Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Practice Driver Quotes from Jeddah

Under floodlights, the ten F1 teams took to the high-speed streets with varying degrees of success, suggesting it may be closer at the top, namely the gap to the Red Bulls than it was in Bahrain. But only Q3 will show the true picture in Friday's Qualifying.

However, there were hints of showboating from some teams and sandbagging from others, on the night when Fernando Alonso topped the timing screens at the end of FP2 for Aston Martin. Here is what drivers had to say at the end of Thursday in Jeddah:

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin: "It's always a lot of fun to drive here. It's such a high-speed circuit and a great challenge. We had a positive day. We've shown good pace in both sessions and on different tyres, but it's only Free Practice and there are a lot of unknowns in terms of the programmes the other teams were running today. We'll look into the data tonight and aim to build on what's been a solid start to the weekend as we move towards Qualifying."

Lance Stroll, Aston Martin: "I felt good in the car today. It's always nice to be the fastest in any session, but it's only Free Practice so we will keep our feet on the ground and stay focused on ourselves. We don't know what the others have been doing in terms of engine modes and fuel loads, so we shouldn't read into the times too much, but it's still been a positive day. We've had no issues with the car, completed our programme, and continued to hone the setup of the AMR24 to extract more performance."

George Russell, Mercedes: "It was fun to be back on the track here in Jeddah. It's a really high-speed circuit so that's enjoyable. We didn't have the car in the perfect window and FP2 was a little bit of a scrappy session. The times looked good on the single lap, and we're not too sure yet where we're at on the long runs. We did a lot of testing in FP1 with different set-ups across the cars. We then made some changes for FP2 to try and learn more about the W15. It's still very early days; it's only the second race of the season and the second circuit we've ran at in anger. We need to keep on building on our learnings and everyone will be hard at work overnight to eke out more performance. It's so close once again so let's see what we can do tomorrow."

Lewis Hamilton: "It was a difficult day. I was lacking a little confidence in the rear of the car. We did some work on the set-up from session-to-session and changed the car quite a bit. The main issue I was struggling with in both FP1 and FP2 was still the rear though. I had a few big moments out there and on such a high-speed track like this, you need to have full confidence in that. I haven't quite got that yet. We'll go through the data tonight to see how we can improve. George was clearly in a happier place with the car today. We went in slightly different directions so hopefully, we can learn from that and find the right solutions."

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari: "The track had good grip to start with and we can expect quite a lot of Jeddah track evolution throughout the day tomorrow. All in all, everyone is really close in times so it will be tight and interesting to see who extracts the maximum from their car and comes out on top."

Carlos Sainz, Ferrari: "It has been a very difficult day for me as I haven’t fully recovered from the sickness that has kept me in bed for the last 24 hours and I still feel very weak. Anyway, I made it to the track and managed to maximise the time with the car and the team. This track has a lot of grip and the high speed corners makes it very demanding for cars and drivers. Even though I couldn’t push to the limit today, at least we completed the programme and hopefully tomorrow I will be fully recovered and we can focus on qualifying and the race."

Lando Norris, Mclaren: “A reasonable day in Jeddah. A bit of a better feeling than we had in Bahrain. There were certain corners where we’re struggling to get the balance in the right window. There’s a few bits we need to improve but, on the whole, I think it was a pretty decent day. Some work to do but still a good start to the weekend.”

Oscar Piastri, Mclaren: “An up and down first day, I would say. There’s been good moments where we’ve looked quite quick, other moments not so much. It’s a little bit difficult to tell where exactly we are but I think we’re somewhat in the mix again, which is positive. We have some fine tuning to do for tomorrow, but I think we look ok.”

Esteban Ocon, Alpine: “It’s been an interesting day here in Jeddah and I’m happy to be back driving at this exciting circuit. We had two solid sessions, lots of laps completed both on low and high fuel, so lots of data collected and learnings to take forward. We have some work to do to improve the car and better the set-up as best as we can for tomorrow. There are a few things at this stage that we must work on but it’s been an encouraging day. We will see what we can do in Qualifying tomorrow night.”

Pierre Gasly, Alpine: “It’s great to be back in Jeddah. It’s such a different style to Bahrain with the high-speed sequences. Looking at the pace, we seem to be slightly more competitive than last week, but it is only the beginning of the weekend and there’s a long way to go. The feeling inside the car is still challenging, there are some limitations, but, equally, there are positives for us to take forward. I’m staying calm. We have a good base to work from and there’s certainly more things we can do to extract more performance from the current package here. I’m looking forward to tomorrow when it counts.”

Valtteri Bottas, Sauber: “It’s good to be back on this track – it’s always a fun layout to drive on, and completely different from what we had in Bahrain last week. The car felt rather good in FP1, I was feeling comfortable on track right from the start. We experimented a bit more for the second practice session, testing different setup configurations, and some of them didn’t go in the right direction. Still, as a positive, we learned which way not to go, and the data gathered today will be useful as we work through it overnight with a view to qualifying.”

Zhou Guanyu, Sauber: “I had a good feeling in the car today, and we managed to go through our whole intended program to collect the data we needed. This track is always quite enjoyable and unique: I believe its layout should suit us better than Bahrain, to still be in the battle for the points. As a team, we’re definitely making steps forward, and I hope we can achieve similar results as in Bahrain, if not better. While challenging the top five teams is difficult, our main competitors are undoubtedly the teams around us, and we’ll be fighting against them for points this weekend. Tonight, we’ll continue fine-tuning the car and its setup to be ready for an exciting qualifying tomorrow.”

Nico Hulkenberg, Haas: “It’s very different to Bahrain – a different circuit, different sensation and feeling, but ultimately it’s still very quick here. I think from a running perspective it was fine, a day with no problems so that was good. The feeling in the car isn’t amazing, there’s room for improvement – especially over one lap – although I think we’re really close together in the midfield. Small things can make a big difference. It’s the normal learning process on the first day where we learn things and hopefully can put it all together tomorrow. Right now, I think it looks more challenging than seven days ago but you never know, there are very small margins.”

Kevin Magnussen, Haas: “I think we had a decent day in Jeddah– nothing spectacular on pace – but again the car seems okay on long runs, more so than low-fuel. We need to pick up the pace a little bit there, so hopefully we can do that but it’s very tight, so even finding two-tenths and you’re close to the top 10. It’s so close, I think we could get close to the top 10 with an amazing lap and we hook up the balance in the car. We want to get a decent qualifying position, but the race is the important one so that’s still what we’re focusing on. It’s all to play for tomorrow.”

Alex Albon, Williams: The car felt good and from the moment we hit the track, it’s been in a good place. FP2, we made some changes and most of them worked, with only a couple of exceptions, so we’ll work to find a sweet spot for tomorrow. The race runs look sensible, so I’m pretty optimistic. We’ve got a good car and like always, it’s going to be close but I’m enjoying it out there, it’s a fun circuit. We’re going to aim for the top of the midfield and hope to take advantage of any opportunities we can.

Logan Sargeant, Williams: It’s been a good day for the team, and I think we’re definitely moving in the right direction. The circuit here in Jeddah is hugely different to Bahrain, so it’s like re-learning the car to an extent, but it’s been great since we put it on the ground this morning. We’ve made some small changes to get the car closer to the perfect window, and I’ve been building up each session and feeling more comfortable with every lap. Looking forward to FP3 and Qualifying tomorrow!