JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — Charles Leclerc, who won the season opener in Bahrain, was the fastest during Friday’s practice session for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, but his day was not without incident.
The Ferrari driver turned a best lap of 1 minute and 30.074 seconds on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, but hit the wall and turn four with 20 minutes remaining in practice, limping his Ferrari F1-75 back to the garage area.
“It was an unfortunate end to an otherwise good day,” Leclerc said. “In FP2 it was a small mistake, but not one that makes me lose confidence. I expected the front to slide around more and I clipped the inside wall at turn four. Focusing on tomorrow, I think the pace is there. It’s a bit of a shame we couldn’t get the high fuel laps done, but we should be in the mix for tomorrow.”
World champion Max Verstappen was second quick for Oracle Red Bull.
“The sessions ran quite smoothly today, we completed our program and tried out lots of different tire sets,” Verstappen said. “It seems like Ferrari were quite competitive again, we still have a little bit of work to do to catch up with them and there’s plenty of room for improvement. The track feels pretty much the same as last year, the barriers have moved slightly and in terms of visibility, it hasn’t made a noticeable impact. Looking ahead to qualifying, we still need to look at some data, we’ll see how it all goes tomorrow.”
Leclerc’s Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz was third quick, with Verstappen’s Red Bull mate, Sergio Perez fourth.
Seven-time World champion Lewis Hamilton was fifth for Mercedes.
Practice was delayed for a short time because of a rebel attack against a nearby oil depot.