Results and summary of F1 2022 Friday in Saudi Arabia

Season-opening Bahrain GP winner Leclerc was quickest in daytime FP1 and also under the floodlights in FP2, but hit the wall at Turn 4 in this final session and was forced to return to the pits without being able to complete his race simulation with a long run.

Red Bull ‘s Max Verstappen was second fastest of the day in both sessions on Friday, finishing ahead of the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz .

However, the big talking point of the day was what happened off the track, following the missile and drone attack on the Aramco facility less than 20km from the circuit.

F1 2022 Saudi Arabian GP Free Practice 1 Results: Leclerc leads ahead of Verstappen

Cla	Pilot		Chassis	laps	Weather	Difference	Interval
1	Charles Leclerc		Ferrari	17	1’30.772
2	Max Verstappen		Red Bull	24	1’30.888	0.116	0.116
3	Valtteri Bottas		Alfa Romeo	22	1’31.084	0.312	0.196
4	Carlos Sainz Jr.		ferrari	14	1’31,139	0.367	0.055
5	Pierre Gasly		AlphaTauri	28	1’31.317	0.545	0.178
6	Yuki Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	26	1’31.505	0.733	0.188
7	Sergio Pérez		Red Bull	25	1’31.563	0.791	0.058
8	Esteban Ocon		Alpine	26	1’32.026	1.254	0.463
9	Lewis Hamilton		Mercedes	20	1’32.364	1.592	0.338
10	Fernando Alonso		Alpine	23	1’32.381	1.609	0.017
11	Daniel Ricciardo		McLaren	24	1’32.506	1.734	0.125
12	Lance Stroll		Aston Martin	23	1’32.582	1.810	0.076
13	Lando Norris		McLaren	24	1’32.594	1.822	0.012
14	Guanyu Zhou		Alfa Romeo	26	1’32.608	1.836	0.014
15	George Russell		Mercedes	19	1’32.839	2.067	0.231
16	Nico Hulkenberg		Aston Martin	23	1’33.034	2.262	0.195
17	Alexander Albon		williams	25	1’33.087	2.315	0.053
18	Nicholas Latifi		Williams	26	1’33.529	2.757	0.442
19	Mick Schumacher		Haas	22	1’34.429	3.657	0.900
20	Kevin Magnussen		Haas	2
see results

What happened in FP1 on Friday at the F1 Saudi Arabian GP 2022?

The first free practice session was held during the day, so it was not completely representative of either the classification or the race, which will take place at night and at lower temperatures.

Verstappen set the early pace, dropping to 1m30.888s on hard tyres, eight tenths quicker than Tsunoda ‘s AlphaTauri at the time.

After 18 minutes the session was red-flagged after the 50m sign on the approach to Turn 1 came loose and fell onto the track. He was hit by a series of cars, including Lando Norris’s McLaren , scattering his remains on the asphalt.

On the restart, the teams resurfaced on softs, with Leclerc nearly losing the Ferrari coming out of Turn 14 on his first stint, while Verstappen ran into traffic in the first sector, both aborting their laps.

Leclerc then struggled again, closing within six tenths of Verstappen’s fastest time. Gasly was second on the softs, despite brushing the wall, and Verstappen suffered a massive oversteer at Turn 10 that left him struggling to keep the car straight.

Leclerc improved to within 0.304 of Verstappen on softs, then overtook the world champion with a lap of 1m30.772s in the final section that would go on to be the fastest time of FP1.

Verstappen’s hard tire lap saw him take second, 0.116s behind Leclerc, with Valtteri Bottas third in Alfa Romeo, just ahead of Carlos Sainz’s second Ferrari.

Gasly and Tsunoda were next, ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez, Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes, who hit the wall at Turn 1 and complained of too much porpoising ) and Fernando Alonso (Alpine).

Bahraini hero Kevin Magnussen missed the entire session with a hydraulic problem on his out lap which forced Haas to replace his radiator.

F1 Saudi Arabian GP 2022 Free Practice 2 Results: Leclerc repeats on Verstappen

Cla	Pilot		Chassis	laps	Weather	Difference	Interval
1	Charles Leclerc		Ferrari	15	1’30.074
2	Max Verstappen		Red Bull	23	1’30.214	0.140	0.140
3	Carlos Sainz Jr.		ferrari	12	1’30,320	0.246	0.106
4	Sergio Pérez		Red Bull	24	1’30.360	0.286	0.040
5	Lewis Hamilton		Mercedes	24	1’30.513	0.439	0.153
6	George Russell		Mercedes	29	1’30.664	0.590	0.151
7	Lando Norris		McLaren	26	1’30.735	0.661	0.071
8	Esteban Ocon		Alpine	26	1’30.760	0.686	0.025
9	Valtteri Bottas		Alfa Romeo	14	1’30.832	0.758	0.072
Ten	Yuki Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	26	1’30.886	0.812	0.054
11	Fernando Alonso		Alpine	27	1’30.944	0.870	0.058
12	Pierre Gasly		AlphaTauri	29	1’30.963	0.889	0.019
13	Mick Schumacher		Haas	27	1’31.169	1.095	0.206
14	Lance Stroll		Aston Martin	28	1’31.372	1.298	0.203
15	Daniel Ricciardo		McLaren	23	1’31.527	1.453	0.155
16	Nico Hulkenberg		Aston Martin	30	1’31.615	1.541	0.088
17	Guanyu Zhou		Alfa Romeo	27	1’31.615	1.541	0.000
18	Nicholas Latifi		Williams	26	1’31.814	1.740	0.199
19	Alexander Albon		williams	29	1’31.866	1.792	0.052
20	Kevin Magnussen		Haas	13	1’32.344	2,270	0.478
see results

What happened in FP2 on Friday at the F1 Saudi Arabian GP 2022?

FP2 was delayed by 15 minutes following an emergency meeting between the FIA, teams and drivers to clarify how things stood following the drone and missile attack on nearby Aramco oil facilities.

From the start of the session under the lights, Leclerc took the lead with a time of 1m30.216s on medium tyres, already faster than his best time from FP1. Sainz was second, 0.104s behind, followed by Verstappen, who was three tenths (0.335s) behind.

Verstappen then stopped the clock in 1m30.214s to take the lead, just 0.002 (two thousandths) quicker than Leclerc. Pérez moved up to fourth place, 0.146 behind his teammate.

The teams then switched to soft tyres, with Leclerc retaking the lead with a 1m30.074s, struggling with traffic late in the lap but benefiting from a great slipstream from Ocon at the end. Neither Verstappen, Sainz nor Pérez improved on soft.

On his long runs, Sainz kissed the wall at Turn 13 and was then hit by Leclerc at Turn 4, damaging his front left steering arm and ending his day early.

Behind Pérez in fourth place, Lewis Hamilton finished ahead of his teammate George Russell, and Lando Norris, Esteban Ocon, Valtteri Bottas and Yuki Tsunoda.

Magnussen had more problems and stopped on track, ending the day at the bottom of the timesheets.