Saudi Arabia '25: FP2 Recap

The evening start in Saudi Arabia should’ve meant a cooler experience for the drivers, but the area still experienced humidity and high temperatures. Before any on-track action began, multiple drivers had issues coming out of their garages. This included Nico Hulkenberg, who was congratulated and given a thumbs up by Oscar Piastri: “The Sauber did a great job there”. Hulkenberg was rescued back onto the pitlane exit by his team, which was also necessary when Carlos Sainz pulled the same move later on in the session. 

Between FP1 and the beginning of FP2, a fuel leak was discovered in Gabriel Bortoleto’s car. He did not participate in the 2nd practice session, but will hopefully re-join the weekend in FP3 after some repairs. 

In the runoff area between turns 2 and 3, a yellow flag was caused by Lance Stroll. The Aston Martin driver experienced rear locking and a harsh spin that sent him off the track. More sector 1 problems came with turn 1, which was a repetitive obstacle for most. The troublesome, high speed corner caused lock ups and lack of control for many of the drivers.

Piastri was 0.001 behind his teammate within 10 minutes of the practice session, but the Ferraris reminded them they could be a serious disruptor this weekend. Leclerc quickly proved his increasing comfortability with the car and its new updates, by beating both the McLarens at the 42 minute mark. 

Liam Lawson was first out on the soft tyres to claim the P4 spot, but it wasn’t long before Carlos Sainz and George Russell changed their compounds to go 1st and 2nd fastest respectively. Even with high speed bouncing concerns from Russell, the Mercedes driver continued to create opportunities to gain time. Max Verstappen came into the pits for a front suspension adjustment, which worked wonders and allowed him to set a fastest lap of 1.28.547, beating Russell and Sainz. 

Russell continued back to the garage for some alterations to his front suspension (likely to help ease the bouncing he was experiencing). With 10 minutes of FP2 to go, his old teammate Lewis Hamilton still seemed to be struggling with the Ferrari setup down in 13th. The other Ferrari driver, Charles Leclerc, was up in 4th. What did Hamilton’s team do so differently for that sprint in Shanghai? Or, more bluntly, what are they doing wrong now? 

Hadjar, Antonelli, and Albon all had moments with the wall, and Jack Doohan said a warm hello to the curb of turn 9 (giving his floor a beating). But it was Yuki Tsunoda who bore the most damage. A big shunt and crash for the Japanese driver occurred when he clipped the wall, sending him into the barrier on the other side of the track. A red flag period was triggered, as the RB21’s front wing and side bodywork was littered around the crash site. Luckily Tsunoda was okay and was escorted back to his team by the medical car, whilst the track was cleared. The red flag only left FP2 with just under 1 minute left when the session finally resumed, and cars returned to the grid to utilise their time with practice starts. Isack Hadjar was the only one who stayed behind, to have checks and adjustments done to the back of his car.  

The McLaren duo of Piastri and Norris topped the timings as expected, with Verstappen about half a second behind them. FP3 will hopefully give us an insight into any qualifying predictions, but one thing’s for sure: papaya should stay on top.

Photo credits: "Fale F1 Monza 2004 73" by Fabio Alessandro Locati is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.