Lando Norris edged team-mate Oscar Piastri as McLaren dominated final practice at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Norris delivered a time of 1:27.489 to better Piastri by 0.024s at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, with a six-tenth gap to Mercedes’ George Russell in third, suggesting that an all-McLaren contest for pole is in store in qualifying later on Saturday.
Piastri had actually appeared the faster of the McLarens throughout the session, but made an error on his final attempt at a flying lap, while Norris improved to move to the top of the timesheet.
Norris leads Piastri by three points at the top of the world championship but has performed inconsistently since his opening-round win in Australia, and admitted on Thursday that he has had to change his driving style to adapt to the characteristics of McLaren’s 2025 car.
Reigning world champion Max Verstappen was fourth for Red Bull, marginally bettering Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Lewis Hamilton’s struggles at Ferrari continued as he finished 12th, more than a second back from the McLarens, and four tenths off his team-mate.
Williams continued to appear the biggest threat to the top teams, with Alex Albon taking sixth ahead of team-mate Carlos Sainz.
Yuki Tsunoda was ninth in the other Red Bull after missing the opening stages of the session as the team completed repairs on his car following his crash in the closing stages of second practice on Friday.
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Karun Chandhok was at the SkyPad to look back on Yuki Tsunoda’s huge crash into the wall in the closing stages of second practice at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
While McLaren’s showing was ominous for the rest of the field, their ability to extract peak performance in the hot conditions means their rivals will retain hope of closing the gap in the cooler conditions for qualifying under the lights.
Despite that hope, it is likely to take something very special to prevent McLaren claiming what would be a fourth pole in five qualifying sessions this season.
Sky Sports F1’s Karun Chandhok said: “I think McLaren have either turned the engines up or taken some fuel out of the car.
“I strongly suspect we won’t see such a big gap between Russell, Verstappen and the McLarens when we get to qualifying. We saw the same in Bahrain.
“McLaren feel like they want to get more performance running from FP3, maybe give the drivers a bit more practise. It’s worked so far as they have taken every pole apart from Japan.”
Sky Sports F1’s Saudi Arabian GP Schedule
Saturday April 19
- 4.10pm: F2 Sprint
- 5.10pm: Saudi Arabian GP Qualifying build-up
- 6pm: SAUDI ARABIAN GP QUALIFYING
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Look back at some of the most dramatic moments to have taken place at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit
Sunday April 20
- 1pm: F1 Academy Race 2
- 2.20pm: F2 Feature Race
- 4.30pm: Saudi Arabian GP build-up: Grand Prix Sunday
- 6pm: THE SAUDI ARABIAN GRAND PRIX*
- 8pm: Saudi Arabian GP reaction: Chequered flag
*Also live on Sky Sports Main Event
Formula 1 completes its first triple-header of 2025 in Jeddah with the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – No contract, cancel anytime
