Max second after Friday practice: 'Room for improvement'

Published on 25 March 2022 by Stefan Meens

Max Verstappen finished Friday practice of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in second position. Like in the opening practice session, the Oracle Red Bull Racing driver was only beaten by Charles Leclerc. The Ferrari driver clocked the fastest time around the Jeddah Corniche Circuit. Leclerc’s teammate, Carlos Sainz, completed the top three.

“The session went well”, said Max after FP2. “We were able to run through our program and tried different tyre sets during our runs. It also looks that Ferrari are very competitive again, so we’ve got our work cut out to keep up with them. There is room for improvement.”

Following last year’s first Saudi GP, the track has been altered slightly to the improve drivers’ vision. In addition, the last corner has been widened. Max said on the changes: “You’re able to cut a bit more, but in terms of visibility, the changes haven’t affected that too much.”

Looking forward the remainder of the weekend, the Dutchman said: “I hope we can improve a bit. We’ll have to look at the data to see how we’re going to approach corner and straight-line speed. Once we’ve figured that out, we’ll see how it goes.”

The second Friday practice session starts fifteen minutes later than scheduled as the drivers are attending a drivers’ briefing, following a missile attack on an oil depot 6 miles from the track. Once the session does get underway, the sun has set and the temperatures have dropped into the low twenties.

First out on track are the two Alfa Romeos of Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou. Fernando Alonso (Alpine) is the first driver to clock a lap, but hist fastest time is soon bettered by the Ferraris with Leclerc setting the pace early on.

Despite the strong pace Ferrari is showing in the streets of Jeddah, the Italian team appears to struggle with porpoising. Lewis Hamilton also complains about the amount of bouncing his Mercedes produces at high speed.

At the midway point, Leclerc bolts on the soft Pirellis and utilises the extra grip to set the fastest time of the day and cement his P1. Ten minutes after, Max also heads out on the soft Pirellis but is unable to match Leclerc’s time due to traffic on his first flying lap. The next attempt also proves unsuccessful as a yellow flag, followed by a virtual safety car due to Kevin Magnussen’s stricken Haas, hampers Max’ lap.

With twenty minutes remaining, Leclerc remains at the top of the leader board, followed by Max, Sainz and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez. Nevertheless, FP2 ends prematurely for the Monegasque, after damaging his front suspension following a brush with the barriers at turn thirteen. Although the incident marks the end of Leclerc’s Friday running, the Ferrari driver ends the day quickest.

Practice ends under a yellow flag when Yuki Tsunoda’s Alpha Tauri comes to a standstill with technical problems.

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Results second free practice Saudi Arabia: