F1 Saudi Arabian GP: Max Verstappen surges clear as Ferrari struggle for pace in final practice
The double world champion looks the clear favourite heading into qualifying under the lights in Jeddah following a show of t𒁃otal dominance across the three hour-long pr🌱actice sessions.
Verstappen was 0.613s faster than Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez, while Aston Mar🧸tin’s Fernando Alonso was the nearest non-Red Bull challenger in third, nearly a full second off the pace.
Lance Stroll was fourth in the other Aston Martin, ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who was the faꦜstest Mercedes driver in fifth but a second adrift of Verstappen.
Ferrari left it late to con🅰duct their qualifying simulation runs on soft tyꦉres but Charles Leclerc was a whopping 1.1s down in sixth, with Carlos Sainz only 10th.
Their lack of pace suggests Ferrari are running their engines conservatively amid continued reliability concerns, with Leclerc set to serve a 10-place grid drop for Sunday’s race after already ex꧅ceeding his season’s allocation of control electronic components.
Behind Leclerc came the two McLarens of Lando Nor♔ris and rookie🧔 teammate Oscar Piastri, while Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Sainz completed the rest of the top-10 order.
A powe🦋r unit issue meant Nyck de Vries was unable to take part in FP3 while his AlphaTauri team changed the engine in h🐻is car.
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