Hamilton leads Mercedes one-two in practice for Saudi GP

Jeddah, Dec. 3 (BNA): Lewis Hamilton set the pace ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas as he finished one to two races for Mercedes on the opening day of practice for the inaugural edition of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Friday, while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc marched. away from severe collision.

The 36-year-old Briton, who beat 24-year-old Red Bull rival Max Verstappen in the first hour of running, was faster at night under floodlights, lowering his benchmark to 1 minute 29.018 seconds.

Bottas was 0.061 seconds behind, while Verstappen slipped behind Pierre Gasly in Alpha Torri to fourth, 0.195 seconds behind his rival Mercedes.

The top three were separated by less than 0.1 seconds, Reuters reports.

“I’m happy overall,” said Hamilton, who is eight points behind Verstappen in the overall standings and is aiming for his third win in a row on Sunday to lead him to meet the Dutchman for the title in the final race a week later in Abu Dhabi.

Like I said, I made some changes between sessions.

“We’ll go through it tonight and work with the guys at the factory and try and make sure we come up with the right setup for tomorrow.”

The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix is ​​the first of only two races left on this year’s Formula 1 calendar, with generations racing hard-earned between Hamilton and Verstappen towards its end.

Verstappen has his first chance of finishing his first title with a race he will save this weekend. Hamilton, who has an eye on an unprecedented eighth world title, can keep the fight alive in Abu Dhabi as long as he finishes at least fifth.

The pair were separated by 0.056 seconds in the first session, with Verstappen wasting no time attacking and exploring the boundaries of the track.

But the Dutchman struggled to get heat in his soft tyres in the second hour of practice.

“There is, of course, a lot of things to work on and improve,” he said. “So we’ll see what we can do to get more speed out of the car overnight.

Mercedes could also win the record maker’s title for the eighth time on Sunday if they scored 40 points more than Red Bull.

Friday’s work around the path of Jeddah Street, and its explosions that surrounded the walls, were not without incident.

Leclerc lost control of his Ferrari at high speed on approaching the fast turn 22-23, and hit the barriers. The Monegasque team moved away, with wind, but the crash halted the session five minutes before.

Several drivers, including Hamilton, also escaped from near misses as they were nearly stuck by slow-moving cars during their flying rides.

The Briton said the difference in shutdown speeds was close to the “danger zone”.

The teams paid their cars tribute to Team Williams co-founder Frank Williams, who passed away at the age of 79 on Sunday.

The team, one of the sport’s most successful sportswear that was sold to new owners last year but continues to race under the Williams name, carried the words: “I feel the need, the need for speed” on the Halo cockpit guard.

The line was Williams’ favorite quote from the movie Top Gun starring Tom Cruise.