Verstappen stays on top as Alonso splits Red Bulls in second practice

Max Verstappen was fastest again in the second practice session for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, but Fernando Alonso split the two Red Bulls at the top of the times.

The reigning world champion’s best time of a 1’29.603 was two tenths of a second quicker than the Aston Martin driver, who in turn was just under a tenth faster than the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez.

The second session of the day is expected to be the more representative of the two, due to taking place in cooler temperatures under the lights as qualifying and the race will both be. As the session began Alonso was informed wind speeds around the circuit were around half what they has been in the opening hour of practice.

The two Ferraris of Carlos Sainz Jnr and Charles Leclerc were the session’s early pace setters, going quickest on medium tyres ahead of Alonso’s Aston Martin. But Verstappen soon displaced them at the top, setting a 1’30.801 to go fastest of all, before he was replaced by Alonso who went quickest by almost two tenths.

After causing drivers challenges in the opening session, the tightened turn 22 caught out Yuki Tsunoda early on, the AlphaTauri driver appearing to clip the barrier at the apex on one of his early times laps. Verstappen improved to retake the top spot in the session but only after lightly brushing the wall on the exit of the final corner, while Alonso had to abandon a fast lap attempt by running wide at turn 22.

When Perez switched to soft tyres in his Red Bull he jumped to the top with a 1’29.902, exactly half a second quicker than his team mate. Verstappen’s first attempt on softs was thwarted by yellow flags at turn 16, which were frustratingly rescinded soon after they were shown. However, his second attempt was comfortably quick enough to return him to the top by three tenths over his team mate, before Alonso improved to relegate Perez into second.

As usual, the second half of the hour was dedicated to long runs, with Alonso, Perez and the two Mercedes of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton venturing out on medium compound tyres, while Verstappen and Lance Stroll opted to run on soft tyres. With all cars focused on high fuel race runs, there were no major improvements in the timings over this final phase.

When the chequered flag flew it ensured Verstappen finished Friday as the quickest driver in both sessions. Behind Alonso split the two Red Bulls at the top of the times, while Esteban Ocon ended the session in fourth ahead of Russell’s Mercedes. Pierre Gasly was sixth in the second Alpine ahead of Stroll’s Aston Martin, with Nico Hulkenberg eighth in the Haas. The top ten was completed by the two Ferraris of Leclerc and Sainz.

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2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix second practice result

Position	Number	Driver	Team	Model	Time	Gap	Laps
1	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	RB19	1’29.603		29
2	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR23	1’29.811	0.208	26
3	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	RB19	1’29.902	0.299	26
4	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	A523	1’30.039	0.436	27
5	63	George Russell	Mercedes	W14	1’30.070	0.467	27
6	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	A523	1’30.100	0.497	28
7	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR23	1’30.110	0.507	27
8	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas-Ferrari	VF-23	1’30.181	0.578	27
9	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	SF-23	1’30.341	0.738	28
10	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	SF-23	1’30.592	0.989	29
11	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	W14	1’30.599	0.996	27
12	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL60	1’30.721	1.118	27
13	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Red Bull	AT04	1’30.776	1.173	30
14	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	FW45	1’30.810	1.207	27
15	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	VF-23	1’30.820	1.217	25
16	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C43	1’30.837	1.234	27
17	21	Nyck de Vries	AlphaTauri-Red Bull	AT04	1’30.921	1.318	29
18	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams-Mercedes	FW45	1’30.959	1.356	30
19	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL60	1’30.964	1.361	26
20	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C43	1’31.052	1.449	30

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2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

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