FP2 in Jeddah ends with a one-two McLaren. The English team is still at the top of the standings and remains the car to beat. The best time was set by Lando Norris, who will certainly do everything to defend first place in the world championship. The opponents, however, are not far away, with Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull ready to threaten Papaya's dominance. Finally, Leclerc left the pits satisfied with the tests concluded, while Hamilton appeared much more tense.
All cars immediately take to the track for FP2 in Jeddah
Green light at 19:00 Italian time and all the cars immediately take to the track, with the exception of Bortoleto's Sauber due to problems related to fuel loss, on the very fast Arab circuit. The drivers and the teams, after having become familiar with the latter during the first session of testing, are starting to work to collect data for the race. In fact, everyone has taken to the track with medium tyres, except Albon's Williams who has started running with hard tyres. In the meantime, just after ten minutes of testing, Lance Stroll locks up in turn one, so hard that he loses control of his car and ends up spinning in the escape road.
One of the biggest difficulties that is worrying the drivers on the track is visibility, as the track has several blind spots. That said, many drivers are looking for single-lap performance on medium tyres. To do so, however, they must push and trust that there is clear track ahead of them. Precisely for this reason, Albon had to abort one of his laps, as he unexpectedly found himself in front of Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari, an episode later detected and noted by race direction. The drivers, at least in the first twenty minutes of testing, are trying to find the right balance on a single lap. Ferrari's balance seems to have improved compared to the last four races, so much so that Leclerc achieved the best time. Immediately behind him, however, are the two McLarens, who are continuing to maintain the excellent performances obtained in the last session.
With almost thirty minutes to go, the drivers take to the track with red tyres
Many drivers went to the pits to change their set of tires. Almost all the teams are fitting the red tire, to try to find the right confidence for qualifying. The latter will be fundamental, given that the gaps on the single lap seem to be quite small. The first to set the best time on the soft tire was Carlos Sainz, who, as already seen in Bahrain, is proving to be more at ease with his Williams. After a few minutes, however, the Spaniard is snatched from first place by the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, who in turn resists very little to the charge of Piastri and, finally, Lando Norris.
Ferrari, on the other hand, is focusing on something in particular. Hamilton sets a time one second away, on red tires, far from Norris. Leclerc, in turn, tried several times to launch into his fast lap, then returned to the pits and asked for changes to his front wing. In fact, as the images showed, the Monegasque suffered from oversteer especially in the first sector. And so, as soon as he returned to the track, Leclerc sets a more acceptable fourth time, almost five tenths away from Norris' best performance.
Meanwhile, with twenty minutes to go, Albon touches the wall with his right rear tyre coming out of the last corner. Andrea Kimi Antonelli suffers almost the same fate, but with the right front tyre. The Italian, immediately after hitting the wall, returned to the pits as a precaution. Instead, returning to the Red Bull camp, with fifteen minutes to go in the session, Verstappen begins his race simulation. He does so by starting to lap at one minute and 34 seconds, while during the first free practice sessions of the session Norris had started his stint by clocking one minute and 33. Returning to the current session, all the other drivers, as well as the Dutchman, have also begun to focus on the race simulation, switching from the soft tyres to the medium ones.
Tsunoda crashes and causes a red flag
With almost five minutes to go, the track activities were interrupted for a Red flag caused by Yuki tsunoda. The young Japanese driver hit his left front wheel on the inside wall of the last corner. The contact caused the breakage of the arm that connects the tire to the car, making the car uncontrollable and consequently hitting the outside wall. The simulation stints were thus interrupted, which would certainly have provided some more information on the balance on the track that will be present tomorrow in qualifying and Sunday in the race.
THEunique certainty which continues to emerge at the end of the second free practice session is the McLaren. The cars of the papaya team manage to extricate themselves easily from the walls of Jeddah. The directionality of the front is very precise, which allows Norris and Piastri to tackle the various changes of direction typical of this track at maximum speed. It is no coincidence that the fastest time of the session was Norris with a 1:28.267, closely followed by his teammate. Their direct competitors, however, are very close and, tomorrow, could threaten Papaya's dominance.
