Hamilton fastest in first F1 practice for Saudi Arabian GP

Hamilton Mercedes Jeddah Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
Author of the article: , published on December 3, 2021.

The first free practice is behind us GP of Saudi Arabia on the street paths of the place Jeddah (Jeddah) along the Red Sea and although it is a track that has what 27 turns!! placed very fluently, we cannot avoid finding that quite narrow and all the bragging before the racing weekend about how it’s going to go here to overtake, now gets a different shape. Likely to be someone landed in a protective fence or at least rough kissed, but it is very large and accordingly suitable for the arrival safety car on the track.

At the premiere of the track in the city Jeddah he took care of the best time Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton finished the 60-minute workout in first place, close ahead of the main contender Max Verstappn, and a little more in third place Valtteri Bottas. The announcement that a tense duel of these two races is promised, where only his teammate has to join Max Sergio Perez, who landed outside the top ten.

Due to the fact that the trail is quite narrow, fortunately we did not witness it no accidents, and therefore many problems with slow race cars. Despite the exceptional length of the round, this could lead to a number of complaints and heated debates on the radio in qualifying.

result

Lewis Hamilton he needed it for his fastest lap time 1: 29.786 minutes and thus overtook him by five hundredths of a second Max Verstappna. Both contenders for this year’s title were the only ones to fall below the 1:30 minute mark. He took third place Valtteri Bottas, which was a good two tenths of a second behind. An additional two tenths more he was behind in fourth place Pierre Gasly, just under a tenth more in fifth place Antonio Giovinazzi.

Max Verstappen was five hundredths of a second behind Hamilton.

In sixth and seventh place are both racers Ferrari, where he was Carlos Sainz to learn faster than a teammate Charles Leclerc. He finished in eighth place with a good eight tenths Daniel Ricciardo, and the ten conclude Fernando Alonso in Sebastian Vettel. Both were already more than a second behind.

Valtteri Bottas was already slightly behind the first two in third place.

Od eleventh place onwards however, the racers were classified as follows: Sergio Perez (Redbull), Esteban Ocon (AlpineF1), Lando Norris (McLaren), Lance stroll (Aston Martin), Yuki tsunoda (AlphaTauri), Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo), George Russell (Williams), Mick Schumacher (Challenge), Nicholas latifi (Williams) and Nikita mazepin (Hass).

Incidents

The first training it ended without accidents, the only thing we could see was concrete spark explosion under the race car Max Verstappna, who drove a little rough over the curb. Later, mechanics inspected the bottom of his car in detail.

It could be tense in the race and a kiss on the guardrail is not ruled out, as the track is quite narrow.

Otherwise, we have only witnessed problems due to slow race cars. Due to the narrow path, many of them volunteered to drive outside in order to descend faster. But that didn't always work WIthout problems, so there were quite a few interrupted or destroyed quick attempts. It was also critical in some situations. Esteban Ocon he blocked before the first turn Max Verstappna and because the Frenchman saw the Dutchman too late, they both ended up in excursion zone. And believe it or not, that was it the only yellow flag, though for a good second.

It's in the second half of training Bottas ran into Mazepina, which today seems partly lost. Shortly before that, a misunderstanding arose between Norris in Leclerc, which blocked at the end of the plane. There have been quite a few similar cases, to name just a few Pierre Gaslya, who announced after a few minutes of training on the radio that in his cockpit the smell of something strange, as if something were being heated or burned.  

The article is also available on the website vmax.si

Photos: HB Press

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