Saudi Arabia Grand Prix – Free Practice 3: Verstappen in a league of his own

These are the two Aston Martins that were the first cars to go on track for this final free practice session in Jeddah. Lawrence Stroll’s green cars had a superb Friday during which they asserted themselves as the second-best force on the grid, behind the two Red Bulls. However, it was a more complicated start to Saturday for Nyck de Vries. The AlphaTauri driver couldn’t participate in this third free practice session due to a faulty engine block. A detrimental one-hour training handicap for the Dutchman who, despite all his experience in motorsport, had never driven between the narrow walls of Jeddah before this week.

After 20 minutes of the session, Red Bull confirmed their status as the top favorite in Saudi Arabia with Perez and Verstappen dominating the top of the leaderboard. With soft tires, the Mexican driver recorded a 1’29’417. Having already shown the best race pace during the second free practice session, Perez would also like to start the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in pole position for the second consecutive year. Faced with an imperial Max Verstappen, the best chance for the Guadalajara native to beat his garage mate is certainly on a street circuit. In 2022, Sergio Perez finished on the podium on 3 out of 4 urban tracks, including two wins in Monaco and Singapore.

The Red Bulls were followed by the two Alpines with Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon respectively in 3rd and 4th position at the halfway point of the session. After a disappointing Bahrain Grand Prix for the French team, symbolized by the nightmare experienced by Esteban Ocon, the pink panthers have the ambition to raise the bar in Jeddah. While Gasly was only three tenths off Perez’s time, the car seemed more difficult to handle for Esteban Ocon, who almost lost control of it on the kerb of the 10th corner. The Norman driver is not the first to be caught out by that kerb. Last season, Mick Schumacher lost his car at very high speed on the same corner. It resulted in a spectacular accident, but fortunately the German driver emerged unharmed.

With 15 minutes remaining, all the drivers were taking to the track to give it their all before the qualifying session. The risk on an urban circuit was to push too hard during Free Practice 3 and end up hitting a wall, which would prevent them from participating in the qualifying session. The drivers had to accurately judge their effort in order to feel as prepared as possible without taking any unnecessary risks. The one driving fearlessly was none other than Max Verstappen, who displayed an Olympic form on this track. With 10 minutes remaining, the reigning world champion had reclaimed the fastest time of the session with a 1’28’660. The Dutchman was thus almost 5 tenths ahead of his teammate.

If the main lesson from this third free practice session is Red Bull’s undisputed domination, the rest of the field is extremely tight. There are only 3 tenths of a second separating the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso in 3rd position and the Mercedes of George Russell in 11th position.

The ranking of Free Practice 3