Formula 1 News: Alonso tops 2nd Saudi Arabian GP practice

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso turned a qualifying simulation lap of 1m28.827s to top the 2nd practice session for the 2024 Saudi Arabian GP

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Mercedes’ ace George Russell was 2nd fastest, 0.230s behind on the very fast Jeddah street circuit.

Bahrain GP winner Max Verstappen, who led Practice 1, was third fastest in his Red Bull Honda, 0.331s behind, but it was felt his engine was not turned up.

Charles Leclerc was 4th for Ferrari, 0.353s behind the Spaniard while Sergio Perez rounded out the top-5 in the 2nd Red Bull Honda.

After everyone did their qualifying sim runs, the focus was on race setup and longer runs where Verstappen was mighty.

The checkered flag waved, and most of the field slowed down to do practice starts.

After the session, Mercedes was fined 15,000 euros and Lewis Hamilton given a warning after a near-miss with Logan Sargeant’s Williams.

Hamilton had backed off after completing his first flying lap of the session and attempted to allow Carlos Sainz Jr. behind him to overtake him. Hamilton slowed through the blind fast sequence of turns ten, 11, 12 at the end of the first sector as Sargeant approached behind them at full-speed.

Sargeant had to jink-right at 200mph and take evasive action to the outside of turn 11 over the outside curb to avoid colliding with Hamilton.

Sainz, who observed the incident in front of him, reported the incident to Ferrari over team radio. “What Hamilton did there was super-dangerous,” he said.

After speaking to both drivers and teams, the stewards determined Hamilton impeded Sargeant and forced the Williams driver to take evasive action over the chicane curbing.

“Had that not been done,” the stewards said, “there would have been a serious, high-speed crash.”

2024 Saudi Arabian GP Practice 2 Results

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