Title leader Charles Leclerc set the early pace as Formula 1’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix got underway in Jeddah on Friday evening.
Leclerc set a time of 1:30.772s on Softs to finish 0.116s clear of Hard-shod World Champion Max Verstappen.
The session was held in unrepresentative daytime conditions, compared to qualifying and the race, which takes place beneath the lights.
Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas was third, ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, while AlphaTauri finished fifth and sixth courtesy of Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda.
Gasly ran his second power unit of the season, following his late race failure in Bahrain, while Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Alpine’s Fernando Alonso were also equipped with fresh components – a new Internal Combustion Engine – ahead of the session.
Perez was seventh for Red Bull, with Alonso rounding out the top 10, behind Alpine team-mate Esteban Ocon.
Alpine made the change on Alonso’s car after detecting a sealing issue with his initial ICE after Bahrain and have sent the component back to its base in France for further checks.
Lewis Hamilton was the sole Mercedes driver inside the top 10 as he classified in ninth place.
George Russell finished down in 15th place in the other Mercedes W13.
Mercedes’ three customer teams – McLaren, Aston Martin and Williams – were all in the lower half of the timing screens, as was Haas’ Mick Schumacher, who set his best lap on Medium tyres.
Kevin Magnussen was one of the stars of Bahrain but his weekend in Saudi Arabia got off to a tricky start.
Magnussen managed only a couple of installation laps before being called back into the pits by Haas.
A hydraulic leak was detected on Magnussen’s VF-22 and Haas set about making repairs, benching the Dane from the rest of the session, amid hope he can return to action in Friday’s second practice later this evening.
Second practice for Formula 1’s Saudi Arabian GP is scheduled for 20:00 local time
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