Fernando Alonso heads delayed FP2 in Saudi Arabia ahead of George Russell

Fernando Alonso was fastest in the second practice session for this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Alonso’s 1m28.827s was eight-tenths quicker than Max Verstappen’s top time from FP2 12 months ago, highlighting the gains teams have made in the last year.

Like in Bahrain, Aston Martin are showing great pace in practice, but whether this continues into the rest of the weekend remains to be seen.

George Russell was Alonso’s nearest challenger in the Mercedes, continuing his strong start to the campaign.

Russell was 0.230s off Alonso’s benchmark, however, a mistake into Turn 27 on his best effort cost him a chunk of time.

Verstappen completed the top three in the RB20, and unsurprisingly, his best work came on the race runs later in the session.

Charles Leclerc was within a tenth of Verstappen as he set the fourth-fastest time, while Sergio Perez was fifth overall.

Lance Stroll made it two Aston Martins in the top six, 0.509s off his teammate’s time.

Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton were seventh and eighth, with the former still battling illness after missing media day.

Pierre Gasly was an impressive ninth-best in the Alpine, which had the slowest car in Bahrain, while Oscar Piastri rounded out the top 10.

Lando Norris was only 12th in the second McLaren, but they don’t tend to show their full pace until qualifying.

Valtteri Bottas set the slowest time and had spun at Turn 1 in the early stages of FP2.