Stuck brake curtails Verstappen dominance

Max Verstappen’s first retirement in two years was caused by a stuck right rear brake that eventually failed at the Australian Grand Prix. The polesitter held the lead on the opening lap but complained the car had snapped away from him strangely as …

Max Verstappen’s first retirement in two years was caused by a stuck right rear brake that eventually failed at the Australian Grand Prix.

The polesitter held the lead on the opening lap but complained the car had snapped away from him strangely as Carlos Sainz stayed close on the second lap and used DRS to overtake in the middle sector. Starting the next lap, smoke started emerging from the right rear corner of Verstappen’s car and he had to slow, with the brake exploding in the pit entry and catching fire as he returned to the Red Bull garage.

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“My right rear brake basically stuck on from when the lights went off,” Verstappen said. “So the temperatures just kept on increasing and until the point of course that it caught fire. It explains it now, having one brake caliper just stuck on. It’s like a handbrake.

“I had that moment, of course after the first lap, but then already the temperature was increasing and increasing. So it just works like a handbrake. But of course, I didn’t know that stuff was happening. I just felt the problem was the balance in the car was off.”

Verstappen says he’s philosophical about the retirement given how good Red Bull’s reliability has been, with his last failure to finish coming at the same race in Melbourne in 2022.

“Not so much [emotion] to be honest. I mean, I’m disappointed with not being able to finish the race because I think we would have had a good shot at winning — the balance felt quite nice on the laps to the grid. Like I felt confident and like a good improvement compared to what I felt in the long runs when we did in practice. But some things you can’t control.

“It excites me, in a way. Of course I would like to win. Of course, we had a lot of good races in a row, a lot of basically good reliability. And I knew that the day would come that you end up having a retirement and unfortunately that day was today.

“I think we just had already a very good run of two years. That’s already quite impressive. Of course, you never like to see it happen, but it’s more important now that we understand why it happened.”

Verstappen — who says the failure couldn’t be caused by a tear-off — was also caught on camera arguing with a team member in the garage after jumping out of the car, but says that was due to the team’s actions when he got back into the pits.

“Well, that was related to us doing a pit stop while the car was on fire. I was like, ‘Why are we doing a pit stop?’ but that was it.”

Verstappen takes pole for Australian GP ahead of Sainz

Max Verstappen took his third consecutive pole position, pinching top spot from Carlos Sainz at the Australian Grand Prix. Verstappen struggled to string together a clean lap in any of the three practice sessions ahead of qualifying, but he banished …

Max Verstappen took his third consecutive pole position, pinching top spot from Carlos Sainz at the Australian Grand Prix.

Verstappen struggled to string together a clean lap in any of the three practice sessions ahead of qualifying, but he banished those bad memories to extinguish hopes of a Ferrari upset.

The reigning champion and 2023 Melbourne polesitter and winner was flawless when it counted. Both his laps in Q3 were quick enough to secure pole, with his fastest time of 1m 15.915s getting the job done with a healthy 0.27s margin.

“It was a bit unexpected,” he said. “But I’m very happy with Q3.

“I think both of those laps felt very, very nice, very enjoyable.

“It’s been tricky this weekend so far, but we managed to be there in the end, so I’m happy with that.”

Sainz was Verstappen’s closest challenger, recovering from appendix surgery two weeks ago, to qualify on the front row at a race in which the majority of winners have come from the first two places on the grid.

“It’s been a tough couple of weeks,” he said. “A lot of days in bed waiting for this moment to see if I could be here today.

“To make it to this weekend and to put it on the front row after leading through qualifying I was almost not believing it.”

Sergio Perez completed the top three for Red Bull, but the Mexican is under threat of a post-race investigation into impeding Nico Hulkenberg in Q1.

Second in the championship, Perez said he was way of Ferrari’s race pace around Albert Park and predicted a varied race.

“I think tomorrow we’ve got a fight on our hands with Ferrari and the rest of the field,” he said. “Starting position is not that relevant at the moment.

“We’ve changed a bit our strategy for tomorrow. Let’s see who can survive the most on the degradation side.”

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Lando Norris qualified fourth, beating Charles Leclerc to the second row of the grid after the second Ferrari driver made a mistake at Turn 12 that spoilt his last lap.

Home hero Oscar Piastri had consistently been the faster McLaren driver until Q3, when the Australian reported suspected floor damage. He qualified sixth and 0.257s behind teammate Norris.

George Russell heads the fourth row ahead of an excellent Yuki Tsunoda, who made his second consecutive Q3 appearance and came within 0.064s of the Mercedes.

Aston Martin teammates struggled in Q3, with Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso qualifying a distant ninth and 10th and more than a second off the pace.

Lewis Hamilton was a shock elimination in 11th, continuing a difficult weekend thus far for Mercedes. The Briton, who has a record eight pole positions in Melbourne, missed out on a Q3 berth by just 0.059s, though he was 0.169s behind the next non-Mercedes car, with Russell having just snuck through in 10th.

Alex Albon used his new soft tires early in Q2 to avoid traffic to qualify a commendable 12th ahead of Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas, Haas driver Kevin Magnussen and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, who made Q2 despite brushing the wall and picking up a rear-left puncture in Q1.

Nico Hulkenberg will line up 16th for Haas ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, who will be investigated after the session for crossing the pit exit line.

Daniel Ricciardo was bound for 12th place with his final flying lap, but the Australian ran wide exiting Turn 4 approaching Turn 5, for which his best time was deleted. His fallback lap dumped him to 18th ahead of only Zhou Guanyu, whose session was compromised when his front wing failed after running wide over the curbs.

Logan Sargeant did not qualify, having had his chassis commandeered by teammate Alex Albon on Friday night due to a lack of spares at Williams.

Wolff would ‘love to have’ Verstappen at Mercedes

Toto Wolff admits Max Verstappen is a driver he would “love to have” at Mercedes next season but believes he needs to improve the car on offer to attract the three-time world champion. Verstappen’s future at Red Bull has come under increased …

Toto Wolff admits Max Verstappen is a driver he would “love to have” at Mercedes next season but believes he needs to improve the car on offer to attract the three-time world champion.

Verstappen’s future at Red Bull has come under increased scrutiny amid the power struggle that has been taking place following an investigation into Christian Horner’s alleged behavior, with Verstappen firmly backing Helmut Marko at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The Dutchman stated Marko needs to stay or it could influence his own decision-making when it comes to remaining at Red Bull, and while the Austrian appears set to continue in his role, Wolff says he’d jump at the chance to sign Verstappen.

“Let’s word it like this, I think this is a decision that Max needs to take and there is no team up and down the grid that wouldn’t do handstands to have him in the car,” Wolff said.

“I’d love to have him, but first we need to sort out our car. First, we owe it to George [Russell] and Lewis [Hamilton] to improve the car and give them equipment that is good before dreaming about the future next year.”

With Mercedes securing a best finish of fifth in each of the opening two races, Wolff admits he expects Verstappen to want to stay at Red Bull given the dominance he is enjoying, even if he believes his management team are unhappy with current situation off-track.

“A driver will always try to be in the fastest possible car. That gives you the best chances of winning races and championships and this is where Max is at the moment. But Max is also … Jos [Verstappen] and Max and Raymond [Vermeulen, manager] are also people who are very straight, sometimes uncomfortably straight, and I think that’s something they will make up their mind on. But I think fundamentally a racing driver is calibrated to be in the best car.”

The links between Verstappen and Mercedes have gained more attention given the vacancy at Wolff’s team in 2025, as Hamilton heads to Ferrari. However, the team principal says he’s willing to see how the driver market plays out before committing to any replacement.

“I think we are going to wait. We are going to wait. We have a few interesting options and the more we are able to assess how the season pans out, young drivers with us against slightly older ones, that’s not going to be a decision that we want to take in the next few weeks, it will be in a few months depending on where it goes.”

No individual bigger than the team at Red Bull – Horner

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says no individual is bigger than the team amid speculation regarding the futures of Max Verstappen and Helmut Marko. The ongoing saga at Red Bull took a number of twists during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix …

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says no individual is bigger than the team amid speculation regarding the futures of Max Verstappen and Helmut Marko.

The ongoing saga at Red Bull took a number of twists during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend, with Marko suggesting he could be suspended as part of an investigation into leaks to the media relating to allegations against Horner. After a meeting with Red Bull executive Oliver Mintzlaff on Saturda, Marko stated he would continue in his role, but not before Verstappen had launched a robust defense of the advisor and said his future was heavily linked to Marko’s.

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“Firstly, Helmut is a consultant to Red Bull GmbH, so whatever the discussion was it was between them and not the team,” Horner told Sky Sports after Verstappen’s win in Jeddah. “Max is an important member of our team, a valued member of our team and a wonderful driver, but everybody has a role to play in this team.

“We are a team and no single individual is bigger than the team. That’s the only way you achieve these results.

“[Saturday] was Max’s 100th podium finish, all of which have been in Red Bull Racing cars, and it was his 56th race victory. We move ahead of Williams on 114 victories in what is only our 20th year and this is an incredibly strong team that has strength and depth that is achieving these results.”

Horner denied there was a battle for control of Red Bull, following Marko’s comments and Verstappen’s public show of backing, with Jos Verstappen having reiterated his belief that it is problematic if the team principal remains in his role.

“No, look, no. A lot is made of this stuff, but we are one team and nobody is bigger than the team. This team comprises across the different entities of over 1,400 people and everybody has a role to play, and that’s from the very bottom to the very top. Without them performing you don’t achieve performances like this and unfortunately there has been a lot of speculation this weekend, but once again our focus is very much on track.

“Obviously there’s rumblings and I’m aware of what’s been said, but Max is an important part of this team. He’s our driver and he’s doing a great job. As team principal and CEO, I’m responsible for the running and the operation of this team, so everybody has to do their part. Max is doing his part and everybody else is doing their part.”

RBR’s off-track drama not affecting performance – Verstappen

Max Verstappen says the off-track controversies surrounding Red Bull are not distracting from performances, after taking another comfortable victory in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Red Bull repeated its one-two finish from the first race in Bahrain …

Max Verstappen says the off-track controversies surrounding Red Bull are not distracting from performances, after taking another comfortable victory in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Red Bull repeated its one-two finish from the first race in Bahrain with a similar display in Jeddah, although Charles Leclerc took the point for the fastest lap as he finished third. The result comes amid a backdrop of infighting at Red Bull — with Helmut Marko stating his own future was uncertain on Friday and Verstappen backing the Austrian — but the championship leader is impressed with how resilient the team has proven to be.

“I always said that what is most important is that we work together as a team and that everyone keeps the peace,” Verstappen said. “And that’s what we, I think, all agree on within the team. So hopefully from now on that is also fully the case. Everyone is trying to focus in the same direction.

“And I think the positive out of all this is that it didn’t hurt our performances. So it’s a very strong team. I think also mentally, what you can see from not only [the] driver’s side, but also mechanics, engineers, everyone is there to do their job. I think everyone, even when there is stuff going on or whatever, they’re just very focused on their job as they should be.”

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Verstappen’s victory is his 19th in the past 20 races and sees him reach three figures in terms of podiums, but he jokes that the landmark in his 188th race means he’s missed out on too many.

“It’s 88 missed podiums!” he quipped. “No, of course, very happy with that. But I’m not really a guy looking at the stats, so I’m just happy to hit 100, but I want to continue and just focus race-by-race on achieving the best possible result all the time.

“I think it was a very good race. Of course, after that first stint with the safety car, we had to box. I knew that it was going to be a very long stint to the end, but it was the same for most of us. I think we just managed the pace very well to the end.

“The whole weekend, the car has been performing really well, probably a little bit better than expected, even. And yeah, overall, very pleased to win here.”

Verstappen and Red Bull dominate Saudi Arabian GP

Max Verstappen led another comfortable Red Bull Racing one-two after dominating the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Verstappen lost the lead only during the first pit stop window, caused by Lance Stroll breaking his left-front suspension with a tap of the …

Max Verstappen led another comfortable Red Bull Racing one-two after dominating the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Verstappen lost the lead only during the first pit stop window, caused by Lance Stroll breaking his left-front suspension with a tap of the apex barrier at Turn 22, sending him careering into the barriers on the opposite side of the circuit. The ensuing safety car triggered all but four remaining drivers to make their sole mandatory pit stops for the hard tire, which could comfortably make it to the end of the 50-lap grand prix.

Lando Norris inherited the lead ahead of Verstappen, but it was never going to last. After bringing his tires up to temperature for a long final stint, the reigning champion made quick work of the McLaren on lap 13, after which he was never sighted on the way to his 100th grand prix podium.

“Overall, of course a fantastic weekend for the whole team but also for myself,” he said. “I felt really good in the car.

“We had good pace all around and we could manage it quite well with the gap also. Overall I’m very, very pleased.”

Verstappen also claimed Red Bull Racing’s 115th victory, taking the team one past Williams on the list of constructors winners to outright third behind Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes.

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Sergio Perez had been running second before the safety car intervention but lost two places stacking behind Verstappen. He dropped to fourth behind Norris and Lewis Hamilton, who had also stayed out, and took eight laps to pass both, enough to put him out of touch with Verstappen after resuming one-two formation.

His pace was great enough to completely negate a five-second penalty levied for an unsafe release ahead of Fernando Alonso in the hectic pit lane during the first stop window.

“We definitely made good progress,” Perez said. “It was quite a compromised race with the safety car there so early.

“Overall it’s a great day for the team. It’s a very different track to Bahrain and we keep being strong. We just have to keep this momentum going.”

Charles Leclerc started from the front row, but the RB20’s superior straight-line speed had Perez through after only four laps.

The Monegasque followed the Mexican back up into the podium places after the safety car but was no match for him, and he finished 10 seconds behind the leading two at the flag before Perez’s penalty was applied. Leclerc also picked up a bonus point for fastest lap

“Overall the feeling was pretty good,” he said. “It was a bit of a boring race, because Red Bull was a bit too quick and behind we had a bit of a gap, but we took the maximum points we could today, and that was the target, so that was great.”

Oscar Piastri appeared to have the pace to duel with Leclerc for the final podium place but couldn’t follow the Ferrari past Hamilton despite the tire offset.

Hamilton’s Mercedes had significantly better straight-line speed than the McLaren, with even Piastri’s DRS doing little to get him to within striking distance.

It took Hamilton making his eventual stop on lap 36 for Piastri to get through after several failed attempts at the first chicane, but by then he was 10s behind the Russell, locking him into fourth place.

Fernando Alonso finished fifth after a long race defending ahead of George Russell.

Oliver Bearman finished a sensational seventh on debut for Ferrari, gaining four places on his starting position and fending off Norris and Hamilton on faster tires at the end of the race.

The Briton was called up to replace Carlos Sainz, who was suffering appendicitis, shortly before final practice but held himself well in the grand prix, making few mistakes and never appearing overwhelmed by his sudden chance at one of the calendar’s most testing circuits.

Norris and Hamilton pitted late for fresh softs but couldn’t extract the expected pace from the red-marked tires, finishing eighth and ninth.

Nico Hulkenberg scored the final point after an excellent exercise in teamwork at Haas. Hulkenberg had stayed out during the safety car while teammate Kevin Magnussen pitted, but the Dane rapidly accumulated 20 seconds of penalties, one for causing a collision with Alex Albon and another for passing Yuki Tsunoda off the track.

The team switch him to a defensive strategy, using him to hold up the midfield with some superb defensive driving to build a gap into which Hulkenberg could pit on lap 33. The German rejoined the race in net 10th place, just 2.3s ahead of the relentless Magnussen, to collect Haas’s first point of the year.

Magnussen dropped to 12th after his penalties, promoting Alex Albon to 11th ahead of Esteban Ocon and Yuki Tsunoda in 13th and 14th after a tight race-long duel between the trio.

Logan Sargeant finished ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, whose race was undone by a super long stop that left him trailing far behind the safety car pack early in the race, and Sauber teammates Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu at the back of the pack.

Pierre Gasly was the race’s only other retirement, pitting at the end of the first lap with a suspected gearbox problem.

Verstappen comfortably bests Leclerc for Saudi Arabia GP pole

Max Verstappen cruised to pole position at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix ahead of Charles Leclerc. Verstappen held a hefty 0.335s advantage over the field after his first lap, setting a time of 1m27.472s. He couldn’t improve with his second lap, …

Max Verstappen cruised to pole position at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix ahead of Charles Leclerc.

Verstappen held a hefty 0.335s advantage over the field after his first lap, setting a time of 1m27.472s. He couldn’t improve with his second lap, which was 0.2s slower than his first, but with the rest of the field barely finding time, it made no difference to the outcome.

Either lap would have been enough for the Red Bull driver, who picked up his first pole position in Jeddah.

“It was a very good day,” Verstappen said. “We improved the car a little bit overnight, and that gave me a bit more confidence to attack the high-speed corners.”

The Dutchman was equally confident about Saturday’s grand prix.

“There have been a lot of crazy races around here. A lot can happen. I’m confident with the race pace that we have, that tomorrow the car will work really well too,” he said.

Leclerc found half a second on his second qualifying lap — his first was compromised by an experiment with tire preparation — but the gain was only enough to put the Ferrari driver 0.319s off pole on his route to the front row.

“In the second lap I put everything together, and that was what was in the car today,” he said. “I’m really happy with the lap.

“It’s a shame we are a bit further away than we hoped, but tomorrow is the race, and I hope we have a good surprise and will be able to challenge the Red Bull.”

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Sergio Perez has been set to start on the front row alongside his teammate after his first run, but the Mexican failed to find time with his second lap, leaving him vulnerable to being pipped by Leclerc and demoted to third.

“Max has done a tremendous lap,” he said. “I think that was not possible for me today.

“I think we are still in the fight for tomorrow. Tomorrow is a long race and anything can happen.”

Fernando Alonso qualified fourth at the tail of a tight group of three cars, with just 0.055s between him, Perez and Leclerc ahead.

Oscar Piastri qualified ahead of McLaren teammate Lando Norris by 0.043s, with the pair set to start ahead of Mercedes duo George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.

Yuki Tsunoda made RB’s first Q3 appearance in ninth ahead of Lance Stroll in the second Aston Martin completing the top 10.

Surprise Ferrari rookie Oliver Bearman qualified 11th, the Briton falling short of a top-10 spot by just 0.036s.

Alex Albon will start 12th ahead of Keving Magnussen and Daniel Ricciardo, who lapped 0.558s slower than Q1-bound RB teammate Yuki Tsunoda.

Nico Hulkenberg qualified 15th without a Q2 time after his Haas car ground to a halt with a power unit issue at Turn 8 on his first flying lap, requiring a brief red flag to recover his stricken machine.

Valtteri Bottas will start 16th after missing out on progression by just 0.072s.

Alpine teammates Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly were closely matched but never in contention for Q2. Both were almost 0.4s off 15th, and they were more than 1.3s off top spot in Q1.

Logan Sargeant struggled to recover from losing FP3 to a broken left-front corner after clipping the barrier, leaving him 19th.

Zhou Guanyu will line up last without having set a time. The Sauber driver crashed heavily in FP3, and it too the team the entirety of the 2.5-hour break between sessions and almost all of Q1 to complete repairs.

Zhou got out on track with less than two minutes remaining, but the work was in vain, with the Chinese driver taking unable to get around the track to start his lap before the checkered flag fell.

Verstappen tops crash-shortened third Saudi Arabian GP practice

Max Verstappen topped final practice at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after a heavy crash for Zhou Guanyu restricted running. Zhou lost the rear of his Sauber at Turn 7 and pirouetted into the barriers on the outside of Turn 8 with just over 17 …

Max Verstappen topped final practice at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after a heavy crash for Zhou Guanyu restricted running.

Zhou lost the rear of his Sauber at Turn 7 and pirouetted into the barriers on the outside of Turn 8 with just over 17 minutes remaining on the clock. His C44 suffered major damage at the rear, with the front wing and right-rear corner hanging off the car. The third-year Chinese driver climbed from the wreck unscathed.

The Stake Sauber team has a little over two hours to complete the rebuild ahead of qualifying, with the extent of the damage unclear.

Repairs to the barriers took around 12 minutes, and the session resumed with just five minutes on the clock. Cars queued at the end of pit lane for their final pre-qualifying laps on the soft tire, but at the end of the flurry of laps Verstappen was still fastest, setting the bar at 1m28.412s.

Charles Leclerc followed him just 0.196s further back for Ferrari, while Sergio Perez was 0.494s behind his Red Bull Racing teammate in third.

The touch-and-go resumption of the session was good news for debutant Oliver Bearman, who is substituting for Carlos Sainz after the Spaniard full-timer was diagnosed with appendicitis.

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“Take your time into the car, take you rhythm, build up from there,” was the advice to Bearman from Sainz’s usual engineer, Riccardo Adami.

The Briton had been sent out immediately upon pit lane opening at the start of the hour to maximize his seat time and to take advantage of the typically quiet opening minutes of third practice. His first flying lap clocked in at 1m33.114s with a set of medium tires, eclipsing his Formula 2 pole time from Thursday by 9.1s.

Bearman progressively lowered his time before embarking on a long run before Zhou’s red flag suspended the session. The resumption gave him a chance to sample the soft tire ahead of qualifying with a single full-power flying lap.

A mistake sent him off track at Turn 22, but he completed the lap with a time of 1m28.412s. It put him 10th in the final order, 0.894s off the pace and 0.698s behind teammate Leclerc. He will start qualifying with 22 laps behind the wheel of the SF-24.

Mercedes driver George Russell finished fourth ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and Aston Martin teammates Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri finished eighth ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the second Mercedes. Hamilton’s car was loaded up with extra rear downforce compared to teammate Russell via a larger rear wing, responding to complaints on Friday of a loose rear axle.

Bearman completed the top 10 ahead of Kevin Magnussen, Pierre Gasly, Yuki Tsunoda, Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg.

Daniel Ricciardo was 16th ahead of Alex Albon, Valtteri Bottas and the crashed-out Zhou.

Logan Sargeant completed the session in 20th and with just two laps and no time to his name. The American driver clipped the wall at the inside of Turn 22 with a heavy thump to hisWilliams’ left-front wheel. He limped back to the pits unable to steer and wasn’t seen again for the rest of the session.

Former Formula 1 driver predicts Max Verstappen will join Mercedes

One former Formula 1 driver predicts that Max Verstappen will join Mercedes in 2025. Will Verstappen leave Red Bull for its rival team?

[autotag]Max Verstappen[/autotag]’s future at Red Bull Racing has been a topic of conversation, as Jos Verstappen, Max’s father, has been feuding with the race team. This comes as Red Bull Racing closed Christian Horner’s investigation without consequences. In fact, one former Formula 1 driver believes Verstappen might be on his way to an arch-rival.

According to F1-Insider, former Formula 1 driver Gerhard Berger believes Max Verstappen will join Mercedes. Berger also predicted that Horner would stay while Helmut Marko and Adrian Newey quit Red Bull. If Berger’s prediction came true, this would be a significant development, as Red Bull has been the class of the field over the last two years.

Should Verstappen leave Red Bull for Mercedes? It would be very shocking as the three-time Formula 1 champion has been very successful with his current race team. Red Bull is faster than Mercedes, so it would be puzzling to see Verstappen leave. It appears unlikely on the surface, but the Formula 1 world will keep buzzing until Mercedes announces Lewis Hamilton’s replacement.

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Verstappen leads Alonso in first Saudi Arabia GP practice

Max Verstappen topped a gusty first practice session at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix ahead of Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez. Winds of almost 20mph whipped the seaside Jeddah Corniche Circuit as the first hour of the weekend got underway, but the …

Max Verstappen topped a gusty first practice session at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix ahead of Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez.

Winds of almost 20mph whipped the seaside Jeddah Corniche Circuit as the first hour of the weekend got underway, but the bluster had little effect on reigning champion and new title leader Verstappen, who effortlessly rocketed to the top spot with a best time of 1m29.659s. It was almost identical to the fastest time he set this time last year, coming in just 0.042s slower.

Alonso put his Aston Martin second in the order, splitting Verstappen from Red Bull Racing teammate Perez. The Spaniard was 0.186s off the pace, with Perez 0.023s further back. The Mexican is running a new gearbox case, cassette and driveline this weekend, the first of five allowed for the season.

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First practice in Saudi Arabia, held late in the afternoon, is unrepresentative of qualifying and race, both of which are run after sunset, though teams made the most of the track time in a busy hour of track running.

George Russell was fourth quickest in his Mercedes, less than 0.1s behind Perez. Ferrari teammates Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz followed 0.3s and 0.5s off the pace respectively.

Sainz was a late inclusion for practice, having returned to his hotel early on Wednesday with illness. Ferrari confirmed the Spaniard would be taking part in the session only shortly before pit lane opened.

Lando Norris led the way for McLaren in seventh ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the second Mercedes. Hamilton complained early of severe bouncing at his rear axle.

Lance Stroll finished ninth after surviving an early brush with the barriers that cost him a left-front wheel cover but no more serious damage ahead of Alex Albon and Valtteri Bottas in 10th and 11th.

Daniel Ricciardo was 12th and 1.2s off the pace for RB, but the Australian was one of four drivers not to use the soft tire in the session. Esteban Ocon followed for Alpine ahead of Williams driver Logan Sargeant and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.

Yuki Tsunoda put the second RB 16th, again without soft tires, ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu.

Haas teammates Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen completed the order at the bottom of the time sheet, though neither used the soft compound.