Official F1 Journal Formula 1 Friday Round Up- Saudi Arabia Practice 3 & Qualifying

The big news before todays session was the replacement of Carlos Sainz with Formula 2's Olli Bearman, with the Spaniard having to miss this weekend with Appendicitis. Touche to Sainz for managing to do yesterday's 2 Practice sessions feeling as unwell as he really was. But its a huge opportunity for Olli Bearman who has been in the Ferrari Academy for some years now and will become the first driver to make his debut in a Ferrari since 1972. Olli put his Prema Formula 2 car on Pole yesterday here so has a good idea of the track but its a steep learning curve for the young Brit to learn the car and team procedure in time for Qualifying later today 

Practice 3 

Bottas was the first man out on track followed by Olli Bearman who has 2 hours less practice than all the other drivers to get to grips with the Ferrari F1 car at the rapid Jeddah Corniche Circuit. For the rest of the grid it was a slow stream of cars coming out  as time ticked down on the clock, Hamilton went out on the soft tyre early but with 50 minutes of the session to go it was only Hamilton, Bearman and the 2 Sauber's cars out on track. Despite Bearman being very new to the car he was already half a second up on Bottas (also on the medium tyres) after just a few laps with Russell's first soft tyre run being slower than the rookie and Hamilton's only 0.024 faster. 
40 minutes to go Russell went fastest on the softs with Leclerc 2nd on the mediums and we started to see other cars join the track only the Aston Martins, Verstappen & Norris choosing to wait in the pits. 

Verstappen set his 1st lap on the soft tyres going 3rd but could not beat his team mates fastest effort so far, Leclerc on the Mediums went fastest of all on the Mediums. 
32 minutes to go and Bearman was going well in the Ferrari and began some long running race simulations that will help him maximize his opportunity in the Grand Prix.
Verstappen was setting purple sectors on his soft tyres topping the times with a 1.28.893, while Alonso set his first flying lap of the session with 29 minutes to go. Norris on his softs went 4th fastest but he and Russell in 5th were still just under a second off Verstappen's time. Magnussen popped into the top 3 in his HAAS with a great soft tyre run and Logan Sargeant hit the wall at turn 22 breaking his left steering arm and returning him to the pits.

26 minutes on the clock Norris was purple in sector 1 but after bailed on the lap before crossing the timing line, showing real speed in the Mclaren. In 2nd practice Oscar Piastri did the same thing in his Mclaren, setting purple sectors in the 1st and 2nd sectors but bailing on the lap before completing it. The Mclaren's were hiding their speed for Qualifying. Stroll got in the way of Gasly on a flying lap which didn't impress the  Frenchman but brought no further action from the Aston Martin driver. n
 Red flags came out with 16 minutes on the clock for Zhou, who had a snap going through turn 7, lost the rear at close to 170mph, it went around on him sending the car spinning through turn 8 and into the wall side ways HARD. As the clock continued to tick down under Red flag conditions Verstappen was top of the times, Leclerc 2nd fastest, Alonso was 3rd Magnussen 4th. Perez & Russell were 5th & 6th, Albon was a respectable 7th followed by Norris, Hulkenberg & Piastri completing the top 10. Bearman was 14th fastest holding his own with the F1 boys out on track

6 minutes on the clock and the Red flag ended and 9 of the 11 drivers including Bearman have not run the soft tyres ahead of qualifying and with 3 1/2 minutes left of the session all the cars were queueing out of the pits to try and get a fast lap in but when the first car to start a lap(Magnussen) crossed the line he was met with slow moving traffic out of the pits to try and contend with. All the cars made it to the line in time to get at least 1 flying lap in before the session ended. Bearman put in a top lap looking mega fast in his newly acquired Ferrari, he made a mistake late in the lap meaning due to track limits he lost the time but he finished a strong 10th fastest within a second of Verstappen's, looking really comfortable ahead of Qualifying. Norris went 5th, Max didn't improve on his best time. 

Practice 3 Result 

1 VER 1'28.412     2 LEC + 0.196
3 PER +0.494        4 RUS +0.552
5 NOR +0.559       6 ALO +0.626
7 STR +0.715        8 PIA + 0.801
9 HAM +0.856      10 BEA +0.894
11 MAG +1.073    12 GAS +1.134
13 TSU +1.160     14 OCO +1.163
15 HUL +1.263     16 RIC +1.328
17 ALB +1.396      18 BOT +1.671
​19 ZHO +2.327     20 SAR DNF

Qualifying 

Q1

Lots of cars straight out(all on Soft tyres) trying to get a banker lap in, so they don't get caught out by any yellow or red flags. Zhou's car was still being worked on as the other cars started their first flying laps. Alonso & Stroll went 1st & 2nd ahead of Hulkenberg Piastri & Norris, Bearman's first lap wasn't enough so he went for another on the same tyres while the Sister Ferrari went 2nd fastest. 11 minutes to go Verstappen & Perez joined the track for the first time. 
9 to go Piastri & Norris went top finally showing the Mclaren pace & Bearman put in a great lap to go 4th fastest. Till Verstappen, Leclerc, Alonso and Perez all went faster, leaving Bearman in 8th. The 2 Mercedes drivers tried to get through on the medium tyres but just couldn't put the lap together so returned to the pits for softs. 
The Mclaren's set their 2nd laps on used tyres to try and save a set of new soft tyres for Q3

​2 minutes on the clock Bearman did a fast pitstop to get back out and set another lap, while all 20 cars were on track with Zhou getting out of the garage just in time to set a lap after his crash in P3. Tsunoda, Gasly, Sargeant, Ocon and Zhou were in the drop zone as they all pumped in their final times of Q1 

Sargeant bailed on his lap after he didn't improve, with Leclerc doing the same but well safe, Ricciardo went hard over the kerbs giving everything to make it through, only managing 12th and safe as Stroll went fastest of all, Ocon & Gasly couldn't get out of the bottom 5 continuing their tough start to 2024, Zhou didn't manage to set a time so will start last and Bottas missed out on Q2 by going just 0.072 slower than Albon in 15th. 

Q1 Result 

1 VER 1'28.171    2 STR +0.079
3 LEC + 0.147      4 PER +0.467
5 ALO +0.535       6 RUS +0.578
7 PIA +0.584        8 NOR +0.634
9 BEA +0.813      10 TSU +0.817
11 HAM +0.823    12 HUL +0.884
13 RIC +0.894      14 MAG +0.898
15 ALB +0.936 
KNOCKOUT TIME- 1'27.107
16 BOT +0.072  17 OCO +0.368 
18 GAS +0.372  ​19 SAR +0.419
 20 ZHO no time 

Q2

Most of the cars went straight out just the Redbull's, Aston Martins and the RB's waiting to do their runs, which was clever, as while Russell was setting the fastest lap of Q2 so far,  Hulkenberg's HAAS had engine problems before he had to pull over and turn the car off meaning his it needed to be recovered under Red flag conditions. Russell was fastest with Norris 2nd, Hamilton 3rd and Piastri 4th & Magnussen 5th no others cars had managed to set a time. 

10 minutes on the clock and running resumed putting pressure on the 15 cars with no time so far in the session, we saw all the cars come straight out except the 2 Mclaren's who waited to set their times.
Bearman went deep into turn 5 and bailed on his lap to save the tyres for a 2nd try. Perez went fastest with 7 minutes on the clock, beaten quickly by his team mate Vertsappen by almost half a second. Leclerc and Alonso also beat Sergio's time going 2nd & 3rd putting the Mexican driver 4th. Piastri was on the edge of the drop zone when he set his next lap but was well safe as he crossed the finish line to go 4th fastest putting Hamilton onto the cusp of 10th. Norris also improved going just faster than team mate Piastri. 

Bearman again made a small mistake on his next lap leaving him 11th fastest with 1 more laps to get through to Q3 on his 1st time of trying. 
As the clock counted down to 1 minute the whole field was getting ready to set their fastest laps of Qualifying all trying to Knock Verstappen off the top spot, Piastri beat his team mates time but didn't improve any more going 4th fastest, Russell could only manage 5th, Perez went 6th, Stroll 9th and as Bearman completed his last lap the whole F1 world held their breath and were collectively gutted for Bearman as he misses out on Q3 by just 0.036 of a second. A top effort by the driver who just 8 hours earlier had no clue he would be driving an F1 car instead of Formula 2.

Q2 Result 

1 VER 1'28.033
2LEC +0.079
3 ALO +0.089
4 PIA +0.310
5 RUS +0.415
6 PER + 0.434
7 NOR +0.446
8 TSU +0.531
9 STR +0.545
10HAM +0.573
Knock Out Time- 1.28.606 
​11 BEA +0.036
12ALB +0.374
13 MAG +0.414
14 RIC +0.419
15 HUL no time

Q3

Everyone was straight out onto the track for the final part of Qualifying, 1st laps started coming thick and fast with Verstappen & Perez topping the times followed by Alonso, Russell and the 2 mclaren's. Leclerc set his fastest time out of sink but could only manage 4th fastest. Russell and Norris set their times on used rubber meaning there is more time to find on fresh tyres. 

There was 4 minutes on the clock when the cars returned to the track for the final runs of Qualifying. Leclerc wasn't loving his car on new tyres complaining it 'felt funny'. Hamilton lead team mate Russell round to set the 1st of the final times, but Hamilton was 6 tenths down on Verstappen and Russell bailed after a mistake, Norris set a solid 1st sector followed by his team mate Piastri. 

Hamilton towed Alonso down the start finish straight as he crossed the line to go 7th fastest, Norris went 4th and Piastri went faster again knocking Norris out of 4th place and down to 5th. Perez set a mega lap to go 2nd fastest leaving only Leclerc and Alonso able to topple Max from Pole but it wasn't to be and Leclerc could only go 2nd and Alonso 4th, Handing Pole to Max for the 2nd week in a row. ​

Qualifying Result 

1 VER 1'27.472
2  LEC +0.319
3 PER +0.335
4 ALO +0.374
5 PIA  +0.617
6 NOR +0.660
7 RUS +0.844
8 HAM +0.988
9 TSU  +1.075
10 STR +1.100

Joanna Blackmore 
​Writer @f1journal.co.uk