Lando Norris leads FP2 in Saudi Arabia as Yuki Tsunoda's crash halts action
Red Bull Racing/Red Bull Content Pool
McLaren’s Lando Norris took the top spot in the second practice session of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Friday evening, setting the pace under the floodlights of Jeddah’s high-speed street circuit. The session, marked by cooler and more representative race conditions, ended prematurely after a dramatic crash by Yuki Tsunoda caused a red flag in the closing moments.
After narrowly missing out on P1 in FP1 earlier in the day, the Drivers’ Championship leader made his intentions clear, hovering at the sharp end of the timesheets throughout FP2. Norris initially set the benchmark on medium-compound tires with a lap of 1m 29.272s, just shy of Pierre Gasly’s FP1-leading time of 1m 29.183s, which the Alpine driver achieved on the grippier soft tires.
McLaren looked strong in the early stages of the session as Norris’s teammate, rookie Oscar Piastri, briefly challenged his senior counterpart. Piastri’s lap, also on mediums, was just 0.001s adrift of Norris, while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc slotted into third, over two-tenths further back.
Throughout the session, traffic proved to be a key challenge around the narrow, high-speed circuit. Norris was notably held up by reigning world champion Max Verstappen, expressing his frustration over the team radio: “Why does no one use radios at all?” Meanwhile, a separate incident saw Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz impede Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, an action that brought the Spaniard under the stewards’ scrutiny after the session.
As FP2 transitioned into the latter half, Leclerc momentarily grabbed the top spot, improving on the soft tires with a lap of 1m 29.002s before George Russell lowered the benchmark to 1m 28.973s, though not before noting “some high-speed bouncing” in his Mercedes.
The times rapidly tumbled as top drivers switched to the red-marked soft compound. Verstappen, Sainz, and Piastri all traded quickest laps, but ultimately, it was Norris who reclaimed the lead. The Briton delivered a session-best 1m 28.267s, which remained uncontested as much of the grid pivoted to race simulations and long runs in the session’s final stages.
Piastri finished just 0.163s adrift in second while Verstappen, three-tenths off Norris’s pace, settled for third. Leclerc ended his evening in fourth, leading Ferrari’s charge ahead of an impressive Williams showing by Sainz in fifth.
Sixth went to AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, though the Japanese driver’s evening ended in dramatic fashion. Tsunoda clipped the inside wall at the final turn, breaking his suspension and careering into the barriers on exit. The resulting red flag halted proceedings with just over a minute left on the clock, leaving teams and drivers scrambling to conduct practice starts without affecting the final order.
Russell, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, Nico Hülkenberg in his Alfa Romeo, and Williams’s Alex Albon rounded out the top 10. Kimi Antonelli, standing in for Mercedes, ended his session in 11th after brushing the wall at the same corner as Tsunoda’s incident.
Further down, Rookie Racing Bulls drivers Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson were split by Hamilton, who could only manage 13th, while Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, Haas’s Oliver Bearman, and Alpine’s Jack Doohan occupied slots 15 through 17.
Lance Stroll endured a challenging session, spinning 360 degrees at Turn 1 early on, and finished 18th ahead of Haas’s Esteban Ocon. Meanwhile, Formula 2 Champion and Sauber rookie Gabriel Bortoleto was forced to sit out the session entirely due to a fuel leak, cutting his FP2 running to zero laps.
With FP3 set for Saturday at 4:30 PM local time, teams will look to fine-tune their setups ahead of what could prove to be a tightly contested qualifying session on the streets of Jeddah.
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