Lewis Hamilton topped both FP1 and FP2 in the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix on Friday. PHOTO: Mercedesamgf1.com

BRENDAN LINES DECEMBER 4, 2021

FERRARI’S Charles Leclerc ended Friday’s night session in drama, a shunt into the barriers at Turn 22 red flagged Friday’s final practice session.

By then Lewis Hamilton had carried on from his FP1 performance with another fastest time as the cooler conditions saw lap times tumble.

The Brit’s fastest time of 1:29.018s was over seven tenths better than his FP1 time and six hundreds faster than team mate Valterri Bottas in P2 for the session.

All up Hamilton was satisfied by his pace but expects the cars race pace to improve.

“We tried a couple of things with our setup, and although we aren’t rapid on single run pace compared to the others, our long run pace seemed pretty good,” Hamilton said.

It was another impressive session for Pierre Gasly finishing P3 for the session, the Frenchman said he was already a fan of the new Jeddah track.

“The corners are amazing and there’s a big rush of adrenalin when you’re out there,” Gasly said.

“The whole day has been really good for us and I’m pretty happy with the pace so far.”

Gasly’s teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who put in some early fast laps on the Soft tyre to finish in P8.

Max Verstappen wrestled for every bit of pace, a wide moment at Turn 8 on his Medium tyre run a sign his Red Bull was struggling, but held his nerve to recover to P4 a tenth back from Hamilton.

As the conditions changed Turn 1 was the hot spot of trouble causing a number of lock ups  as Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen and Carlos Sainz all had torrid time negotiating its high-speed.

entry.

Alonso eventually came to terms with the trick corner to go fifth fastest and inside half a second from Hamilton while ahead of teammate Esteban Ocon in P6.

Sainz was the fastest of the Ferrari’s in P7 two tenth quicker than Leclerc in P10, the prancing horses split by Tsunoda and the Red Bull of Sergio Perez slotted in P9.

Full results

1	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	1:29.018		22 Laps
2	77	Valtteri Bottas	MERCEDES	1:29.079	+0.061s	23
3	10	Pierre Gasly	ALPHATAURI HONDA	1:29.099	+0.081s	22
4	33	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING HONDA	1:29.213	+0.195s	20
5	14	Fernando Alonso	ALPINE RENAULT	1:29.441	+0.423s	21
6	31	Esteban Ocon	ALPINE RENAULT	1:29.555	+0.537s	22
7	55	Carlos Sainz	FERRARI	1:29.589	+0.571s	24
8	22	Yuki Tsunoda	ALPHATAURI HONDA	1:29.597	+0.579s	20
9	11	Sergio Perez	RED BULL RACING HONDA	1:29.768	+0.750s	22
10	16	Charles Leclerc	FERRARI	1:29.772	+0.754s	23
11	3	Daniel Ricciardo	MCLAREN MERCEDES	1:29.968	+0.950s	22
12	4	Lando Norris	MCLAREN MERCEDES	1:30.004	+0.986s	19
13	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI	1:30.110	+1.092s	23
14	7	Kimi Räikkönen	ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI	1:30.276	+1.258s	24
15	18	Lance Stroll	ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES	1:30.442	+1.424s	22
16	5	Sebastian Vettel	ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES	1:30.502	+1.484s	22
17	63	George Russell	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	1:30.506	+1.488s	24
18	47	Mick Schumacher	HAAS FERRARI	1:30.652	+1.634s	20
19	6	Nicholas Latifi	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	1:31.039	+2.021s	23
20	9	Nikita Mazepin	HAAS FERRARI	1:31.629	+2.611s	20