Here's what you don't expect: Fernando Alonso leads the charge with Aston Martin and takes the AMR24 ahead of everyone on soft tyres. The Spaniard arrives at 1'28″827 which is sensational (eight tenths better than last year), giving the feeling that the track record could be beaten tomorrow (1'27″511 from 2021).
The second free practice session of the Saudi Arabian GP started 10 minutes late due to yet another manhole to be checked (this time in the pit lane), but Alonso gave the feeling of being on fire with the “verdona”: it was it is possible that the Silverstone team pushed the Mercedes engine mapping a little more (Lance Stroll also moved to sixth position, but with a gap of half a second from the 43-year-old Iberian). Fernando gave the feeling of having a competitive car even after a good long run on the medium tyres.
George Russell's Mercedes appeared behind the Aston Martin. The Englishman arrived 230 thousandths of a second from the top with a car that was decidedly more advanced than Lewis Hamilton's: the seven-time world champion complained about the bounce in the rear and at the end of the long run he suffered a drop in power. Lewis is not in order (he was summoned by the stewards for a dangerous impiding on Logan Sargeant), while George could be an outsider in yesterday's qualifying.
Max Verstappen did not impress in the flying lap: the Dutchman reached 1'29″158 paying 331 thousandths with the RB20, being only 22 thousandths faster than Charles Leclerc's Ferrari. The Dutchman impressed in the long run with the mediums more than in the qualifying lap: Red Bull manages to improve its performance as the fuel drops and Max gave the sensation of having a small advantage.
Charles Leclerc slipped between the two Red Bulls rather easily, but the Monegasque impressed with his ability to carry out a good long run on the soft tyres, while the others opted for the yellows. The red one seems fine using a more loaded rear wing which is the same as that of Bahrain, while all the others have chosen a medium-low loaded configuration. The Maranello team, therefore, is taking a different path. Carlos Sainz is seventh: the Spaniard is still feeling the effects of high fever and stomach pain. He is certainly not in good shape, but he manages to defend himself like a true “gladiator”.
Sergio Perez was positive with the second RB20: the Mexican carried out the long run with several laps without a drop in performance and remained one tenth of a point behind the captain in the flying lap: he is fifth ahead of Stroll, who we have already mentioned.
It is pleasing to discover that Pierre Gasly managed to climb to ninth place with Alpine, preceding Oscar Piastri's McLaren in tenth, while Lando Norris did not go beyond a disappointing 12th place. The MCL38 seems to have trouble with the reds.
Between the two papaya cars Yuki Tsunoda slipped in with the best Racing Bull who was 11th, while Daniel Ricciardo finished 19th ahead of Valtteri Bottas who tried to qualify too early, when the track was in its full evolutionary phase.
And then Guanyu Zhou is the best Sauber in 13th place: the Chinese enjoyed being ahead of Alexander Albon's Williams. The Anglo-Thai was followed by the Alpine of Esteban Ocon and teammate Logan Sargeant who took a big scare when he found Hamilton slow on the racing line and was forced to turn wide outside the chicane.
The Haas did not impress with Kevin Magnussen 17th just ahead of Nico Hulkenberg.
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