18/03/2023
NEWS STORY
Ahead of today's sole practice session the air temperature is 28 degrees C, while the track temperature is 44 degrees.
Max Verstappen set the pace yesterday, but the Dutchman and his team continue to play down their chances.
Fernando Alonso split the Bulls but while there is no questioning the pace of the Aston Martin there is speculation over his fuel load at the time.
While George Russell was fifth, teammate Lewis Hamilton was down in eleventh, just behind the Ferrari pair. While pace remains the Achilles heel at Mercedes, Ferrari is still concerned at reliability. And let's not forget, Leclerc has a 10-place grid penalty tomorrow.
As ever, the real excitement will be the midfield, with the Alpines looking good yesterday, as did Hulkenberg. Albon, strangely, posted his best time on the medium rubber.
Despite the changes to the track Jeddah remains a serious concern with a number of near-misses yesterday as drivers on hot laps suddenly found themselves confronted with a driver running at a much lower speed.
The lights go green but there is no immediate rush to action. Eventually, Stroll break the deadlock and heads down the pitlane, followed by his teammate. Both are on mediums. However, they subsequently pit and switch to hards.
When the Aston pair pit for a second time, it is Piastri that heads out.
As in Bahrain, conditions for FP1 and FP3 are entirely different to those of qualifying and the race, therefore there it is unlikely to be very busy until later in this session.
At which point, Norris, Hulkenberg, Ocon and Gasly head out, with all three compounds in use.
Piastri posts the first time of the day, a 32.531.
As Gasly posts a 30.718, on his first flying lap Verstappen goes second with a 30.724.
"Stroll will feel better this weekend because his injuries have had more time to heal," says Mike Krack, "but there is still some way to go until he will feel 100 per cent.
"Lance is doing everything he can to get back to 100 per cent as soon as possible," he adds, "and I'm looking forward to seeing how he fares this weekend because the characteristics of the circuit should suit his driving style.
"It looks pretty tight," he admits. "Alpine look quick, so I think it's going to be close. It was a surprise to see them so quick. The Ferraris I'm sure will be there, and even the Mercedes looks pretty good, so we'll see."
Russell goes quickest (30.476) and Hamilton second, as Leclerc goes fifth with a 31.359. However, the Ferrari driver is on mediums whilst the Mercedes pair are on softs.
Verstappen's time was posted on hards. Indeed, on the white-banded rubber the Dutchman improves to 29.882.
Albon (softs) goes sixth with a 31.050, ahead of Piastri, Bottas and the Ferraris.
With 40 minutes remaining, Norris, Tsunoda, Sargeant and Perez finally head out, leaving de Vries as the only 'no-show'.
Gasly improves to second with a 30.161 on the softs, with teammate Ocon posting a 30.081 moments later.
No sooner has Verstappen improved to 29.746 than Perez crosses the line at 29.417, albeit on the softs.
The only other drivers on the hards are Stroll, who is currently 10th and Alonso who has yet to post a competitive time.
AlphaTauri reveals that it is changing the engine in de Vries' car.
Hamilton loos set to improve but is thwarted by traffic, while Piastri has a hairy moment as he almost loses the McLaren in Turn 22.
Following his issues with downshifts yesterday, it appears Verstappen has taken on a new gearbox.
Talking of which... "I've lost the first shift," reports Leclerc.
A very nasty twitch for Ocon at Turn 10, the Alpine driver lucky not to have a huge accident as he takes too much kerb and bounces across the track.
Perez improves to 29.127, as Verstappen heads out on a fresh set of softs.
He goes quickest in the first sector, as Stroll improves to fifth (29.742). Verstappen maintains the pace in S2, as Hamilton goes third (29.568). At the line Verstappen posts a 28.756.
"I got blocked by the Aston," reports Bottas, as one of the green cars was exiting ther pits.
Unseen, Alonso has gone fourth with a 29.606, just a fraction off Hamilton's best.
Piastri goes fifth (29.698), ahead of Gasly, Stroll, Zhou and Hulkenberg.
"It's dangerous what these guys do," says Norris after almost tripping up over Verstappen. The Dutchman apologises to the McLaren drivers but hits out at his engineer for not warning him. "Mate s***!" he declares.
He subsequently improves to 28.660., while Alonso posts a 29.483 to grab third.
"I've done two laps less than the other guy," says Hamilton, referring to Russell. Hmm.
Leclerc heads out on fresh softs, followed by his teammate.
Alonso gets the black and white flag for failing to follow the race director's instructions.
Verstappen isn't looking likely to settle for what he's got, however, following a purple in S1 he appears to back off. Only he doesn't, indeed he goes purple in S2 and raises the bar with a 28.485. That's his third push lap on that set of tyres.
Leclerc can only manage a 29.897 which puts him tenth.
He is subsequently demoted by his teammate who stops the clock at 29.844, both over 1.3s off the pace.
It really does seem that Ferrari is concerned at not pushing its power unit too hard.
"What the **** is this guy doing," says Zhou of a slow Tsunoda.
Despite the fact that there are 19 drivers on track, both Ferrari drivers look to improve.
Leclerc duly goes sixth with a 29.588, while Sainz can only manage a 29.761 which puts him 10th.
Piastri (23) completed the most laps, ahead of Alonso, Stroll and Zhou, who all completed 21. Other than de Vries, who didn't go out, Magnussen and Perez (15) completed the fewest number of laps.
Verstappen is quickest, ahead of Perez, Alonso, Stroll, Hamilton, Leclerc, Norris, Piastri, Gasly and Sainz.
Russell is eleventh, ahead of Zhou, Hulkenberg, Ocon, Albon, Sargeant, Magnussen, Bottas and Tsunoda.
Check out our Saturday gallery from Jeddah here.