Hamilton heads tight FP2 curtailed by huge Leclerc shunt
Although Hamilton once again set the pace in Jeddah, holding a 0.061s margin over Bottas with a new benchmark of a 1m29.018s, the competitive picture was slightly skewed as traffic compromised many of the soft tyre qualifying simulation runs.
Both Hamilton and title rival Max Verstappen were left frustrated after having several laps ruined by traffic around the tight yet ultrafast Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
One driver who did get a clean lap in on softs was Pierre Gasly, who once again put his AlphaTauri inside the top four, with the Frenchman impressing to end the session third-fastest, just 0.081s off the pace.
After staying out to focus on his short run pace longer than Hamilton, Verstappen was able to improve, though he could not jump Gasly and stayed fourth, some 0.195s behind Hamilton.
FP2 ended early following a huge shunt for Charles Leclerc, who brought out the red flags when he slammed into the wall after losing control of his Ferrari on entry to the high-speed Turn 22.
Leclerc was able to get out of his car unaided and appeared to be unhurt in the crash which left his Ferrari destroyed with massive damage to the rear-end.
Charles Leclerc is off into the wall at Turn 22
— Formula 1 (@F1) December 3, 2021
He is out of his car and confirms he's okay over the radio. The session has been red flagged and will not be resumed#SaudiArabianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/KWRttUcl0W
The Monegasque is the first driver to have crashed at Jeddah following what was a relatively incident-free opening practice session.
Fernando Alonso led Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon in fifth, with Carlos Sainz putting his Ferrari seventh and just a tenth behind his compatriot.
AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda briefly topped the timesheets but was eventually shuffled down to eighth, ahead of Sergio Perez’s Red Bull and Leclerc, who rounded out the top-10.
FP2 was the most representative practice session given it took place under the lights at the same time qualifying and the race will take place.
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