Gasly heads Norris in Saudi first practice

Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia

Jeddah Dates: 18-20 April Start time for the race: 18:00 BST on Sunday

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly set the pace ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris in first practice at the Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia.

Gasly edged past Norris by 0.007 seconds to finish his performance run on soft tyres later than the usual front-runners.

After four races, Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri were three points clear of each other.

Ferrari’s Alex Albon and Mercedes’ George Russell were ahead of Piastri, who was 0. 995 seconds off Norris.

Verstappen continued to struggle to get a good balance out of the Red Bull, complaining of understeer in the first few sessions before declaring the car was “very loose, especially in the high speed” in the final stages.

Engineer Giampiero Lambiase suggested that he try backing off on entry to the long, banked Turn 13 left-hander for a quicker exit, but he said, “I can’t.” Basically, imagine having no balance.

Although Piastri was one of the few drivers to lightly brush the track at the start or finish of the high-speed, high-risk Jeddah street circuit and Norris one of the many to lock up at either the first or last corner as they adapted to the dusty track in the early stages of the weekend, there were no major incidents.