Leclerc repeats best time in seconds off in Jeddah

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Sports Writing, 25 Mar Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), leader of the championship, was also the fastest this Friday in the second free training session for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the second of the Formula One World Championship, on the Jeddah urban circuit. Leclerc, who finished the session ahead of time, as he damaged the left front of his car by hitting it - without accident - against one of the walls of the fastest urban circuit in the world; he was again the fastest in a session that started 15 minutes late due to a fire in oil installations near the clue, about which the organization wanted to inform the teams as far as their safety was concerned; since it could be an attack. In the best of his 15 laps, Leclerc covered the 6,175 meters of the Jeddah track, with a soft tire, in one minute, 30 seconds and 74 thousandths, 140 less than Dutch Max Verstappen (Red Bull), last world champion, who gave 22; and with 246 over Spaniard Carlos Sainz -both with half-, who, like his Monegasque teammate, 'beside or' the wall and finished the second training early. Sainz, who finished second in Bahrain last Sunday, turned twelve times and in the best of them he was just under 25 hundredths of his teammate; in a session with some fright, but no serious mishap, which was played at the same time -at night and with artificial light- to that of Saturday's qualifying and Sunday's race. A test that ended at 21 degrees Celsius ambient and with 23 on the track, in which 'Checo', teammate in Verstappen's Red Bull -and like this one, retired in Bahrain-, who turned 23 times, was 286 thousandths behind Leclerc, with the medium tyre. The Spaniard Fernando Alonso (Alpine) entered eleventh in the time table. The double world champion repeated 26 times the track in Jeddah, on the shores of the Red Sea; and on his best lap he was, with the soft compound, 870 thousandths behind the time of Leclerc. The two Mercedes, that of sevenfold English world champion Lewis Hamilton and that of his compatriot George Russell, entered fifth and sixth in the time table. The third and final test will be held this Saturday, hours before the qualification for the Sunday race: scheduled for 50 laps, to complete a course of 308.7 kilometers. CHIEF arh/sat