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F1 LIVE | Third free practice session for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

F1 LIVE | Third free practice session for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

26-03-2022 13:00
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GPblog.com

The weekend continues as scheduled which means that free practice will be run on Saturday afternoon. With the GPblog liveblog you won't miss a thing of all the action on track, while the drivers and teams prepare one last time for the Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia.

LIVE | FP3 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

 

On Friday, the Formula 1 drivers ran solid practice sessions. Apart from some technical defects and a slight touch with the wall, things went well for the teams. Red Bull Racing, for example, were able to complete the full schedule with both drivers. Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez therefore have a slight advantage over direct rivals, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc. Indeed, the Ferrari men did not drive the last ten minutes of FP2 due to broken rods at the wheels.

In Formula 2, it was a different story on Friday. During their only free practice session and qualifying, the red flag fell five times. Four times it involved big crashes on the asphalt of the intense Jeddah Corniche Circuit. One time the red flag was waved so that the medical car could drive around the circuit. The reason for this was not clear.

Threatening situation in Jeddah

The medical car's lap during F2 qualifying may have been related to the threatening situation in Jeddah. During FP1 of Formula 1, a missile attack took place near the circuit. From that moment on the F1 organisation started to discuss the continuation of the weekend with the FIA. Eventually it was decided that the weekend would continue as planned. This did not happen without a struggle. There has been a lot of criticism on the way the F1 organisation handled this. Meanwhile, several sides of the story are emerging. The most important is that Formula 1 sincerely believes that the Grand Prix can be held safely.

In any case, it is now time to drive the final practice session before the weekend's qualifying session. The drivers will go harder again than yesterday and maybe after the practice we can make some estimations about the rest of the weekend.

Trackguide Jeddah Corniche Circuit