- Second F1 practice for Saudi Arabia Grand Prix at 6pm BST
Pierre Gasly was the fastest man in first practice for this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The Alpine driver clocked a time of 1min29.239sec, which was just 0.007sec quicker than championship leader Lando Norris.
Charles Leclerc was third for Ferrari whilst Oscar Piastri, who won last weekend in Bahrain, was fourth. They were 0.070sec and 0.102sec slower than Gasly’s time respectively.
Alexander Albon and Carlis Sainz were fifth and seventh for Williams, with the Mercedes of George Russell between them.
Max Verstappen, who has won twice in Jeddah in the last three seasons, was down in ninth, 0.579sec off the pace. Lewis Hamilton was eighth for Ferrari, just 0.003sec faster than Verstappen.
03:53 PM BST
Second practice is at 6pm BST
We will learn a lot more about how things are going for each of the 20 drivers and 10 teams as it is run under lights at the same time of day and roughly same conditions as qualifying and the race. We will be back before that.
03:49 PM BST
Christian Horner speaking to Sky Sports F1
He highlights that Verstappen is losing 0.3-0.4sec to Lando Norris at the first couple of corners. A lot to work on at Red Bull still.
03:33 PM BST
FP1 – Classification
- GAS 1:29.239
- NOR +0.007
- LEC +0.070
- PIA +0.102
- ALB +0.367
- RUS +0.379
- SAI +0.540
- HAM +0.576
- VER +0.579
- TSU +0.582
03:32 PM BST
FP1 ends – Gasly fastest
He leads Norris and Leclerc by less than a tenth of a second, with Piastri 0.102sec away.
03:30 PM BST
FP1 – Verstappen gets a tip from his race engineer
“I can’t. I just have no balance, basically,” is his response. Albon complained a little earlier but is still doing well with the fifth fastest lap time of the day.
03:27 PM BST
FP1 – Norris gets a snap of oversteer in the high-speed
He runs off but there is no harm done, really.
03:25 PM BST
FP1 – Some soft tyre running, though
Lawson and Hadjar out on them, as is Bearman in the Haas.
Sainz has a stern disagreement with his race engineer about recharging his battery pack. It essentially ends: “Let me do what I want, I know what I am doing.”
03:20 PM BST
FP1 – 10 minutes remain
Mostly drivers out there on the medium tyres now.
03:19 PM BST
FP1 – Lawson summoned to the stewards
This is for failing to follow the race director’s notes with regards to: “entering the painted area between the pit entry and the track.”
03:17 PM BST
FP1 – Updated top six
- GAS 1:29.239
- NOR +0.007
- LEC +0.070
- PIA +0.102
- ALB +0.367
- RUS +0.379
Hamilton improves to P8, 0.576sec behind Gasly but now ahead of Verstappen by 0.003sec.
03:12 PM BST
FP1 – Hamilton watch
No great pace at the moment from Hamilton. 10th and 0.675sec slower than leader Gasly.
03:09 PM BST
FP1 – A surprise at the top of the times
Pierre Gasly goes fastest by 0.007sec for Alpine. Leclerc then slots into third, 0.070sec off Gasly. His team-mate Doohan is 0.944sec behind his team-mate.
03:08 PM BST
FP1 – Piastri improves
But it’s still slower than team-mate Norris and by 0.187sec. Russell is third for Mercedes.
03:04 PM BST
FP1 – 26 mins remain
Verstappen complains of trouble turning the car in the corners. Tsuoda on his first soft-tyre run and finishes sixth, less than a tenth of a second of his Red Bull team-mate.
03:03 PM BST
FP1 – Top 10 at just over half-way
- NOR 1:29.246
- RUS +0.372
- PIA +0.462
- LEC +0.534
- VER +0.572
- HUL +0.670
- SAI +0.673
- HAM +0.938
- TSU +0.993
- GAS +1.072
03:01 PM BST
FP1 – What has Norris got?
Piastri moved up to second but Norris beats Russell by 0.428sec. Verstappen goes fourth more than half a second down on Russell’s time.
02:57 PM BST
FP1 – Sainz the first man to go out on the soft tyres
Carlos heads back out for his second stint of FP1 on the soft tyre 🔴 pic.twitter.com/fkyk0MKAQr
— Atlassian Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) April 18, 2025
It has been a difficult season for him so far, but he is only four races into his Williams career. Qualified well last weekend in Bahrain but it kind of fell away from him in the race. Piastri also out on the soft tyres.
02:53 PM BST
FP2 – Ferrari update
Leclerc in 10th, 0.918sec off Russell. Hamilton in 12th, one second off his former team-mate.
02:49 PM BST
FP1 – Anotnelli moves seventh
He is behind George Russell who is top with a 1:29.674 by nearly nine tenths.
02:47 PM BST
FP1 – Now Piastri says he touched the wall
Nothing major but you’d rather not have done that. Everyone has now set a lap time with Gabriel Bortoleto at the bottom of the table as it stands. Plenty of laps on the board now.
02:45 PM BST
FP1 – Current Top 10
- NOR 1:29.980
- PIA +0.354
- SAI +0.356
- RUS +0.445
- TSU +0.530
- VER +0.622
- LEC +0.830
- ALO +1.150
- GAS +1.210
- ANT +1.297
02:42 PM BST
FP1 – Bearman clips the wall
He locks up at turn one and slides into the wall. Doesn’t look like it has caused any significant damage, though. It was just a nudge but he will surely be coming back to the pit lane to change his hard tyres.
📻 “I don’t know what happened there”
A sizeable lock-up, and slight brush of the wall, for Ollie Bearman! 😳#F1#SaudiArabianGPpic.twitter.com/QMYgnAxl4s
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 18, 2025
“I don’t know what happened there,” he says on the radio in his inimitable accent.
02:41 PM BST
FP1 – Hamilton runs wide
A small moment early on in the session for Lewis Hamilton 😬
But he gathers it up and continues on with his run plan 👌#F1#SaudiArabianGPpic.twitter.com/0jGOktPMP2
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 18, 2025
Meanwhile, George Russell goes fastest by 0.029sec ahead of Lando Norris. Only Ocon and Albon have yet to set a lap time.
02:39 PM BST
FP1 – Piastri with some issues
Not to do with his car, though, but he thinks his water bottle is leaking into his helmet. He was fastest but is then beating by his team-mate by a second. Very much a building up to full pace type of session this one.
02:36 PM BST
FP1 – Verstappen leads the way
A 1:31.764 ahead of Norris and Gasly.
02:33 PM BST
FP1 – Antonelli has an issue
“A massive vibration on the brake,” he says.
02:30 PM BST
GREEN LIGHT: FP1 is go
Norris, Ocon and Antonelli among the first to emerge from the pit lane.
Cars out on track! 👊
FP1 is underway in Jeddah 🟢#F1#SaudiArabianGPpic.twitter.com/GZ3KOq1Lan
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 18, 2025
02:28 PM BST
Right, we are nearly ready to get going
The calm before FP1 begins in Jeddah 💪
And it’s set to be a hot one!! 🥵#F1#SaudiArabianGPpic.twitter.com/AkSrqNWeAD
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 18, 2025
As usual, it’s an hour-long practice session. The first one will be in the daylight whilst the second later today will be under floodlights.
02:24 PM BST
Alonso and Verstappen together next year?
Would Fernando Alonso welcome Max Verstappen as his Aston Martin team-mate next season? 👀 pic.twitter.com/4WGX1ijBCp
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) April 17, 2025
02:14 PM BST
Current constructor standings
Again, I just cannot see anyone beating McLaren this season.
02:11 PM BST
News: Verstappen rejects ‘very big’ concerns over Red Bull future
Max Verstappen has played down Helmut Marko’s claim that there are “very big” concerns over his future at Red Bull.
Marko, Red Bull’s 81-year-old motorsport adviser, admitted in Bahrain last weekend that he fears the four-time world champion might walk away unless things at the team improved. The Austrian was speaking after a disappointing race in which Verstappen – who is under contract until 2028 – finished a distant sixth and afterwards complained that “everything that could go wrong did go wrong”.
The 27-year-old was not just unhappy with his car, but also his pit stops, which were uncharacteristically poor from the normally slick Red Bull team.
Read more on the story from Tom Cary here.
02:09 PM BST
Current driver standings
Norris in danger of losing his championship lead if he carries on this weekend as he performed last weekend.
02:05 PM BST
Session timings for this weekend
Friday April 18
FP1 – 2.30pm BST
FP2 – 6pm
Saturday April 19
FP3 – 2.30pm
Qualifying – 6pm
Sunday April 20
Race – 6pm
02:00 PM BST
Good afternoon
Welcome to our coverage for first practice for the 2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, from the Jeddah Corniche Circuit. This will be the fifth race of the current season and the end of a triple-header that began with Japan and continued with Bahrain last week. This is the fifth edition of the race, with Lewis Hamilton winning the first edition in 2022 and Red Bull (through Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez) winning the next three between them.
A Red Bull win would certainly be something this weekend given their continued struggles in 2025. After victory at Suzuka a couple of weeks ago Bahrain was as bad as it has been over the past year or so. Verstappen qualified seventh and finished sixth, overtaking Pierre Gasly on the final lap. The tensions at Red Bull over the quality of the RB21 and the direction they are heading in generally are clear to see. Max Verstappen is third in the driver’s standings and is getting the best from a problematic car but any serious championship attempt looks a long way off here.
Ahead of him in the championship are the two McLarens, now just separated by three points after Oscar Piastri won in Bahrain, his second grand prix win of the year. Lando Norris battled back from sixth on the grid but only as far as third. It was a frustrating weekend that meant he surrendered more ground to his team-mate. Piastri now looks like the more likely of the two drivers to win the title, but there is such a long way to go.
Elsewhere, Ferrari had a fairly positive weekend all things considered. Charles Leclerc qualified third and then moved up onto the front row but dropped back to fourth by the end of the race. Lewis Hamilton had a distant qualifying in ninth but clawed his way back to fifth a the chequered flag, his best grand prix result of the season.
What will we see in Jeddah this weekend? Well, it is a configuration of track that is unusual and certainly different to what we have raced on so far. Clearly, the smart money will be on McLaren again but it will be another data point by which to see where we stand after the first five fifth of the 2025 season.
First practice starts at 2.30pm BST with second practice at 6pm and we will be here for all of the action.
- Second F1 practice for Saudi Arabia Grand Prix at 6pm BST
Pierre Gasly was the fastest man in first practice for this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The Alpine driver clocked a time of 1min29.239sec, which was just 0.007sec quicker than championship leader Lando Norris.
Charles Leclerc was third for Ferrari whilst Oscar Piastri, who won last weekend in Bahrain, was fourth. They were 0.070sec and 0.102sec slower than Gasly’s time respectively.
Alexander Albon and Carlis Sainz were fifth and seventh for Williams, with the Mercedes of George Russell between them.
Max Verstappen, who has won twice in Jeddah in the last three seasons, was down in ninth, 0.579sec off the pace. Lewis Hamilton was eighth for Ferrari, just 0.003sec faster than Verstappen.
03:53 PM BST
Second practice is at 6pm BST
We will learn a lot more about how things are going for each of the 20 drivers and 10 teams as it is run under lights at the same time of day and roughly same conditions as qualifying and the race. We will be back before that.
03:49 PM BST
Christian Horner speaking to Sky Sports F1
He highlights that Verstappen is losing 0.3-0.4sec to Lando Norris at the first couple of corners. A lot to work on at Red Bull still.
03:33 PM BST
FP1 – Classification
- GAS 1:29.239
- NOR +0.007
- LEC +0.070
- PIA +0.102
- ALB +0.367
- RUS +0.379
- SAI +0.540
- HAM +0.576
- VER +0.579
- TSU +0.582
03:32 PM BST
FP1 ends – Gasly fastest
He leads Norris and Leclerc by less than a tenth of a second, with Piastri 0.102sec away.
03:30 PM BST
FP1 – Verstappen gets a tip from his race engineer
“I can’t. I just have no balance, basically,” is his response. Albon complained a little earlier but is still doing well with the fifth fastest lap time of the day.
03:27 PM BST
FP1 – Norris gets a snap of oversteer in the high-speed
He runs off but there is no harm done, really.
03:25 PM BST
FP1 – Some soft tyre running, though
Lawson and Hadjar out on them, as is Bearman in the Haas.
Sainz has a stern disagreement with his race engineer about recharging his battery pack. It essentially ends: “Let me do what I want, I know what I am doing.”
03:20 PM BST
FP1 – 10 minutes remain
Mostly drivers out there on the medium tyres now.
03:19 PM BST
FP1 – Lawson summoned to the stewards
This is for failing to follow the race director’s notes with regards to: “entering the painted area between the pit entry and the track.”
03:17 PM BST
FP1 – Updated top six
- GAS 1:29.239
- NOR +0.007
- LEC +0.070
- PIA +0.102
- ALB +0.367
- RUS +0.379
Hamilton improves to P8, 0.576sec behind Gasly but now ahead of Verstappen by 0.003sec.
03:12 PM BST
FP1 – Hamilton watch
No great pace at the moment from Hamilton. 10th and 0.675sec slower than leader Gasly.
03:09 PM BST
FP1 – A surprise at the top of the times
Pierre Gasly goes fastest by 0.007sec for Alpine. Leclerc then slots into third, 0.070sec off Gasly. His team-mate Doohan is 0.944sec behind his team-mate.
03:08 PM BST
FP1 – Piastri improves
But it’s still slower than team-mate Norris and by 0.187sec. Russell is third for Mercedes.
03:04 PM BST
FP1 – 26 mins remain
Verstappen complains of trouble turning the car in the corners. Tsuoda on his first soft-tyre run and finishes sixth, less than a tenth of a second of his Red Bull team-mate.
03:03 PM BST
FP1 – Top 10 at just over half-way
- NOR 1:29.246
- RUS +0.372
- PIA +0.462
- LEC +0.534
- VER +0.572
- HUL +0.670
- SAI +0.673
- HAM +0.938
- TSU +0.993
- GAS +1.072
03:01 PM BST
FP1 – What has Norris got?
Piastri moved up to second but Norris beats Russell by 0.428sec. Verstappen goes fourth more than half a second down on Russell’s time.
02:57 PM BST
FP1 – Sainz the first man to go out on the soft tyres
Carlos heads back out for his second stint of FP1 on the soft tyre 🔴 pic.twitter.com/fkyk0MKAQr
— Atlassian Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) April 18, 2025
It has been a difficult season for him so far, but he is only four races into his Williams career. Qualified well last weekend in Bahrain but it kind of fell away from him in the race. Piastri also out on the soft tyres.
02:53 PM BST
FP2 – Ferrari update
Leclerc in 10th, 0.918sec off Russell. Hamilton in 12th, one second off his former team-mate.
02:49 PM BST
FP1 – Anotnelli moves seventh
He is behind George Russell who is top with a 1:29.674 by nearly nine tenths.
02:47 PM BST
FP1 – Now Piastri says he touched the wall
Nothing major but you’d rather not have done that. Everyone has now set a lap time with Gabriel Bortoleto at the bottom of the table as it stands. Plenty of laps on the board now.
02:45 PM BST
FP1 – Current Top 10
- NOR 1:29.980
- PIA +0.354
- SAI +0.356
- RUS +0.445
- TSU +0.530
- VER +0.622
- LEC +0.830
- ALO +1.150
- GAS +1.210
- ANT +1.297
02:42 PM BST
FP1 – Bearman clips the wall
He locks up at turn one and slides into the wall. Doesn’t look like it has caused any significant damage, though. It was just a nudge but he will surely be coming back to the pit lane to change his hard tyres.
📻 “I don’t know what happened there”
A sizeable lock-up, and slight brush of the wall, for Ollie Bearman! 😳#F1#SaudiArabianGPpic.twitter.com/QMYgnAxl4s
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 18, 2025
“I don’t know what happened there,” he says on the radio in his inimitable accent.
02:41 PM BST
FP1 – Hamilton runs wide
A small moment early on in the session for Lewis Hamilton 😬
But he gathers it up and continues on with his run plan 👌#F1#SaudiArabianGPpic.twitter.com/0jGOktPMP2
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 18, 2025
Meanwhile, George Russell goes fastest by 0.029sec ahead of Lando Norris. Only Ocon and Albon have yet to set a lap time.
02:39 PM BST
FP1 – Piastri with some issues
Not to do with his car, though, but he thinks his water bottle is leaking into his helmet. He was fastest but is then beating by his team-mate by a second. Very much a building up to full pace type of session this one.
02:36 PM BST
FP1 – Verstappen leads the way
A 1:31.764 ahead of Norris and Gasly.
02:33 PM BST
FP1 – Antonelli has an issue
“A massive vibration on the brake,” he says.
02:30 PM BST
GREEN LIGHT: FP1 is go
Norris, Ocon and Antonelli among the first to emerge from the pit lane.
Cars out on track! 👊
FP1 is underway in Jeddah 🟢#F1#SaudiArabianGPpic.twitter.com/GZ3KOq1Lan
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 18, 2025
02:28 PM BST
Right, we are nearly ready to get going
The calm before FP1 begins in Jeddah 💪
And it’s set to be a hot one!! 🥵#F1#SaudiArabianGPpic.twitter.com/AkSrqNWeAD
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 18, 2025
As usual, it’s an hour-long practice session. The first one will be in the daylight whilst the second later today will be under floodlights.
02:24 PM BST
Alonso and Verstappen together next year?
Would Fernando Alonso welcome Max Verstappen as his Aston Martin team-mate next season? 👀 pic.twitter.com/4WGX1ijBCp
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) April 17, 2025
02:14 PM BST
Current constructor standings
Again, I just cannot see anyone beating McLaren this season.
02:11 PM BST
News: Verstappen rejects ‘very big’ concerns over Red Bull future
Max Verstappen has played down Helmut Marko’s claim that there are “very big” concerns over his future at Red Bull.
Marko, Red Bull’s 81-year-old motorsport adviser, admitted in Bahrain last weekend that he fears the four-time world champion might walk away unless things at the team improved. The Austrian was speaking after a disappointing race in which Verstappen – who is under contract until 2028 – finished a distant sixth and afterwards complained that “everything that could go wrong did go wrong”.
The 27-year-old was not just unhappy with his car, but also his pit stops, which were uncharacteristically poor from the normally slick Red Bull team.
Read more on the story from Tom Cary here.
02:09 PM BST
Current driver standings
Norris in danger of losing his championship lead if he carries on this weekend as he performed last weekend.
02:05 PM BST
Session timings for this weekend
Friday April 18
FP1 – 2.30pm BST
FP2 – 6pm
Saturday April 19
FP3 – 2.30pm
Qualifying – 6pm
Sunday April 20
Race – 6pm
02:00 PM BST
Good afternoon
Welcome to our coverage for first practice for the 2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, from the Jeddah Corniche Circuit. This will be the fifth race of the current season and the end of a triple-header that began with Japan and continued with Bahrain last week. This is the fifth edition of the race, with Lewis Hamilton winning the first edition in 2022 and Red Bull (through Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez) winning the next three between them.
A Red Bull win would certainly be something this weekend given their continued struggles in 2025. After victory at Suzuka a couple of weeks ago Bahrain was as bad as it has been over the past year or so. Verstappen qualified seventh and finished sixth, overtaking Pierre Gasly on the final lap. The tensions at Red Bull over the quality of the RB21 and the direction they are heading in generally are clear to see. Max Verstappen is third in the driver’s standings and is getting the best from a problematic car but any serious championship attempt looks a long way off here.
Ahead of him in the championship are the two McLarens, now just separated by three points after Oscar Piastri won in Bahrain, his second grand prix win of the year. Lando Norris battled back from sixth on the grid but only as far as third. It was a frustrating weekend that meant he surrendered more ground to his team-mate. Piastri now looks like the more likely of the two drivers to win the title, but there is such a long way to go.
Elsewhere, Ferrari had a fairly positive weekend all things considered. Charles Leclerc qualified third and then moved up onto the front row but dropped back to fourth by the end of the race. Lewis Hamilton had a distant qualifying in ninth but clawed his way back to fifth a the chequered flag, his best grand prix result of the season.
What will we see in Jeddah this weekend? Well, it is a configuration of track that is unusual and certainly different to what we have raced on so far. Clearly, the smart money will be on McLaren again but it will be another data point by which to see where we stand after the first five fifth of the 2025 season.
First practice starts at 2.30pm BST with second practice at 6pm and we will be here for all of the action.
