F1: Verstappen tops final practice for Saudi Arabian GP

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Red Bull Honda driver #1 Max Verstappen turned a lap of 1m28.485s to make a clean sweep of all three practice sessions for the Saudi Arabian GP in Jeddah despite backing off in the final sector to not show his full hand just yet.

Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez was a massive 0.613s behind in 2nd.

What had to completely demoralize the other drivers was Max Verstappen’s time on the hard Pirellis.  After everyone made their first runs in Practice 3, Verstappen on Pirelli hard tires was faster than all the other drivers on softs except Perez.

Perez on softs was 0.132s faster than Verstappen on the hards.  The softs are worth about 7/10s over the hards, so Verstappen’s time was sensational.  He’s driving at another level compared to the other drivers.

Fernando Alonso was third quick for Aston Martin, but he was 0.998s behind Verstappen while his teammate Lance Stroll was right there (4th 1.024s behind) with his more experienced teammate.

Lewis Hamilton rounded out the top-5 for Mercedes, 1.083s behind.

The Ferraris ended up 6th and 10th.  Are they struggling or sandbagging?

Utter dominance from the Dutchman so far this weekend. Qualifying is up next in 2 hours.

Practice 3 Results