Sports Writing, 25 Mar Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), leader of the championship, set the fastest time this Friday in the first free training session for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the second of the Formula One World Championship, which takes place on the urban circuit of Jeddah, on the shores of the Red Sea. In the best of his 16 laps, Leclerc covered the 6,175 meters of the Jeddah track, with soft tyres, in one minute, 30 seconds and 772 thousandths, 116 fewer than the Dutch Max Verstappen (Red Bull), the last world champion, who scored 23 and was the only one to score his fastest lap with the hard compound; in a session in which the Finn Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) signed the third time, 312 thousandths behind Monegasque: whose teammate, Spaniard Carlos Sainz, second last Sunday in Bahrain, who turned thirteen times, was fourth, at 367. The Mexican Sergio Pérez, who abandoned on the last lap of Bahrain when he was third and who replaced the turbo and the MGU-H of the power unit of his Red Bull, repeated 24 times the route of the fastest urban circuit in the world - in which 320 kilometers are exceeded per hour - and scored the seventh time, 791 thousandths behind Leclerc, in a session that ended with 22 degrees Celsius environmental and 27 degrees Celsius on track. The two-time Spanish champion Fernando Alonso, who changed the power unit of his Alpine - substitution to analyze it and which, in any case, does not carry any penalty -, turned 22 times. On his best lap he was one second and six tenths behind Leclerc. It was tenth. The session was interrupted for a few minutes with a red flag, to remove from the track the damage to a 50-meter bend sign that had been unhung and against which McLaren by the Englishman Lando Norris crashed - without any consequences. The German Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin), who did not do it in Bahrain either, will not race in Arabia, as he continues to test positive for covid-19, which is why he missed the first race of the year. His compatriot Nico Hülkenberg, who replaced him again in Jeddah, scored the sixteenth time, two seconds and 262 thousandths behind Leclerc. The second free training session, which will be more indicative, as it will be held at the same time as the qualifying and the race (at night and with artificial light), will start from eight in the afternoon (six in the afternoon in Spanish mainland time: 17:00 GMT). - Time table of the first free for the Arabian GP: .1. Charles Leclerc MON Ferrari 1:30 .772 .2. Max Verstappen NED Red Bull to 0,116 .3. Valtteri Bottas FIN Alfa Romeo 0.312 .4. Carlos Sainz ESP Ferrari 0.367 .5. Pierre Gasly FRA Alpha Tauri 0.545 .6. Yuki Tsunoda JPN Alpha Tauri 0.733 .7. Sergio Perez MEX Red Bull 0.791 .8. Stephen Ocon FRA Alpine 1.254 .9. Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes 1.592 10. Fernando Alonso ESP Alpine 1.609 11. Daniel Ricciardo AUS McLaren 1734 12. Lance Stroll CAN Aston Martin 1.810 13. Lando Norris GBR McLaren 1,822 14. Zhou Guanyu CHN Alfa Romeo 1.836 15. George Russell GBR Mercedes 2.067 16. Nico Hulkenberg GER Aston Martin 2.262 17. Alexander Albon THA Williams 2.315 18. Nicholas Latifi CAN Williams 2.757 19. Mick Schumacher GER Haas 3.657 20. Kevin Magnussen DIN Haas No time CHIEF arh/sat
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