FP1 REPORT | Max Verstappen tops FP1 confidently in Jeddah

Max Verstappen has claimed P1 in the first practice session in Jeddah, comfortably ahead of Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso. The Red Bulls opted for soft tyres, and constantly improved their times along with the Spaniard.

Different approaches in the first stint

During the first stints of the session, the teams decided to have a different approach. While the two Red Bulls and Aston Martins opted for softs and fought to claim first place in the session, the two Ferraris and Mercedes were on hard tyres.

Verstappen, Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso were continuously putting in fastest laps as they grew more familiar with a slightly modified track, and at the halfway point, only 0.1 seconds separated the three drivers.

On hard tyres, the Ferrari cars looked promising as well as Lewis Hamilton, but the main bright spot was Alexander Albon in his Williams, who had similar lap times on the slowest compound.

The second stint on softs

In the second stint, most of the drivers opted for soft tyres. Verstappen took the initiative and did a 1:29.815, which shows that a new lap record is likely to happen in Jeddah.

Alonso could beat Perez, but was still behind Verstappen by half a second. Furthermore, the Mercedes could top the two Ferraris in the session, but the fuel level of the cars are still unknown, so anything could happen in the later sessions.

Eventually, Verstappen set another fastest lap of 1:29.662, giving him the edge over everybody else. His teammate finished second, and the Red Bulls were followed by Alonso and Stroll, with Russell claiming 5th place.

Tricky Turn 23

The turn which was the hardest for the drivers in FP1 was Turn 23, which caught out the likes of Perez, Verstappen and the Ferraris, who ran over the curb multiple times. 

The blind right corner in Sector 1 also caused a lot trouble for the ones on a fast lap, Lance Stroll was the closest to crash when two slower cars suddenly appeared ahead of him, moreover, he almost hit the wall and created some work for his engineers in the notorious Turn 23.