Gasly leads Norris by seven-thousandths of a second in opening practice session

Pierre Gasly put Alpine on top in the first practice session for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, with McLaren and Ferrari close behind.

On a hot track, with asphalt temperatures nudging 50C, Lando Norris initially led the running. Most of his rivals were unable to beat his time of 1’29.246.

But a superb run through the final sector for Gasly propelled him to the top by a mere seven-thousandths of a second. Charles Leclerc was only seven-hundredths of a second behind, putting his Ferrari in third place. Towards the end of the session he warned Ferrari he had touched the wall at turn four.

The top trio’s team mates were spread across the rest of the timesheet. Last week’s race winner Oscar Piastri was a strong fourth, within a tenth of a second of his team mate. Lewis Hamilton continued to chip away in his Ferrari but ended up half a second off Leclerc in eighth.

Jack Doohan was only 16th in the second Alpine, almost a second off the pace. Unlike his team mate, he has not taken a new engine this weekend. All four Honda RBPT drivers also have new motors.

Both Williams drivers were well inside the top 10, led by Alexander Albon in fifth. Carlos Sainz Jnr, seventh, was not pleased by how his former team respected blue flags on a track with many blind, high-speed corners. “Please someone tell the Ferrari not to let people by there, it’s so dangerous,” he said.

The two FW47s were split by George Russell’s Mercedes. He showed strong pace on the medium rubber early on but was troubled by a persistent braking problem towards the end of the session, which led him to pit early.

Behind Hamilton, the two Red Bull drivers completed the top 10. As usual, Max Verstappen sounded very unhappy with his car, reporting he was having difficulty in the slow turn one-two chicane early in the session, then describing his car as “very loose in the high-speed” later on.

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While every driver set a time on softs, Racing Bulls left it until the final 10 minutes to do their first run on the softest rubber. Liam Lawson has been summoned to the stewards for crossing the painted area on the approach to the pit lane in contravention of the race director’s guidelines.

2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Grand Prix first practice result

P.	#	Driver	Team	Model	Time	Gap	Laps
1	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	A525	1’29.239		25
2	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL39	1’29.246	0.007	25
3	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	SF-25	1’29.309	0.070	28
4	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL39	1’29.341	0.102	25
5	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	FW47	1’29.606	0.367	23
6	63	George Russell	Mercedes	W16	1’29.618	0.379	21
7	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Williams-Mercedes	FW47	1’29.779	0.540	26
8	44	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	SF-25	1’29.815	0.576	27
9	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	RB21	1’29.818	0.579	26
10	22	Yuki Tsunoda	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	RB21	1’29.821	0.582	26
11	30	Liam Lawson	Racing Bulls-Honda RBPT	02	1’29.907	0.668	19
12	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber-Ferrari	C45	1’29.916	0.677	25
13	12	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	W16	1’29.934	0.695	24
14	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR25	1’29.976	0.737	24
15	6	Isack Hadjar	Racing Bulls-Honda RBPT	02	1’30.011	0.772	15
16	7	Jack Doohan	Alpine-Renault	A525	1’30.183	0.944	25
17	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR25	1’30.583	1.344	23
18	87	Oliver Bearman	Haas-Ferrari	VF-25	1’30.595	1.356	21
19	31	Esteban Ocon	Haas-Ferrari	VF-25	1’31.029	1.790	21
20	5	Gabriel Bortoleto	Sauber-Ferrari	C45	1’31.038	1.799	23

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2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

• Red Bull made tactical decision not to avoid a penalty in Jeddah, Horner confirms
• Norris’s starts were far poorer than Verstappen’s but the balance is shifting
• McLaren’s rivals “just one upgrade away from being the lead car” – Brown
• Russell told race control what he thought of Verstappen’s first lap corner cut
• Doohan’s final corner pass on Bortoleto was F1’s closest fight for last place in seven years

Browse all 2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix articles