18/04/2025 16:34
Pierre Gasly surprised F1 by posting the fastest time in first
practice for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. For a lengthy period
around the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, it appeared as if one of the
McLaren duo of Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri, or Mercedes' George
Russell, would lead the way as they all topped the timesheet at
various stages throughout. With Norris out front with a soft-tyre
lap of 1:29.246s, Alpine's Gasly popped in a time 0.007s quicker
than the Briton to oust him from top spot. It is the first time
Gasly has topped a session since he did so in final practice for
last year's Dutch Grand Prix, underlining the pace in his car at
present after he qualified sixth for last weekend's race in
Bahrain. Given the high-speed nature of the track, with its walls
looming large, it proved to be a relatively uneventful session bar
a moment that had the hairs on the back of Carlos Sainz's neck
standing on end. On a flying soft-tyre lap, Sainz came across the
slower Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, who opted to pull to one side to
allow the Spaniard by on a part of the track that caught the
Williams driver unaware. Sainz immediately radioed over to the team
that Leclerc's move was "dangerous", and for them to inform Ferrari
to let their driver know he should not perform such a manoeuvre on
that part of the circuit again. As with last weekend's first
practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix, the conditions were
unrepresentative of those the drivers face in qualifying and the
race. With an air temperature of 28 degrees Celsius in the late
afternoon, track temperature started at 50, dropping to ?? by the
end of the hour-long run. The medium-compound Pirelli tyre was the
overwhelming rubber of choice over the opening laps as the drivers
obtained sighters around a circuit that Haas driver Esteban Ocon
declared that "insane risk" was required to handle it. Piastri set
the early pace with a lap of 1:31.548s before exchanging the lead
time with Norris and Russell in the following 20 minutes until the
latter emerged with the benchmark time of 1:29.674s. Approaching
the halfway mark, the teams turned to the soft tyre, with Williams'
Carlos Sainz posting a time still 0.245s adrift of Russell on the
medium. Sainz at least declared himself happy with his car in high
speed, starting it felt "more alive". Piastri's opener on the softs
was also shy of Russell by 0.034s before Norris showed the
Australian the way as he surged to the top of the timesheet with a
1:29.246s. On a follow-up attempt, Piastri at least closed the gap
to Norris to 0.187s until Gasly popped in a lap out of the blue to
usurp Norris by seven-thousandths of a second. Leclerc had an
opportunity to swiftly depose Gasly after setting the fastest
middle sector, but missed out by 0.070s. On his second attempt, the
minor errors which Norris feels have undermined him this season
reared again as he made a slight error out of the high-speed Turn
1, forcing him to take to the immediate Turn 2 run-off, immediately
compromising his lap. Norris had to settle for second quickest
behind Gasly, with Leclerc and Piastri also within a tenth of a
second of the Frenchman. Russell, whose best soft tyre lap was only
marginally quicker than that on the medium, finished sixth, and
effectively the filling in a Williams sandwich as Alex Albon and
Sainz were either side of him. Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton was eighth,
over half-a-second adrift of Gasly, with a complaining Max
Verstappen ninth. The four-time F1 champion again bemoaned issues
with his RB21, notably that it could not turn on occasion, and
again with the balance. Team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was at least in
close attendance, the Japanese driver 10th fastest, 0.003s behind
the Dutchman.
