We're back on track again with the FP1 in Jeddah for the third weekend in a row of the Formula 1. This week we are racing on the Saudi Arabian circuit which is the fastest street circuit on the calendar, full of straights and high-speed S-bends. Precisely because of the following characteristics on this track, every small mistake can turn into something serious and this makes it much more difficult for the drivers to push themselves to the limit. For this reason, all the teams have tried to make the most of this session to start sorting out the set-up of their cars in order to give their drivers confidence. The FP1 ended with Gasly in the lead followed by Norris and Leclerc. McLaren also demonstrated all its strength in race pace.
FP1 begins in Jeddah with drivers looking for confidence in their cars
At the start of FP1 in Jeddah everyone immediately goes out on track with either the medium or the hard tyres. At this point it is essential for all the drivers to find the feeling as quickly as possible. The first significant time is set by Lando Norris in 1:29:980. In fact, the British immediately tries to demonstrate his strength to leave behind mediocre weekends just passed. Meanwhile, among the other pilots, some are worth mentioning blockages including that of gasly and Bearman, which passed very close to the wall. At Ferrari, however, it is Hamilton to be the protagonist of a long. Furthermore, at the beginning of this session the Maranello team seems to be far from the others with Leclerc which is a 9 tenths from the first time.
The best time is by Gasly
Half an hour into the session, the drivers begin to assemble the red tires to try to get the best time. Everyone can improve except Piastres who probably, not being able to bring the tyre up to temperature properly, did not make the most of the tyre's performance in the first lap. best time is again marked by Norris but then all the pilots go on to improve and unexpectedly Gasly manages to overtake him by 7 thousandths stopping the clock in 1:29.239. Third is, instead, Leclerc only 70 thousandths from the first. Also worth noting is the sixth place di Russianthe disappointing one Hamilton's eighth time.
Norris' devastating race pace
In this FP1 of Jeddah the Lando's McLaren is proving to have a race pace much higher than the other teams. This is thanks to the efficiency of the single-seater in carrying the load which allows him to make a big difference compared to the others when the track is not yet very rubberized. However, the times of the British driver seem too low compared to those of his teammate. This is because he almost certainly has a less gasoline load to simulate the end-of-race pace. Instead Piastri is at 5 tenths from him and Leclerc 3 tenths behind the Australian. As a result, we cannot yet have a good idea of the race pace of the different teams and we will have to wait for FP2.
Among the top teams is the Red Bull to have a bit more difficulty despite the significant changes made to find a good performance after the Bahrain weekend. In fact at the end of FP1 Verstappen e tsunoda they concluded respectively in P9 e P10. But there are still two sessions to get the most out of the car.
FP1 in Jeddah ends with many question marks still remaining
They are gasly e Norris who seem to have started with an extra gear compared to the others. In fact, the Alpine Pilot he managed to surprise by concluding the session in P1. Instead, the British driver, in addition to having set an excellent time on the single lap, finished in P2, has proven to have a devastating race pace. Are these just Friday performances? Or could they already be an indicator for the race?
Below we leave you the final classification of the session FP1 in Jeddah:
