2024 F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix practice: As it happened

In the gap between the two practice sessions, Christian Horner faced a grilling from the world's media over the controversy surrounding him. 

The Red Bull team principal addressed the following topics:

• Horner says 'time to draw a line under' controversy 
• Horner 'certain' about Verstappen's Red Bull future 
• Horner on the 'intrusion' on his family 

Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of Thursday practice day. 

We have a second hour of practice coming up from Jeddah. FP2 gets underway in 20 minutes at 5pm UK time. 

That's all for now but we will be back to build-up ahead of second practice, which takes place at 5pm UK time. 

In the meantime, stick with Crash.netfor all of the latest news and reaction in Jeddah. 

And here's Connor McDonagh's report from the opening session, topped by last week's race-winner Verstappen. 

• Verstappen tops first practice in Saudi Arabia ahead of Alonso

Here are the full results from FP1 in Jeddah...

• 2024 F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix - Free Practice Results

Alonso has just gone second-fastest to split the Red Bulls of Verstappen and Perez.

That will give Aston Martin some encouragement, with Alonso just 0.186s off the pace. 

Leclerc has just reported the Jeddah circuit is like "Mario Kart", complaining there are "plastic bags everywhere".

Replays show that a plastic bag did get caught up in his front suspension. 

Perez has just gone second-fastest to make it a Red Bull 1-2.

He's 0.209s adrift of teammate Verstappen and a fraction quicker than Russell, who had improved again. 

The Ferrari pair of Leclerc and Sainz are next up in fourth and fifth after their first efforts on the soft compound. 

Verstappen goes for another fast lap and finds a chunk of time with two purple sectors to pull 0.352s clear of Russell. 

Hamilton, also on softs, ends up a couple of tenths shy of teammate Russell as he slots into fourth.

Russell hits the front again!

Verstappen had briefly gone fastest, only for Russell to respond and snatch P1 away from the world champion by just 0.003s. 

That lap from Russell included the fastest overall middle sector.

Indeed Norris does utilise those fresh soft tyres to go fastest of all. 

It's a 1m30.424s from the McLaren driver, who *only* goes quickest by 0.130s. 

Would have expected a bigger time gain there. 

It's gone pretty quiet on track at the moment, but a few drivers including Norris have just started to bolt on the soft tyres to go for a qualifying simulation run. 

Russell's time might be under threat here...

"You've got to fix the rear bouncing, mate," Hamilton reports over team radio. 

His Mercedes teammate, Russell, has just gone even quicker to pull 0.250s clear of Perez, who has shot up to P2. 

Now it's Russell's turn to set the pace as he posts a 1m30.806s in his Mercedes W15.

That puts him 0.107s clear of Verstappen in the Red Bull. 

Stroll has just tagged the barriers with his front-left tyre. 

The Canadian is back in the Aston Martin garage, where his mechanics are pouring over his car to check for damage. 

There's been an early flurry of activity in Jeddah with several drivers taking turns to head the timesheets. 

Alonso is the current pacesetter, 0.393 secs clear of reigning world champion Verstappen.

Leclerc, Hamilton and Perez complete the top five, with half a second covering them. 

Here's the full story about Red Bull suspending the female member of staff who made the complaint against team principal Christian Horner. 

• Female employee who accused Christian Horner suspended by Red Bull

Hamilton is the early pacesetter in FP1, having posted 1m32.590s. 

The Mercedes driver is 0.270 seconds clear of Norris' McLaren. 

Lewis Hamilton arrives at the Jeddah Corniche circuit ahead of opening practice. 

Ferrari say that Carlos Sainz will take part in opening practice. 

The Spaniard skipped Wednesday's media day and went back to his hotel after feeling unwell. 

Much of the attention was focused on the Christian Horner controversy during last weekend's season-opener in Bahrain. The saga continues to make headlines going into the race in Saudi. 

Good afternoon for those of you in the UK and welcome to Crash.net's live coverage of the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. 

We have the first of two hour-long practice sessions coming up for you in just under 30 minutes' time and we will be keeping you up to date with all of the action in Jeddah.