December 3, 2021, 14:43 | Written by Wilwood
Lewis Hamilton topped the list in the first practice session of the New Jeddah Marina Circuit in the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix.
Advertising | Become a supporter and stay away from advertising. In an unexpectedly accident-free race, champion leader Max Verstappen ranked second, only five percent of a second behind his champion opponent. Valtteri Bottas ranked third in the second Mercedes team, ahead of Pierre Gasly's AlphaTauri.
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Due to "operational reasons", the opening practice session of the Formula One car earlier in the day was postponed for approximately three-quarters of an hour, and the start of the first race of the Formula One car at the Jeddah Marina Circuit was unhindered.
Carlos Sainz Jnr won the honor of being the first F1 driver to enter the circuit of Saudi Arabia before Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, because the team immediately won the title on the unknown track. Early data.
Verstappen didn't need lap times to speed up and immediately set an early speed. With each new Jeddah Circuit Tour, he gradually increased his lap time and was close to breaking through the obstacles of the 1930s.
Although the grip on the pristine asphalt pavement may be at the lowest level throughout the weekend, the driver found that the grip provided by the pavement was greater than expected, so in the first half of the race, surprisingly, there were no errors or accidents. "Overall, the grip seems to be quite high," Esteban Ocon reported on the team broadcast. "I think it's a big surprise, everywhere, through the traction in the middle corner."
The biggest problem facing the driver seems to be traffic. The car has to slow down too much to allow competitors on the timing lap to pass and give themselves room to start their own clear lap.
Bottas reached the top of the timetable with 20 minutes left, and a lap was only five thousandths of a second faster than Verstappen's fastest time. Until Hamilton became the first driver to break into 1'29 seconds, making Mercedes top the standings, he will stay there for the rest of the race.
The first corner between Verstappen and Ocon was almost missed in the last few minutes, where the Red Bull driver locked in and almost hit Alpine, who tried to make room for Verstappen on the outside of the corner. Lance Stroll also had a close contact with Haas of Nikita Mazepin at the exit of the fourth turn.
The first impression of F1's newest venue seems to be positive for the drivers. Valtteri Bottas reported that the track was "cool" because he had to master the new 27-corner track. I heard Mercedes Sports Director Ron Meadows praise the race director Michael Masi for how the track crew prepared the track surface the night before the opening.
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The driver slightly lost more than ten seconds of speed.
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Analysis: Is the layout of the Jeddah circuit suitable for F1 or "the secret of disaster"? Hamilton ended another Schumacher’s record with his first "hat trick" in 2021. How Hamilton and Verstappen defended Marcy after criticizing Saudi Arabia. GP decided to F1 The driver wants to make a safe change to Jeddah’s "Suzuka with Wall" layout. Browse all 2021 Saudi Arabia Grand Prix articles
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The way the car passes through a slanted curve is shocking, even if the cameraman tries to directly track the car and eliminate the sense of speed. Because of how close the object is next to the track, you can really see the speed of the car.
The camera operator had problems tracking the car because they zoomed in too much to make the sponsors on the car more visible. I noticed a lot in Mexico and I almost got a headache
The decent track of the street circuit, hope it's not that narrow. The start and end lines remind me of Baku. Overall, Baku is still the best street circuit. Overtaking seems difficult because it is too narrow for two cars side by side.
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles) December 3, 2021, 15:19
A decent track for a street circuit
Given (I believe) most of them were built specifically for F1, is this really a street circuit?
For me, a street circuit is a race track. It uses public roads that existed before and mainly drives along these roads. You don’t need to design a street circuit, you just need to drive along existing streets. Tracks like this are designed around the purpose of racing, more like the specially constructed temporary tracks I described.
I think the only reason they keep pushing it as a street circuit is that they can use the "fastest street race" label for marketing reasons.
It can be described as a street because it looks like a street, very narrow, and part of the space is limited by the Red Sea. Personally, I don't like this layout, and I hope they choose a normal wide high-speed circuit like Silverstone or Spa, because they will cost billions of dollars anyway. I guess they want to get close to the spectators of high-speed night race spectacles, crashes... and so on so go this way.
Probably the scariest track I have ever seen.
David BR (@david-br) December 3, 2021, 15:07
@icarby This is also my feeling. I don’t think I have ever watched a practice race. I was so shocked by the slow cars and cars in the lap time. It was really scary. It looks like Silverstone/Monza is fast, but the street track is very close. Oops.
@david-br Yes, completely ruthless, I hope drivers will be extra careful this weekend.
David BR (@david-br) December 3, 2021, 15:14
@icarby I think a large part of the responsibility of the team is to advise the driver on approaching the car, because in some corners it is not possible to see a few meters behind and ahead.
I agree. Something terrible. Hopefully, no one will discard it in the third quarter tomorrow, which will cause major repairs. The stakes are high, and I guess the two people at the top will go all out.
In my opinion, this is exactly the track we don't want. We are talking about appearance and environment, not track layout. It looks like Formula E, with fences everywhere. There is no charm, just tracks and fences. horrible. Hope to drive happily. What a great job Max’s first practice was, focusing on the gap between teammates RB and Merc. We should be grateful that there is such a person around us to spice things up.
agree. He must have fought Mercedes this year, although it looks like Mercedes has found a faster pace in the past few games
What is the motivation of Max Verstappen! Contend with the so-called best car Mercedes equipped with a Spicy engine but only 0.056 seconds behind. Hope there will be a surprise shot and show them that you are not afraid of their "overhyped" engine strategy.
You know these are the old engines in those cars...
These guys must be kids to be so happy about Friday's practice. Something really scary.
When I was 10 years old, when I entered F1 in 1992, I was glad that the absence of Internet forums made me scolded for being as happy as a child about things that might be trivial.
Except this is not a childlike joy. You should waste-waste, yes-more time to read this comment section, look at other works by these people, and then you will understand.
So you know, they don't use competition PU during practice.
Mercedes may not have put his Brazilian engine back in yet. I want to know how different it will be.
I am not surprised by the high grip. Judging from the picture post on Thursday, they seem to have a lot of cars driving on the track
Alec Glenn (@alec-glen) December 3, 2021, 23:05
Max's actions towards Ocon are definitely a kid, he knows exactly what he is doing. Practice for the game maybe...
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