Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in the first-ever practice session on the Jeddah Corniche circuit for this weekend’s Saudi Arabia Grand Prix. PHOTO: Mercedesamgf1.com

BRENDAN LINES DECEMBER 4, 2021

LEWIS Hamilton topped the time sheets ahead of title rival Max Verstappen in FP1, when F1 took to the Jeddah Corniche circuit for the very first time.

The flat out yet tight concrete wall lined street circuit made it tricky for cars on flying laps to negotiate the slower cars on their out laps.

As Hamilton found out, almost coming to a halt letting through faster cars on his out lap, but the Brit looked at home on the green track surface, eventually posting his fastest lap of 1:29.786s — five hundredths of a second faster than Verstappen.

Hamilton described the 27-turn street circuit as “rapid”.

“Unbelievably quick and with a lot of grip as well,” Hamilton said.

“Once you get in the rhythm, it’s beautiful to drive. 

“The grip was very high from the moment we went out and was similar in both sessions. 

“Traffic can be a problem here, it’s Monaco-esque and the closing distances to other cars was definitely getting dangerous.”

As the sun went down over the Red Sea, the conditions favoured the Medium and Hard Pirelli tyres. 

Hamilton citing the Soft tyre was unable to keep up with the load through the high-speed sections.

Max Verstappen posted early bench mark times, but his Red Bull struggled to warm its tyres correctly. 

Although the Dutchman would be satisfied being narrowly adrift of Hamilton, he said there would be work to do in FP2.

“We made a few changes from FP1 to FP2 which didn’t quite work but hopefully we can find the right balance come qualifying tomorrow,” Verstappen said.

Valtteri Bottas also fell foul to some traffic on his Soft tyre run, but the Finn said he was able to set a good foundation for the weekend finishing P3.

Pierre Gasly began his weekend impressively with his fastest time (1:30.263s) well inside half a second of Hamiltons’ time. 

FP1’s big surprise was a P5 for Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi, the Italian making the most of his final two races with the team.

The Ferrari’s of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc finished in P6 and P7 respectively ahead of the their constructors championship rival and the sole McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo in P8.

Alpine’s Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel rounded out the top ten in P9 and P10.

Full results

1	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	1:29.786		21 Laps
2	33	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING HONDA	1:29.842	+0.056s	23
3	77	Valtteri Bottas	MERCEDES	1:30.009	+0.223s	24
4	10	Pierre Gasly	ALPHATAURI HONDA	1:30.263	+0.477s	28
5	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI	1:30.318	+0.532s	27
6	55	Carlos Sainz	FERRARI	1:30.564	+0.778s	26
7	16	Charles Leclerc	FERRARI	1:30.600	+0.814s	26
8	3	Daniel Ricciardo	MCLAREN MERCEDES	1:30.608	+0.822s	25
9	14	Fernando Alonso	ALPINE RENAULT	1:30.842	+1.056s	27
10	5	Sebastian Vettel	ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES	1:30.886	+1.100s	25
11	11	Sergio Perez	RED BULL RACING HONDA	1:30.960	+1.174s	27
12	31	Esteban Ocon	ALPINE RENAULT	1:31.023	+1.237s	29
13	4	Lando Norris	MCLAREN MERCEDES	1:31.029	+1.243s	23
14	18	Lance Stroll	ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES	1:31.044	+1.258s	25
15	22	Yuki Tsunoda	ALPHATAURI HONDA	1:31.099	+1.313s	26
16	7	Kimi Räikkönen	ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI	1:31.296	+1.510s	26
17	63	George Russell	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	1:31.343	+1.557s	28
18	47	Mick Schumacher	HAAS FERRARI	1:31.525	+1.739s	24
19	6	Nicholas Latifi	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	1:31.821	+2.035s	27
20	9	Nikita Mazepin	HAAS FERRARI	1:33.464	+3.678s	23