Alonso surprises with second-quickest time, splitting the Red Bulls in FP2
Verstappen showed his hand once again in Saudi Arabia, setting the pace in both Friday practice sessions. Fernando Alonso impressed with the second-quickest time, splitting the Red Bulls
Max Verstappen continued his dominance in the second practice session for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, as he once again set the fastest time on the Jeddah Street Circuit.
However, it was Fernando Alonso who caught everyone's attention as he split the two Red Bulls at the top of the timesheets.
Verstappen's best time of 1’29.603 was two tenths of a second quicker than Aston Martin's Alonso, who in turn was just under a tenth faster than Red Bull's Sergio Perez.
This session was expected to be the more representative of the two, as it took place in cooler temperatures under the lights, just like qualifying and the race will.
As the session began, wind speeds around the circuit were around half what they had been in the opening hour of practice, and the two Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc were the early pace setters, going quickest on medium tyres ahead of Alonso's Aston Martin.
But Verstappen soon displaced them at the top, setting a 1’30.801 to go fastest of all, before he was replaced by Alonso, who went quickest by almost two tenths.
The session saw its fair share of incidents, with Yuki Tsunoda of AlphaTauri clipping the barrier at the apex of turn 22, and Verstappen lightly brushing the wall on the exit of the final corner.
Perez managed to jump to the top of the timesheets when he switched to soft tyres in his Red Bull, but Verstappen eventually regained the top spot by three tenths over his teammate.
The second half of the hour was dedicated to long runs, with Alonso, Perez, and the two Mercedes of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton venturing out on medium compound tyres, while Verstappen and Lance Stroll opted to run on soft tyres.
All the cars focused on high fuel race runs, resulting in no major improvements in the timings over this final phase.
At the end of the session, Verstappen finished as the quickest driver in both sessions, while Alonso split the two Red Bulls at the top of the timesheets.
Esteban Ocon ended the session in fourth ahead of Russell's Mercedes. Pierre Gasly was sixth in the second Alpine ahead of Stroll's Aston Martin, with Nico Hulkenberg eighth in the Haas.
The top ten was completed by the two Ferraris of Leclerc and Sainz.
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