Leclerc and Hamilton, with the latter less happy with the malleability of his car.

Leclerc spoke of the much-venerated "window", with an optimistic view that Ferrari will be in very good shape once it locks its crosshairs onto the performance purple patch. It's getting there, however, that seems to be the problem for the scarlet squad.

Will Ferrari be in the fight for victory come race day?

Photo by: Lars Baron - Motorsport Images