Despite having already played a first free practice session, Formula 1 rolled for the first time under the Saudi Arabian night in the second and last practices on Friday, leaving quite impressive images on the new Jeddah street circuit at breakneck speeds .
As in Free Practice 1, once the second hour of activity on the track was over in this first Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in F1 history, Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time again with a 1:29.0, although this time well ahead of Max Verstappen, his main rival for the title, who could not move from fourth place to just over 0.1s.
Valtteri Bottas took second place to complete the Mercedes one-two finish, while a surprising Pierre Gasly was third at the wheel of his AlphaTauri.
In the middle zone, Alpine was the team that stood out the most by far and it seems that they could once again be very competitive as they were in Qatar. Fernando Alonso finished fifth with Esteban Ocon sixth, both ahead of the Ferrari and McLaren drivers.
At the back of the grid, Alfa Romeo was the team that stood out the most, with both drivers from the Swiss team finishing ahead of the two Aston Martins. Mazepin’s Haas was in last position, behind teammate Mick Schumacher and Nicholas Latifi’s Williams.
In the last five minutes of Free Practice 2, Charles Leclerc was involved in a very serious accident after losing control of his Ferrari SF21 at turn 22 at a very high speed, aggressively hitting the circuit protections and leaving his car quite destroyed. The Monegasque was able to get out of the car under his own power and the session ended with a red flag.
Results of Free Practice 2 of the Saudi Arabian GP 2021 F1
| Cla | Pilot | laps | Weather | Difference | Interval | Km/h | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
 |
22 | 1’29.018 | 249.684 | ||
| 2 |  |
|
23 | 1’29.079 | 0.061 | 0.061 | 249.513 |
| 3 |  |
 |
22 | 1’29.099 | 0.081 | 0.020 | 249,457 |
| 4 |  |
 |
20 | 1’29.213 | 0.195 | 0.114 | 249.138 |
| 5 |  |
 |
21 | 1’29.441 | 0.423 | 0.228 | 248.503 |
| 6 | |
|
22 | 1’29.555 | 0.537 | 0.114 | 248.187 |
| 7 | |
 |
24 | 1,29,589 | 0.571 | 0.034 | 248,092 |
| 8 |  |
|
20 | 1’29.597 | 0.579 | 0.008 | 248.070 |
| 9 |  |
|
22 | 1’29,768 | 0.750 | 0.171 | 247,598 |
| 10 |  |
|
23 | 1’29.772 | 0.754 | 0.004 | 247.587 |
| see results | |||||||
Summary of the FP2 of the Saudi Arabian GP of F1 2021
As in Free Practice 1, Carlos Sainz was once again in charge of kicking off this second free practice session at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, yes, unlike FP1, this time he did under the night and the floodlights of Jeddah.
As it is a new track, from very early on all the drivers went out on the track to accumulate more filming and data that will be really useful for tomorrow’s qualifying and especially for Sunday’s race, since as usual in FP2, all the teams focused their work on race simulations.
Max Verstappen occupied the first position during the first moments of the session, with a Mercedes that seemed to hide. Once the first 15 minutes were completed, Hamilton and Bottas pushed a little harder and it’s too many complications that stole the Red Bull driver’s wallet.
Meanwhile, a large number of drivers blocked their tires at the entrance of the aggressive corners of the Saudi track, but luckily, none of them caused a serious incident that forced the session to be stopped. In fact, only Mick Schumacher warned by radio of a “small touch with the wall of the last corner”.
Entering the second half of FP2 and after a few laps that put Mercedes back in front of the standings, all the drivers returned to the pits to focus the last minutes of the session on some long runs that could be key when choosing the strategies for Sunday in the race.
Surprisingly, Pierre Gasly slipped into third position less than a tenth behind the two Mercedes drivers and just ahead of Max Verstappen. Also striking was seeing Alpine in fifth and sixth position, being very competitive as in the last Qatar GP, an event in which Fernando Alonso got a podium seven years later in F1.
In the last 15 minutes of Free Practice 2 and with everyone already in race simulation, the first incidents of the day arrived. Mazepin first spun at turn 1 causing a double yellow flag and, towards the end of the session, Leclerc suffered a serious accident at turn 22 that caused a red flag with which FP2 would end.
The Ferrari driver was able to get out of SF21 unassisted and quickly radioed that he was fine, giving a much-needed message after seeing the aggressiveness of the crash. The Maranello team will have a long night ahead for the car to be competitive again tomorrow, the day on which the starting grid for Sunday will be defined.
