After a 15-minute delay that kept all Formula 1 fans on edge due to an explosion near the Jeddah circuit that was later confirmed as a terrorist attack, the drivers took to the track to compete in FP2 of the GP of Saudi Arabia.
At the end of the last 60 minutes of action on the track, Charles Leclerc set the best time of the day with a 1:30.074 on soft tyres, ahead of Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz and Sergio Pérez (all three on medium). The two Ferrari drivers missed the last 20 minutes of the session after playing with fire with the walls of the Saudi track.
Behind, the Mercedes were placed as the great favorites in the middle zone, at a distance somewhat higher than the average followed, with Lewis Hamilton ahead of George Russell.
The surprise was given by Lando Norris by placing his McLaren in seventh place, despite the fact that nobody had them here after what happened in Bahrain, the Briton slipped ahead of Esteban Ocon, Valtteri Bottas and Yuki Tsunoda, who closed the top 10 and ended the session with his car parked at one of the loopholes on the circuit due to a breakdown in his Honda engine.
Fernando Alonso stayed just outside the top ten positions, the Spanish Alpine driver finished eleventh, 0.870 seconds off the best time on Friday.
At the back of the grid, Kevin Magnussen closed out the timesheets after having to stop his car midway through FP2 due to a problem with the Ferrari engine in his Haas. Immediately ahead, the two Williams drivers confirmed the bad feelings of a team that was aiming higher at this start of 2022.
Results of Free Practice 2 of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2022 F1
| Cla | Pilot | laps | Weather | Difference | Interval | Km/h | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
 |
15 | 1’30.074 | 246.757 | ||
| 2 |  |
 |
23 | 1’30.214 | 0.140 | 0.140 | 246.374 |
| 3 |  |
 |
12 | 1’30,320 | 0.246 | 0.106 | 246,085 |
| 4 |  |
 |
24 | 1’30,360 | 0.286 | 0.040 | 245,976 |
| 5 |  |
 |
24 | 1’30.513 | 0.439 | 0.153 | 245.560 |
| 6 | |
 |
29 | 1’30.664 | 0.590 | 0.151 | 245.151 |
| 7 | |
 |
26 | 1’30.735 | 0.661 | 0.071 | 244.959 |
| 8 |  |
 |
26 | 1’30.760 | 0.686 | 0.025 | 244.892 |
| 9 |  |
 |
14 | 1’30.832 | 0.758 | 0.072 | 244.697 |
| Ten |  |
 |
26 | 1’30.886 | 0.812 | 0.054 | 244.552 |
| see results | |||||||
Summary of the second practices of the Saudi Arabian GP of F1 2022
After a busy Free Practice 1 in Jeddah, the Formula 1 drivers returned to the tarmac after a 15-minute delay due to a series of meetings that had taken place at the FIA following the well-known terrorist attack a few kilometers from the track in the course of FP1.
Despite an increasingly tense atmosphere, everyone went out on the track as soon as they saw the green color at the pitlane light, since for the first time this weekend the drivers could test in night conditions, the same ones they will have in qualifying and In race.
The first competitive time was set by Charles Leclerc with a 1:30.216 on a medium tyre, a time that allowed him to get ahead of Sainz , Verstappen and Pérez , the latter almost a second behind the Monegasque driver.
Behind and also with the medium compound, the teams in the middle zone seemed to be very even, with Alfa Romeo, AlphaTauri, McLaren , Alpine and Mercedes , separated by a few tenths or thousandths in some cases.
Verstappen climbed to the top of the time table after the first 15 minutes of the session, with a 1:30.214. A time set minutes before almost everyone started to change tires to mount the soft ones.
With this softer Pirelli compound, it was striking that virtually no driver did a competitive lap on their first lap. The first to set a time was Norris , who fell 0.5s off Verstappen ‘s best time with averages.
At the top of the standings, Leclerc was the first to record a time on soft tyres, a 1m30.074s that propelled him up to first place. As Verstappen tried to regain that position, first an error and then a yellow flag with a VSC spoiled his first two attempts on softs.
With 25 minutes to go, Magnussen was left stranded in the middle of the track after complaining of power problems with his Ferrari engine. Luckily, the Dane parked very close to one of the exits and it was not necessary to raise the red flag to remove the car.
With the drivers gradually risking more, the broadcast showed Alonso and Sainz struggling to avoid contact with the walls of Jeddah, while Leclerc was unable to do the same and had to return to the pits with a damaged left front wheel.
Minutes later, the Spaniard in Ferrari was also forced to return to the pits and miss the rest of the session due to a series of damages that he had caused during his caresses on the wall. Both cars from Maranello finished early on Friday.
In the final minutes everyone focused on the race simulations and no one improved their times, with Leclerc leading the timesheets and being the only one of the top four to have recorded a time on the soft tyre.
Just at the moment of the checkered flag, Tsunoda parked his car in one of the loopholes of the circuit after detecting a problem in the Honda power unit of his AlphaTauri , closing Friday with a bad taste in his mouth.
