Gasly leads the pack during tight FP1 in Jeddah

Riding the momentum of his first points finish of the season, Pierre Gasly was the fastest driver during FP1 at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, leading a tightly bunched top four separated by just one-tenth.

Kickstarting the final race weekend of the triple header, Free Practice 1 at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix gave the drivers the perfect opportunity to start dialling themselves into the unforgiving nature of the Jeddah streets. 

With the sun glaring down on the grid, the queue of cars filed out of the pitlane, with almost every competitor looking to maximise the entire opening hour of practice. 

Building up to Sunday’s running, Oscar Piastri’s first appearance around the Jeddah Corniche Circuit handed the Australian an early benchmark of 1:31.548s, with his only complication being a repeat of last weekend’s drinks issue as he reported water leaking into his helmet.

That didn’t slow the Australian down in any way, with Piastri reclaiming the fastest first sector on his way to discover an additional second of pace.

It wasn’t all positive to start FP1, however, with the #81 soon retreating to the McLaren garage after reporting back to his team that he had made slight contact right-hand with the walls.

After spending a large portion of the first 30 minutes in the garage, Piastri returned to the track on the soft compound tyre.

Instantly running three-tenths up in the first sector, the Australian lost a bit of time in the middle sector before clocking a time of 1:29.708s—a lap that left him four-tenths behind his teammate’s revised benchmark.

On his next run, Piastri’s flying final sector allowed him to come within two-tenths of Lando Norris before he halved that margin on his following attempt.

Sitting one-tenth behind the fastest time of the session, Piastri couldn’t improve on his fastest time of 1:29.341s, instead concluding the session on the humble yellow-marked tyre as he alerted his team of his overheating seat.

Jack Doohan was one of the last drivers to open his Saudi Arabian FP1 campaign, touring the 6.1km circuit before punching in his first flying lap.

His time of 1:31.645s rewarded him with P12, a solid effort before a distraction-induced lock-up at Turn 27 ruined his next attempt.

Having out on a fresh set of medium compound tyres, the Australian instantly craved five-tenths out of his previous fastest time, before scrubbing yet another set of tyres on his next tour of the seaside circuit to go even quicker.

With just over 20 minutes on the clock, Doohan made the switch to the soft compound tyre.

He held strong in P12, not improving in terms of position, but improving to sit under a second behind the then-benchmark which just so happened to be set by his teammate. 

The Australian rounded out the first practice session on the medium compound, returning to his garage with a fastest overall time of 1:30.183s.

Needing a little extra time to warm up to his VCARB 02, Liam Lawson sat at the back end of the field after his initial medium tyre run before working his way into the midfield of the timesheets.

The Kiwi completed 12 laps on the medium tyre before returning to his garage and remaining there for a prolonged amount of time alongside Isack Hadjar who received extensive work to the rear of his car, leaving RB to miss out on around 20 minutes of critical running as the session ticked over.

With exactly ten minutes remaining on the clock, RB finally released both drivers out on the cooling Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

Trying to maximise his run down the main straight, dipping a wheel over the white line at the pit entry caused Lawson to gain attention from race control, as he was soon noted for failing to follow the Race Directors’ instructions.

On the timing sheets, however, things were looking up for the Kiwi who slotted into P11 with a soft tyre time of 1:29.907s, trailing his Red Bull replacement by under a tenth.

Lawson finished his FP1 running on the soft compound tyre, however, his initial lap remained his fastest as he headed to the grid to complete his first practice start of the weekend.

As for the rest of the field, the McLaren duo were the out-right fastest contenders during the initial stages of practice, sitting pretty in P1 and P2 before George Russell knocked the Mercedes customer team down a peg, claiming the fastest time.

Trailing less than a tenth behind Norris was the Red Bull duo of Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda, despite the defending champion complaining that he couldn’t turn the car through the opening two sectors. 

Not having the most comfortable start to their sessions were Pierre Gasly, Gabriel Bortoleto and Oliver Bearman as all drivers locked up on the smooth asphalt, with the Haas driver just one to make light contact with the narrowing walls.

As the session reached the halfway point, a lull fell over the circuit as the majority of drivers sheltered from the heat before taking on the soft tyre. 

The first to launch on the red-marked compound was Carlos Sainz, with the Spaniard wasting no time in the pitlane before shooting up the order into P2, however, his time at the top would be short-lived as the rest of the field soon joined him.

Norris worked to put a margin of almost four-tenths between himself and his closest competitor, before Gasly—having skimmed the solid concrete walls just laps earlier—flew to the top of the timing sheets by just seven milliseconds with a benchmark of 1:29.239s.

As the progress settled down, the top four, consisting of the flying Alpine, Norris, Charles Leclerc and Piastri, were separated by just 0.102s, already confirming the #81’s suspicions that the competition at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix would be the tightest it’s been all season. 

With 10 minutes remaining in FP1, teams gradually made the switch back to the medium tyre, cautiously rounding out the first hour of running at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

With all cars completing FP1 relatively unscathed, the field undertook their first practice starts on the grid before returning to the pitlane, taking a short reprieve ahead of a qualifying and race-representative FP2 session which kicks off at 03:00 AEST.

Image: BWT Alpine Formula 1 Team

Free Practice 1 Results:

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