Saudi Arabia – EL3: Verstappen triples the stake

We don't stop anymore Max Verstappen ! As in FP1 and FP2 on Friday, the Dutch driver raised his name to the top of the timesheet this Saturday during Free Practice 3 of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The Dutchman beat his teammate Checo Pérez, highlighting the incredible superiority of Red Bull, since Fernando Alonso, 3rd, points at one second! 

Both Aston Martin still seem to be Red Bull's main threat since Lance stroll ranks 4th, just ahead Lewis Hamilton 5th. In difficulty in Bahrain, McLaren placed both of its drivers in the top 10 with Lando Norris et Oscar piastri, the two men are in 7th and 8th places in the same tenth. 

After playing hide and seek the entire session, Ferrari ended up putting on soft tires at the end of the session to try to tickle the clock, but Charles Leclerc could not do better than 6th, more than a second behind the time set by Verstappen. Ferrari seems to have played with engine power again, presumably not delivering all the horsepower. But the times are hardly reassuring. 

Alpine in shape

Also note the pretty shape of the two Alpine. At the start of the session, Pierre Gasly et Esteban Ocon indeed set the tone by establishing the first real benchmark of the session. The former Red Bull driver also seems to be the most energetic on this Jeddah track, since he was ahead of his compatriot throughout the session, evolving for the entire first half hour at a respectable distance from the Red Bulls, to finally finish 9th. Esteban Ocon ranks 14th. 

The two French drivers in fact monopolized the 3rd and 4th positions for thirty minutes, simply beaten by the two Red Bulls. But against Max Verstappen, there was not much to do. The Batavian, despite wearing hard tires throughout the first part of the session, even managed to get ahead of Checo Pérez on softs, before driving the point home by switching to red tires in turn and sticking more than 6/10th to his teammate.

For its part, Nyck de Vries was not even able to take part in the session due to a problem noted on his car just before the lights turn green. Alpha Tauri has in fact communicated to explain that a change in the power unit was necessary on the Dutchman's single-seater and that consequently, the world champion of Formula E 2021 could not take part in EL3.