Lando Norris is confidently preparing for tonight’s qualifying session for the Saudi Arabian GP. In Jeddah, the McLaren driver recorded the fastest time in FP3, the final free practice session, on Saturday afternoon. At a considerable distance from Norris and his teammate Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen clocked the fourth fastest time.
On the hot asphalt of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit (52 degrees), the McLarens get off to a good start. After about fifteen minutes of warming up, Piastri records the fastest time (1.29,118), ahead of Norris. But Max Verstappen also shows – just like in FP2 – that he is in good shape. In fact, with three purple sectors, he reaches 1.29,077 after twenty minutes, the fastest time at that moment.
McLaren Dominates
After that, the top of the timesheet sees a constant change of leaders, with McLaren clearly being the dominant party. Halfway through, Piastri leads with 1.28,470, followed by Norris, Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Yuki Tsunoda, and Lewis Hamilton. Verstappen’s teammate Tsunoda starts the session a bit later due to the repair work on his RB21 after his crash in FP2 on Friday.
On the increasingly faster track, the McLarens show their true speed towards the end of the session. Piastri dominates and with 1.27,513 he leaves everyone else behind. Norris stays closest to the Australian (0.158), but the gap behind them is telling with a margin of over seven tenths to the number three, Mercedes driver George Russell. In the final stages, Norris regains some confidence after the disappointing Bahrain GP by taking over the fastest time from Piastri (1.27,489). Russell remains ‘best of the rest’ at 0.627 seconds. The gap between Norris and Verstappen (P4) is 0.845 seconds.
In other words, the McLarens are the overwhelming favorites to claim the first starting row in the qualification.
