This session has finished. No further updates will be posted.
So we have Alpine on top for a change in Jeddah. But will they still be as fast when the track temperature cools later on? Just us to find out then, in the meantime here’s the report for the first practice session.
Russell still unhappy with his brakes. “Something feels weird under braking,” he warns.
Russell briefly pits. “Small vibration from the brake,” he reports.
Lawson crosses the line to go 11th, 1’29.907. Hadjar backed out of his first lap.
Verstappen: “I’m very loose in high speed especially.”
Lawson and Hadjar head out with sets of softs on their Racing Bulls 01s with 10 minutes to go.
Sainz not happy with his former team: “Please someone tell the Ferrari not to let people by there, it’s so dangerous.”
Hamilton improves to eighth but is still half a second off his team mate.
The Racing Bulls drivers are languishing near the bottom of the times, Lawson 18th and Hadjar 20th, but they appear to be the only drivers who haven’t run the soft rubber yet.
Leclerc jumps up to third, 0.07s off Gasly.
Pierre Gasly, with his new engine, goes fastest of all by seven thousandths of a second.
Now Piastri makes it a McLaren one-two, just under two tenths of a second slower than Norris.
Alexander Albon takes to the run-off at turn 17 where Hamilton also went wide early on in the session.
Russell improves his time slightly on softs but it still over three tenths of a second slower than Norris.
Verstappen: “It’s still my first sector, like turn one and turn two, I just can’t turn the car.” He’s half a second off on softs.
Lando Norris puts up the quickest time so far with a 1’29.246 putting him 0.428s ahead of George Russell.
Nico Hulkenberg beats Sainz’s time by three hundredths of a second in the Sauber.
Piastri can only manage second, three hundredths off Russell’s best time on mediums.
The McLaren drivers take advantage of a fairly quiet track to head out on softs.
Carlos Sainz Jnr switches to the softs and goes second, two tenths of a second off Russell.
The four Honda RBPT-powered drivers plus Gasly have new engines for this race.
Lawson is under investigation for failing to follow the race director’s instruction. It will be investigated after the session.
Piastri, currently fourth fastest, reports he touched the wall on one lap.
Oliver Bearman locked his hard front-left tyre spectacularly as he reaches turn one.
George Russell sets a new benchmark with a 1’30.425 which puts him 0.029s ahead of Lando Norris.
Norris passing a lot of cars on this lap but does the fastest middle sector time and takes over at the top with a 1’30.454, a second ahead.
Oscar Piastri sets the initial benchmark with a 1’31.548 on mediums. Verstappen goes two-tenths off that, followed by Russell almost another tenth behind, all on the same rubber.
This first hour of practice has begun and the track quickly fills up with all 20 cars. The asphalt is a scorching 49C, though the air temperature is a more comfortable 28C. As usual this session takes place earlier than the main competitive sessions when it will be significantly cooler.
Last week we had half-a-dozen test drivers participating in practice, but only the regular 20 runners will be in action today. This high-speed circuit with little run-off is a course where drivers value all the practice time they can get.
The first practice session for the 2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix is coming up next.
2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
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- Norris leads McLaren one-two, Verstappen third as Tsunoda crashes
- Lawson was ‘sad and puzzled’ after Red Bull dropped him – Bayer
- As it happened: 2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix second practice
- Verstappen not leaving says Horner amid rumoured $300m bid by Aston Martin