JEDDAH:
Pierre Gasly was surprise top of the timesheets for Renault-owned Alpine in first practice for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Friday.
The French driver lapped the super-fast Jeddah Corniche circuit with a best time of one minute 29.239 seconds, 0.007 quicker than McLaren’s Formula One leader Lando Norris could manage.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was third, 0.070 off the leading pace, with McLaren’s Australian Oscar Piastri, winner in Bahrain last weekend and only three points behind Norris after four races, fourth.
The session, run in the late afternoon sunshine on the shores of the Red Sea, was largely unrepresentative of the conditions for Saturday’s qualifying and Sunday’s race, which is held at night.
The session still served as a useful measure of driver confidence on a daunting track that rewards the gradual building up of pace.
Alex Albon was fifth for Williams with George Russell sixth fastest for Mercedes, ahead of Williams’ Carlos Sainz and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton.
Red Bull’s reigning champion Max Verstappen, last year’s winner in Jeddah, was ninth and teammate Yuki Tsunoda completed the top 10.
Gasly’s Australian rookie teammate Jack Doohan was 16th.
Haas’s Oliver Bearman, who made his F1 debut with Ferrari as a stand-in last year, was 18th after a brush with the wall at turn one. He continued without damage.
Verstappen would come with ‘downsides’ for Mercedes
Signing Formula One champion Max Verstappen would come with “a lot of downsides” for Mercedes, who would be better off keeping their current drivers, Williams boss James Vowles said on Friday.
The sport has been swept with speculation about Verstappen’s future after Red Bull’s motorsport consultant Helmut Marko expressed concern the Dutch driver could leave at the end of the season.
Verstappen, a four-times consecutive champion who would be a top target for anyone able to afford him, has a contract to 2028 subject to exit clauses.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff expressed an interest in signing Verstappen last year and McLaren team boss Zak Brown said in March he expected the Red Bull driver would join Mercedes for 2026, with Aston Martin another possibility.
Vowles, who was motorsport strategy director at Mercedes and a close confident of Wolff before joining Mercedes-powered Williams in 2023, suggested George Russell and Kimi Antonelli were the better bet.
“I’m not Toto, but I think he’s got a really good driver lineup for the future,” he told reporters over brunch at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah.
“(Verstappen winning in) Japan was for me jaw-dropping, well done to him, but he comes with a lot of downsides as well that you have to acknowledge.