Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen topped the timesheets in both of Friday’s practice sessions for Formula 1’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
Sunday’s race will be the second of the season.
The two-time and reigning champion turned a fast lap of 1 minute and 29.603 seconds around the 3.836-mile course.
“I am feeling a lot better after a few rough days of illness,” Verstappen said. “It wasn’t nice but I am feeling good now. Today out on track was about finetuning things, we had a positive day but there are still quite a few things we can do better. On the long runs we all seemed fairly close to each other but it’s more because of managing the tires because they don’t really let you push around here at the moment. With a very low deg circuit then the lap times will always be very close, so it is definitely not going to be like Bahrain.”
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso charted the second-best lap with a time of 1 minute and 29.811 seconds. Red Bull Racing’s Segio Perez, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Mercedes’ George Russell completed the top five.
Ferrari teammates Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz finished the session in ninth and 10th-place, respectively. Additionally, Leclerc was handed a 10-place grid penalty after taking a third control electronics component during the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Logan Sargeant, the first American driver will a full-time F-1 drive in five years, was 18th quickest for Williams.