Leclerc fastest in final practice as Mercedes struggles

Championship leader Charles Leclerc completed a sweep of practice sessions for Formula 1’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as Mercedes struggled.

Leclerc posted a time of 1:29.735s to finish a mere 0.033s faster than reigning World Champion Max Verstappen.

Verstappen had been on course for a quicker lap after being three-tenths up on his personal best following the first two sectors but he went wide through Turn 22 and aborted his effort.

Sergio Perez finished third for Red Bull, ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, with Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas continuing his encouraging start to 2022 by placing fifth.

By contrast Bottas’ former team, Mercedes, had a difficult showing.

Lewis Hamilton was the quickest Mercedes car, in 11th place, nine-tenths of a second down on pacesetter Leclerc.

His team-mate George Russell was in 14th while the six Mercedes-powered customer cars filled out the bottom six positions, as Aston Martin, McLaren and Williams struggled for performance.

Esteban Ocon classified sixth for Alpine while there were more reliability gremlins at midfield rival AlphaTauri.

Pierre Gasly, who retired in Bahrain, suffered a suspected driveshaft issue as he tried to leave the pit lane and stopped his AT03 shortly after pit exit.

Haas’ Kevin Magnussen was eighth while Alpine’s Fernando Alonso and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda rounded out the top 10.

Tsunoda’s car was equipped with fresh power unit components, including a new Internal Combustion Engine, following an issue during second practice on Friday.

The session came following a tumultuous 24 hours for Formula 1, after Friday’s attack on a nearby Aramco facility, which led to several meetings that only concluded in the early hours of Saturday.

Drivers reached a resolution to continue the weekend schedule as normal after concerns were assuaged by senior Formula 1 figures and security officials from Saudi Arabia.

Qualifying for Formula 1’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix is scheduled for 20:00 local time

	Position		Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
	1		Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:29.735		23
	2		Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:29.768	0.033	12
	3		Sergio Perez	Red Bull	1:29.833	0.098	16
	4		Carlos Sainz Jr	Ferrari	1:30.009	0.274	22
	5		Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	1:30.030	0.295	22
	6		Esteban Ocon	Alpine	1:30.139	0.404	16
	7		Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	1:30.148	0.413	11
	8		Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1:30.262	0.527	18
	9		Fernando Alonso	Alpine	1:30.296	0.561	17
	10		Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	1:30.415	0.680	19
	11		Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:30.707	0.972	17
	12		Mick Schumacher	Haas	1:30.765	1.030	17
	13		Guanyu Zhou	Alfa Romeo	1:30.946	1.211	20
	14		George Russell	Mercedes	1:30.983	1.248	15
	15		Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	1:31.067	1.332	18
	16		Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	1:31.186	1.451	16
	17		Alex Albon	Williams	1:31.374	1.639	16
	18		Nico Hulkenberg	Aston Martin	1:31.424	1.689	18
	19		Lando Norris	McLaren	1:31.529	1.794	17
	20		Nicholas Latifi	Williams	1:31.992	2.257	13