18/04/2025 20:00
Lando Norris returned to form in second practice for the Saudi
Arabian Grand Prix on an evening that will leave Lewis Hamilton
scratching his head in search for answers. Following a
disappointing Bahrain Grand Prix weekend for Norris that left him
in search of "a reset", notably after his performance in qualifying
that ultimately compromised his race result, the McLaren driver at
least delivered in FP2 under the lights of the Jeddah Corniche
Circuit to tee himself up for the weekend. A nip-and-tuck battle
between a number of drivers culminated in Norris posting the
leading time of 1:28.267s to finish 0.163s clear of team-mate Oscar
Piastri, with Red Bull's Max Verstappen just over a further tenth
of a second adrift in third. As for Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time
F1 champion finished a staggering 1.221s adrift of Norris, and
eight-tenths down on Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc, who was
fourth overall, leaving him a miserable 13th on the timesheet. In
addition, Hamilton faces a stewards' investigation for impeding
Alex Albon early on, an incident the Williams driver described as
"dangerous". Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda, meanwhile, brought out
the red flags for the first and only time on Friday when he crashed
into a wall at the final corner. Compared to first practice in
daylight conditions, the second session was naturally far more
representative. Even though the air temperature was the same, at 29
degrees, with the sun long set, the track temperature was cooler by
around 10 degrees. As with any FP2 session, the early running saw
the teams and drivers turn to Pirelli's soft compound rubber,
resulting in lap times being considerably faster than those set in
the first hour-long outing. As the track ramped up, naturally the
times tumbled following Verstappen's pacesetter of 1:29.896. Norris
smashed that by 0.292s and after Ferrari's Charles Leclerc had
split the duo, Piastri then delivered a lap one-thousandth of a
second slower than the Briton. Norris then seemed set to
considerably lower his time when he purpled the first two sectors,
only for a poor third to undo his good work, allowing Piastri,
following behind, to shave 0.132s off the time. Leclerc then
indicated Ferrari could be in the reckoning this weekend as he took
over at the top by 0.138s, only for the pecking order to change
rapidly thereafter. First, George Russell in his Mercedes, then
Verstappen, Piastri, and finally Norris, all took turns at the head
of affairs, with the latter ultimately emerging out in front.
Verstappen was two-tenths ahead of Leclerc, who was almost half a
second down on Norris, with another two-tenths gap then to
Williams' Carlos Sainz, who in FP1 had said his car felt "more
alive" in the high speed. Tsunoda managed seventh fastest before
his smash, with Russell a surprising seventh given his earlier
form, followed by Alpine's Pierre Gasly. The Frenchman had caused a
stir in FP1 when he topped that session. Stake's Nico Hulkenberg
and Albon completed the top 10, the latter nearly a second down
just ahead of Kimi Antonelli in his Mercedes. Albon and Antonelli
were two of several drivers - Piastri included - who had radioed
over mini brushes with the circuit's walls prior to Tsunoda
stepping over the line. For Gabriel Bortoleto, the Stake rookie
missed out on invaluable time on track given the ideal conditions.
The team discovered a fuel leak just before the start of the
season, forcing him to watch from the sidelines.
