F1 in Saudi Arabia: Verstappen sweeps and Ferrari does not recover before qualifying

The season of Formula 1 started two weeks ago in Bahrain with a landslide victory for the two-time champion Max Verstappen, which follows the same rhythm in Saudi Arabia, where the second appointment of the 23 scheduled for this year will take place this Sunday. As the Dutchman did on Friday he was fastest in the last free practice before qualifyingwhich will start at 14:00 in Argentina and will be broadcast from Star+ AND Fox Sport.

On Jeddah road where traffic is often a headache for drivers, the number 1 driver of Red Bull He had no problems setting the best time on both hard and soft tyres, with which he stopped the clock 1:28,485 in his best lap.

That Verstappen breakthrough was so good only his companion, Sergio Czech Perez and Fernando Alonso -which this weekend reconfirmed the great performance of Aston Martin with which it was third in Sakhir- managed to pull away by less than a second. The Mexican was 613 thousandths behind the other Red Bull, while the Spaniard was 998.

From fourth down, everyone pulled away from the two-time defending champion by over a second.. Lance Stroll, in the other Aston Martin, finished in 1.024, while Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) was fifth in 1.083.

What happened with Ferrari? After very weak times on the intermediate tires at the start of the last session, charles leclerc AND Charles Sainz they came out with the softs in the last few minutes but still with those compounds they were far from Verstappen’s performance.

The Monegasque, who on Sunday he will be penalized with ten positions on the starting gridhe finished sixth at 1.103 seconds, while the Spaniard was in tenth position (at 1.276), behind the McLarens of Lando Norris and rookie Oscar Piastri and Pierre Gasly’s alpine.

With this scenario, only a catastrophe could snatch pole position from Red Bull in the standings which will start at 20:00 (local time). It is expected that, as happened in the Bahrain GP, ​​Max Verstappen will set the best time, however Czech Pérez has a history of being the last poleman in the second longest race of the calendar.