Lewis Hamilton dominated Friday Practice in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as Formula One got their first taste of a new circuit in preparation for 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Hamilton made a steady start to both sessions but found time throughout both sessions to emerge fastest in FP1 then FP2, albeit by less than a tenth of a second from Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas respectively.
Behind the frontrunners, there was an almighty scrap for the ‘best of the rest’ title with AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly looking the man to beat in midfield, although the one-time race winner did finish third in FP2 in a surprise result.
Now here is a full roundup of Friday’s Practice sessions in Jeddah as F1 got to grips with a new venue for the second consecutive race.
FP1
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was the first driver to venture out on track but it was championship leader – Verstappen who quickly set the pace on hard tyres with 1m 33.614 as drivers opted for a mixture of all three compounds for their lengthy opening runs.
Verstappen eventually found 3.600 seconds across further laps in his opening stint to sit top at the halfway mark from Hamilton by 0.664s as Valtteri Bottas sat third.
Attention soon switched to soft tyre qualifying simulations where Hamilton emerged fastest with a session-topping 1m 29.786 on his first flier, as Bottas went second quickest after Verstappen failed to improve on his best timed lap.
Red Bull however sent Verstappen back out at the end on another set of softs and the Dutchman was able to improve to second, just 0.056s off Hamilton as Bottas rounded out the top three ahead of Pierre Gasly and Antonio Giovinazzi in a session of no incidents.
Elsewhere, both Alpine drivers of Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon finished ninth and 12th quickest after setting their quickest times on the hard tyre.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1m 29.786 |
| 2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 0.056 |
| 3 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | + 0.223 |
| 4 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | + 0.477 |
| 5 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | + 0.532 |
| 6 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 0.778 |
| 7 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.814 |
| 8 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | + 0.822 |
| 9 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | + 1.056 |
| 10 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | + 1.100 |
| 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | + 1.174 |
| 12 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 1.237 |
| 13 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 1.243 |
| 14 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 1.258 |
| 15 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | + 1.313 |
| 16 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | + 1.510 |
| 17 | George Russell | Williams | + 1.557 |
| 18 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | + 1.739 |
| 19 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | + 2.035 |
| 20 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | + 3.678 |
FP2
Sainz again was the first driver out on track at the start of the session under the lights but it was Ocon who set the initial benchmark time of 1m 31.223.
Lando Norris soon bettered the Frenchman’s time with 1m 30.773 but was then displaced himself by Verstappen, who posted 1m 30.104 on medium tyres to go 0.669s quicker at the summit.
Verstappen soon lowered his lap times to 1m 29.290 although Hamilton eventually bettered his time on the same tyre compound to top the session with 1m 29.014 ahead of Bottas as the Mercedes duo both failed to improve on their soft tyre qualifying simulation.
AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly meanwhile surprisingly went for a high fuel soft tyre Qualifying simulation which paid off as he finished third and highest out of those who set their best lap times on the soft tyre ahead of Verstappen and Alonso who rounded out the top five
Race simulations grinded to an unexpected halt five minutes early after Charles Leclerc lost the rear of his Ferrari into Turn 12 and slid heavily into the outside barriers to bring out the red flag.
Finally, Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo finished eighth and 11th after setting their fastest lap times on the hard tyres, whilst Lance Stroll and Nicholas Latifi finished 15th and 19th respectively after setting their quickest laps on the medium tyre.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1m 29.0 |
| 2 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | + 0.061 |
| 3 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | + 0.081 |
| 4 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 0.195 |
| 5 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | + 0.423 |
| 6 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 0.537 |
| 7 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 0.571 |
| 8 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | + 0.579 |
| 9 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | + 0.750 |
| 10 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.754 |
| 11 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | + 0.950 |
| 12 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 0.986 |
| 13 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | + 1.092 |
| 14 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | + 1.258 |
| 15 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 1.424 |
| 16 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | + 1.484 |
| 17 | George Russell | Williams | + 1.488 |
| 18 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | + 1.634 |
| 19 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | + 2.021 |
| 20 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | + 2.611 |
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