Lando Norris beat teammate Oscar Piastri to top spot in final practice for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in a foreboding demonstration of pace by McLaren to go more than 0.6s quicker than any other team.

Despite FP3 taking place in the late afternoon, with the track temperature an unrepresentative 115 degrees F, Norris got surprisingly close to beating last year’s pole time.

His benchmark of 1m 27.489s was just 0.017s slower than Max Verstappen’s pole-getting best in 2024 and only 0.024s faster than teammate Piastri.

Piastri had seemed set to end the final practice session at the top of the order after the final run on fresh softs, but Norris squeezed an extra 0.182s from his used rubber to move from second to first off the back of an impressive purple final sector.

The Australian attempted to respond on his used tires but aborted the effort after a wobble put him off line and spoiled the lap.

George Russell followed in third, but the Mercedes driver was 0.627s slower than Norris. The rest of the top 10 is spread over a smaller gap.

Max Verstappen moved up to fourth with a last-gasp lap on old tires that put him 0.845s off the pace after another session beset by niggles, this time including engine braking.

He displaced Charles Leclerc who dropped to fifth just 0.038s further back.

The Monegasque commented over radio at the end of the session that he felt that was the maximum from the Ferrari in these warm conditions.

Williams teammates Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz were 0.9s and 1.081s off the pace respectively but secured top midfield honors for the team ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, who was 1.136 slower than Norris’s benchmark.

Repairs to Yuki Tsunoda’s car after his late crash in FP2 yesterday were ongoing until almost halfway through the session, the Japanese driver thanking the team for its work as he joined the session with around 35 minutes still on the clock.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli completed the top 10 for Mercedes.

Isack Hadjar battled a water bottle problem on his way to 11th ahead of a despondent Lewis Hamilton, who sounded in equal parts mystified and defeated by his 0.408s gap to teammate Leclerc and 1.291s deficit to top spot.

Liam Lawson was 13th ahead of Fernando Alonso and Jack Doohan, who will see the stewards later in the day for crossing the white pit lane entry line early in the session.

Oliver Bearman was 16th ahead of Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon.

Gabriel Bortoleto missed FP2 with a fuel leak, costing him the only session run in representative conditions.

The Brazilian completed a session-high 24 laps in a bid to make up for lost running, putting him ahead of only Lance Stroll at the bottom of the pile.

Lando Norris wanted McLaren to have a bigger performance gap to the rest of the field on Friday at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, but says he made progress with his own personal confidence level,

The championship leader came into this weekend’s race in Jeddah off the back of a third place in Bahrain where he felt he struggled to extract performance out of his McLaren in qualifying. Norris was characteristically hard on himself a week ago, but says he had lots of areas he wanted to focus on with his own driving in Saudi Arabia and felt it was paying off after topping the times in FP2.

“I think it was a pretty decent first day,” Norris said. “It always feels chaotic around here because it’s so fast. A lot of walls, a lot of near misses. But I think today has really been a day about working on my driving, working on myself more than probably trying to work on the car.

“I’ve been getting more confident, so a good start to the weekend — productive. I gained confidence, gaining feeling, so from what I wanted to achieve today it is on the right track.

“I would say we feel confident, but the others are not far behind. I was hoping for a bigger gap than what we had today. We know we are fast and have a great car, but certainly not as comfortable as what we would like. Nothing more than that, we will keep our heads down and focused on what we can do.”

Norris was joined at the top of the timing screens by teammate Oscar Piastri, who was 0.163s adrift and believes he knows where he needs to improve ahead of qualifying.

“It was a decent day,” Piastri said. “I think the pace has been good; I’ve felt reasonably comfortable. There are a few corners where I need to do a better job tomorrow but all in all it’s felt like a good day.”

Although it was Max Verstappen who was closest to McLaren in the FP2 classification, Charles Leclerc did not get a clean soft-tire run in, and believes he might be able to challenge come qualifying on Saturday.

“Obviously, it’s a very challenging track where confidence needs to be very high in order to perform at your best,” Leclerc said. “I think we changed the car a lot. But it was a very positive day because I’ve learned a lot from it. And I think once we put everything in the right window, there should be a bit more performance coming out of the car.

“McLaren seems to be very strong once again, and a lot stronger than us. But again, never say never. If we put everything together, I think everything is possible.

“I think we’ve done a good job by exploring different options and it’s pretty clear in my head what I want to do for tomorrow. So we are going to go in that direction and I hope that it will pay off once we get to qualifying.”

Yuki Tsunoda says his confidence level at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was not daunted by his crash late in Friday’s FP2.

The Red Bull driver was enjoying a competitive first day in Jeddah, almost matching Max Verstappen’s time in FP1 and then setting the sixth-fastest lap of FP2 despite struggling to get his tires in the right operating window. Although comfortable pushing the car over one lap, Tsunoda then made a strange mistake on his high fuel run to hit the inside wall at the final corner, breaking his steering and sending him into the outside barrier.

A costly moment for Yuki Tsunoda in FP2 😱#F1 #SaudiArabianGP pic.twitter.com/ofXpR5gG9q

— Formula 1 (@F1) April 18, 2025

“I just turned in too much and clipped the wall with the inside wheel and had damage,” Tsunoda said. “After that I had no control. Apologies to the team because the pace was looking good, so it’s a shame.

“Confidence level was pretty good. The last soft run was a bit compromised with the warmup and everything. So far pretty OK. I had limited time with the long run — which was caused by myself, so I can’t complain. I definitely would have wanted it to end in a nice way for sure.”

While Tsunoda was satisfied with his start to the weekend, teammate Verstappen was less so despite ending FP2 in a competitive third place, 0.28s adrift of the fastest time set by Lando Norris.

“Well, we tried some different things with the car, tried to find a different direction with the car,” Verstappen said. “We learned a lot from it but it’s still not where we want it to be. Personally I don’t really look at the gaps — at the end of the day you have to form your own feeling and what you feel in the car. Over one lap, it’s a bit better but the long runs were very tough for us.

“It’s different here [compared to Bahrain] because it’s a different track — grip levels are different, but also the setup is completely different. It’s hard to compare but it’s clear we want to be faster.

“I think one standout is McLaren being very competitive but from our side there is still quite a bit of work to do and things to understand.”

Lando Norris bested McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri to top spot in second practice at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after a red flag for a crashed-out Yuki Tsunoda ended the session early.

Tsunoda clipped the inside barrier at the final corner, which broke his Red Bull’s front-left suspension and sent him careening helplessly into the outside barrier. He walked away unhurt, but with less than nine minutes remaining on the clock, there wasn’t time to clear the wreckage and get the session back underway for anything more than practice starts at the end of the hour. This left Norris at the top of the order with a best time of 1m28.267s.

Piastri was 0.163s slower in the sister McLaren, and after some adjustments in his garage he attempted another flying lap on the same set of soft tires. However, the Australian abandoned the attempt after tapping the wall with his front-left wheel, though he had already set a slower first sector than on his original flying lap.

Max Verstappen completed the top three looking more competitive than he had in FP1. The Red Bull Racing driver was just 0.28s off the pace in the cooler evening conditions, with the track temperature having plummeted below 100 degrees F, a drop of more than 20 degrees compared to FP1.

Charles Leclerc was 0.482s off the pace for Ferrari, but his fastest time was set at the second time of asking after abandoning his scrappy first lap on fresh softs. It put him only just ahead of former Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz, who lapped the Jeddah Corniche Circuit 0.193s slower in his Williams.

The crashed-out Tsunoda was 0.696s off the pace and 0.416s slower than teammate Verstappen when he stepped out of his smashed RB21.

George Russell was 0.706s off the pace in seventh ahead of FP1 pacesetter Pierre Gasly, who was 0.839s off top spot at the end of the day despite complaining of braking problems before his qualifying simulation run.

Nico Hulkenberg was ninth for Sauber ahead of Alex Albon, who completed the top 10.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli was 11th ahead of Isack Hadjar and Lewis Hamilton, who was 1.1s off the pace and will see the stewards after the race for allegedly impeding Albon at the super-fast turn 18.

Liam Lawson was 14th quickest ahead of Fernando Alonso, Oliver Bearman, Jack Doohan and Lance Stroll — who started the session with a spin into the run-off at the first corner after his rear axle suddenly locked — and Esteban Ocon, who was slowest of those who set a time.

Gabriel Bortoleto didn’t participate in the session after his Sauber team discovered a fuel leak in his Ferrari power unit before the session. The Brazilian’s mechanics couldn’t fix the problem in time to take part in the crucial sole representative practice session of the weekend, leaving the rookie down on mileage ahead of Saturday.

Williams team principal James Vowles believes Mercedes is not the destination for Max Verstappen if he were to leave Red Bull at the end of this season.

Verstappen’s future has often been a topic of conversation, but this season has seen Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko repeatedly voicing concerns that performance clauses could be triggered that would allow the Dutchman to move elsewhere. While Aston Martin has been linked with a big-money move for Verstappen, Mercedes was also courting him last year and has yet to commit to either of its current drivers for 2026, but Vowles doesn’t see a pairing of the reigning world champion and George Russell making sense.

“I don’t think so,” said Vowles, who served as Mercedes motorsport strategy director before his move to Williams. “I think they’re two very different characters. I would also say I’m not Toto [Wolff], but I think he’s got a really good driver line-up for the future, I think, with Kimi [Antonelli].

“Yes, I’m biased, because I worked with him for a long period of time, but Kimi, if you just look at the steps he’s making in qualifying, he’s making steps every single week, and he’s only driven effectively four grand prix races. He’s on a good pathway to be very, very competitive, so you keep investing in that.

“And George is delivering, I think. I mean, he’s been a bit quiet, but you can’t really fault anything he’s done this year.

“So can you add a tiny bit more performance? Yes, through Max. I think there is more performance to be added through Max. I don’t think anyone in the room would deny that he is extraordinary in what he can do. Japan was, for me, jaw-dropping. Well done to him. But he comes with a lot of downsides as well that you have to acknowledge.

“I think what Mercedes does have is a great culture with two drivers that are delivering near to the peak of the car, and with one that’s on the way up. So I personally don’t think that’s the place for him.”

Verstappen’s manager Raymond Vermeulen was filmed speaking to Alpine team principal Ollie Oakes earlier in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend, while the driver himself dismissed speculation relating to his future on Thursday, stating that “a lot of people are talking about it, except me.”

Pierre Gasly unexpectedly topped first practice at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix ahead of title leader Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc.

Gasly set the pace at 1m29.239s in his Alpine, which ended the session with the quickest time in the final split. The Frenchman’s sole run on soft tires — the softest compound Pirelli has ever brought to Jeddah — put him 0.007s ahead of McLaren’s Norris, who was fastest in the first sector.

Leclerc completed the top three, his Ferrari just 0.07s off the pace after completing a session-high 28 laps and 0.032s ahead of Bahrain Grand Prix winner Oscar Piastri in fourth, despite the Australian complaining of an overheating seat in his McLaren.

The afternoon session, unrepresentative of the night-time qualifying and race conditions, started with the track temperature sizzling at 122 degrees F, though the mercury declined by more than 40 degrees F by the end of the hour. It meant drivers were allowed to focus more on accumulating laps and confidence around the super-fast street-style circuit rather than spending time finessing setup, which will come in the more representative evening practice session later today.

Alex Albon was fifth for Williams and 0.367s off the pace despite complaining of a lack of balance by the end of the session. He was 0.012s faster than George Russell, who ended the hour reporting an unusual feeling with the brakes of his Mercedes, and 0.173s faster than Williams teammate Carlos Sainz.

Lewis Hamilton was eighth and 0.576s off the pace in the second Ferrari. Max Verstappen was just 0.003s behind Hamilton but complained that he “just [couldn’t] turn the car” into the first two turns and of having “no balance, basically” through the middle split. He was just 0.003s quicker than Red Bull teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who completed the top 10.

Liam Lawson was 11th for Racing Bulls after just 19 laps — more than only teammate Isack Hadjar down in 15th, who completed just 15 laps — after the team battled technical issues during the hour.

Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg was 12th ahead of Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who started the session with massive brake vibrations aboard his Mercedes and Fernando Alonso.

Hadjar set a session-low 15 laps but finished ahead of Jack Doohan and Lance Stroll.

Oliver Bearman had to change his front wing after tapping the wall in a big lock-up early in the session, damaging his right endplate but otherwise getting away with the collision unscathed.

Esteban Ocon and Gabriel Bortoleto completed the order in 19th and 20th respectively.

Multiple teams have brought developments to the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as McLaren looks to hold onto its advantage at the head of the field.

McLaren has an updated diffuser that has been reshaped to improve overall flow conditions, that the team says aims to deliver a gain in aerodynamic performance. Added to that, there’s a new rear brake duct winglet arrangement that should improve aerodynamic efficiency.

After introducing a new floor in Bahrain, Ferrari continues its development program with changes to the rear wing and beam wing of the car, particularly surrounding drag reduction at such a high-speed venue. There’s a less cambered top rear wing flap on offer, while Ferrari has also brought a rear wing and beam wing from last year that are a larger step in delivering a lower-downforce setup.

Red Bull has brought a cooling upgrade with an enlarged central exit to its engine cover to help reject the heat ahead of high temperatures in Jeddah, but there’s a similar beam wing option to the one at Ferrari, with less camber providing lower downforce and drag settings if required.

Aston Martin, Haas and Racing Bulls all follow the same trend with less-aggressive rear wing options that allow a reduction in downforce and drag, but Haas and Racing Bulls also have a front wing that features a relaxed flap profile that would help balance the car if either team uses the less-loaded rear wing.

There’s a more substantial set of new parts at Stake, although the majority also are targeted at the demands of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit. Aside from lower-downforce front and rear wing options like many teams, there’s a rear wing endplate that combines with the rear changes to provide an increase in overall efficiency.

Stake’s most notable upgrade relates to its floor, however, where it has made changes to its central floor geometry. The team says the development aims to improve flow characteristics around the rear of the floor, that should produce an efficient downforce gain.

Mercedes, Alpine and Williams are the only three teams not to submit any updated parts to the FIA for this weekend’s event in Saudi Arabia.

Sunday’s Formula 1 STC Saudi Arabian Grand Prix will now air on ESPN rather than on ESPN2 as originally scheduled. The race telecast begins at 12:55pm ET.

In addition, the pre-race Grand Prix Sunday program also will air on ESPN beginning at 11:30am.

The rest of the weekend schedule remains the same as originally listed.

The current Formula 1 calendar is pretty relentless. Teams have arrived in Jeddah for the fifth race in six weeks as part of a schedule that has so far taken in trips to Australia, China, Japan and Bahrain.

Even in such a short space of time, there have already been some real fluctuations in both form and atmosphere for multiple teams, and none more so than the rollercoaster of emotions at Red Bull.

Australia was fairly positive. Max Verstappen secured a second place in treacherous conditions and was putting pressure on Lando Norris until the very final corner. Then came China, which was less productive but did still offer a reason for optimism as the final stint on hard tires was particularly competitive.

You probably don’t need me to remind you what happened in Japan, where Verstappen pulled out one of his finest qualifying laps to secure pole position on a track where overtaking was going to prove extremely difficult, and converted that into a first victory of the season to move within a point of the championship lead.

At no stage after Suzuka did anyone from Red Bull proclaim that it had solved its car issues, or would be competitive at every venue. But what happened next time out in Bahrain still seemed to hit particularly hard.

The whole weekend was a struggle. Verstappen was complaining of serious balance issues that hurt his ability to manage the tires, and brake problems that were never fully solved despite pre-race changes under parc ferme conditions.

In China, Verstappen walked away with a fourth place from a tricky weekend, but even salvaging sixth place on the final lap in Bahrain did little to appease the frustration that was shown by many of those around him, if not Verstappen himself.

Tensions were high between Helmut Marko and Verstappen’s manager Raymond Vermeulen at the end of the race, when the pair engaged in strong words, although Verstappen insisted there wasn’t much to it.

“To my knowledge, they were having just a conversation about everything — which is allowed,” Verstappen said. “Now, if someone picks up on it, people can always see it in their own way; how people are discussing things.

“But we were all left frustrated with the result and, of course, the things that went wrong in the race. I think that’s where my manager Raymond and Helmut spoke about it — and even Christian [Horner] came along, as well. So they all had a conversation. That should be allowed. We all care, at the end of the day. We care about the team, we care about the people, we care about results. I think that’s quite normal.”

Verstappen is right. It’s very normal to have such conversations. And it’s also normal to downplay the significance of them in the media. Not that I’m ever complaining about personnel speaking their mind and being open and honest – more of it is needed – but certain members of the team are growing exasperated by the amount of panic that is portrayed straight after a poor result.

Helmut Marko had stated that “the concern is great” around the fear that Verstappen could leave Red Bull at the end of the season due to the car’s performance, saying the team has to find improvements quickly to give him a winning car.

Granted, Verstappen made the difference in Japan, but Marko’s comments came a week after the Dutchman had won a race, and at a time when he was within 10 points of the championship lead. The clauses in his contract do not simply demand that Verstappen has to be leading the standings and winning all the time, even if the current trend is worrying.

But Marko’s views don’t fully tally with Verstappen’s own, even if the 81-year-old’s comments were the reason that the four-time world champion was facing questions about his future on Thursday in Saudi Arabia.

“Honestly, a lot of people are talking about it, except me,” Verstappen said. “I just want to focus on my car, work with the people in the team. That’s the only thing that I’m thinking about in Formula 1 at the moment. I’m very relaxed.

“I just keep working, keep trying to improve the car. Bahrain wasn’t a great weekend for us. I think we were all pretty disappointed with that. We just keep on trying to improve the car, come up with new ideas to try on the car. The competition is tough. That’s how I go about my weeks – just trying to improve the situation.”

Marko has been a particularly close ally, to such an extent that 12 months ago in Jeddah, Verstappen was openly stating that he would be likely to leave Red Bull if Marko was no longer part of the set-up. That stance appears to have cooled more recently, and Verstappen now insists the outside noise doesn’t impact on him or the way he wants to work, even if doubt is being cast on his future by those close to him.

The beauty of the tight schedule is that Red Bull and Verstappen get to try and move on from the struggles of Bahrain just a few days later, and on a track with very different characteristics. But the RB21 is not a car that is consistent, and there are no guarantees that a more positive performance is waiting for the team this weekend.

McLaren results permitting, Verstappen remains within a top-five finish of taking the championship lead. Such a scenario would undermine the alarm bells that are currently ringing, even if the team needs to find ways of reversing the current trend in terms of car performance.

But 12 months on from explosive comments and claims at the team, Red Bull also feels like it is teetering on the brink of more significant fallout if there’s another uncompetitive showing in Jeddah.

Who knows which way the rollercoaster is going to head next?

Charles Leclerc says the upgrade that Ferrari brought to Bahrain should provide a more noticeable step forward at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, as it looks to close the gap to McLaren.

Ferrari brought a new floor to the last race in Bahrain in order to get value out of it at two of the three races in the current tripleheader. While Leclerc admitted it was unlikely to have a major impact on last weekend’s track layout, he believes the high-speed street circuit of Jeddah should allow the team to understand if it has made the planned progress with the latest development.

“For the layout of the track, I think we should be doing a bit of a step forward — a bit more of a step forward than we did in Bahrain, which is positive,” Leclerc said. “We obviously still have to confirm that, but I think the numbers that we were expecting from this upgrade in Bahrain were the ones that we saw, and considering that is the case, I think we’ll benefit a little bit more from a track like this.

“Overall grip has been a big improvement. And in specific corners — corner phases, especially, which we should gain from a bit more on a track like this.”

Leclerc believes Ferrari is currently on a par with Mercedes and calls Red Bull tougher to analyze, but he sees the gap to McLaren as standing between 0.2-0.3s. Although unlikely to close that with one upgrade, he believes race victories can be on the cards for Ferrari soon after feeling a better result got away in Bahrain.

“I honestly think that the podium was possible in Bahrain without the safety car, but that’s how racing goes sometimes,” he said. “I think we are doing steps in the right direction, whether the podium is going to be this weekend or later on, I don’t know, but I think we’ve got our chances.

“We’ve been taking slightly different directions in the last few races, which I particularly like, and if we keep finding gains by going in that direction, I hope we can score our first podium, but my hope is a bit more than that. I mean, a podium is not something that I particularly enjoy targeting — a win would be amazing.

“I am always fully motivated to extract the maximum out of my car, no matter where that brings me. Of course you are always disappointed when you do everything perfect and the best result achievable is P4, but then you get back into the car the next race and — at least for me — I still have the full motivation to try and do something special and to maybe win a race with a car that is less good than the people around me.

“So that’s where I find my motivation — it is to try to outperform whenever I can. So motivation won’t be a problem.”