Lewis Hamilton continued his strong early pace at the Saudi Arabian GP with another fastest time in P2, as his rival Max Verstappen finished only fourth
By Matt Morlidge
Last Updated: 03/12/21 6:21pm
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Watch the first accident we have seen here in the F1 sessions and a big one for the Ferrari driver at the high-speed Turns 21-22
Lewis Hamilton continued his strong early pace at the Saudi Arabian GP with another fastest time in Practice Two, as his championship rival Max Verstappen finished only fourth in a hectic session around Jeddah’s new street circuit that was ended with a heavy crash for Charles Leclerc.
Leclerc lost control of his Ferrari through the high-speed Turns 21 and 22 and slammed into the barriers at around 150mph to bring out red flags in the closing stages. His Ferrari suffered big damage, though thankfully Leclerc was unhurt.
That was the most dramatic moment of a session Hamilton topped, securing a Friday practice double on the crucial penultimate weekend of his battle against title leader Verstappen despite a disrupted P2.
Hamilton, nor Valtteri Bottas, who was just 0.061s slower, managed to post a time on the soft tyre during the qualifying simulations, amid plenty of traffic on the narrow yet ferociously fast Corniche circuit. But the Mercedes drivers still outpaced the chasing pack, which was surprisingly not led by Verstappen.
Pierre Gasly was the fastest of the soft-tyre runners in third for AlphaTauri, within a tenth of Hamilton.
Verstappen finished fourth and 0.195s off Hamilton, the man he leads by eight points in the title race. Verstappen set his fastest time on the quickest tyre, although by the time he had done so – with traffic also affecting him – his tyres were six laps old.
More to follow…