McLaren headed the field come the end of the first day of practice for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, but Red Bull's Max Verstappen looks much more comfortable in his RB21 than a week ago in Bahrain. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo delivers teams' and drivers' reactions after the opening day in Jeddah.

McLaren

“A good start to the weekend and a productive first day on track, getting comfy in the car and building confidence. We’ve got good data available with plenty of laps recorded, so I'll keep working hard overnight with the team, focusing on the different areas we’ve identified in preparation for tomorrow’s Qualifying.”

Oscar Piastri - FP1: 1:29.341, P4; FP2: 1:28.430, P2
“A solid Friday. It was a little bit of a trickier day, but I think the pace in the car is good. The competition doesn’t seem far away, so we need to iron out a couple of things to put us in the best place for Qualifying. We’ll review it all tonight and set ourselves up well for tomorrow.”

Red Bull

“Today we tried some different things with the car and worked to find a different direction. I think we learned a lot from the sessions today, but it is still not quite where we want the car to be. I think at the end of the day you just have to go from your own feeling and assess what you get from the car.

"Over one lap it’s a bit better but the long runs are still tough. Compared to Bahrain, the grip levels and set up of the car is completely different so it is very difficult to compare to last week, but it is still clear that we want to be faster. For tomorrow, it is difficult to say how competitive we will be; the McLarens look really competitive. There is still a bit of work to do and things to understand, so we will see.”

“First, a big apology to my Team today about the accident, I just turned in too much and clipped the wall and inside wheel. I had damage after that and just had no control. It is frustrating because the pace was looking good, so it’s a shame but also a positive, as I was getting the car in a good window.

"We had limited time on the long run, caused by myself, so I can’t really complain. I didn’t want it to end up this way. My last soft run was also compromised with the warmup and everything, so we don’t have a great read for qualifying but so far, the weekend has felt pretty okay. Importantly, my confidence level is still pretty good here."

Ferrari

Charles Leclerc - FP1: 1:29.309, P3; FP2: 1:28.749, P4

"We are missing a bit of pace compared to the cars in front of us, but if we put everything together tomorrow it should be a close Qualifying. We all seem to be quite close, with McLaren a step ahead, but we will focus on ourselves and see what we can extract tomorrow."

Lewis Hamilton - FP1: 1:29.815, P8; FP2: 1:29.371, P13

"It was a challenging day. We’re still chasing the right balance between the front and rear axles, and I’m struggling a bit with consistency across the lap at this stage. There’s work to do tonight, but the team’s fully focused and we’ll keep pushing to find the improvements we need."

Mercedes

George Russell - FP1: 1:29.618, P6; FP2: 1:28.973, P7
"It was a slightly messy day from our side. We didn’t manage to get too many clean laps in, owing to both traffic and a few efforts where we didn’t quite the tyres in the right window. We tried some different things across both cars, which was definitely valuable learning for both Kimi and myself.

"I think we’ve found the direction we will move in now. We were probably stronger in FP1 than FP2 ultimately. We didn’t quite take the step forward with the car that we were hoping too, but I don’t think there’s anything that we can’t improve overnight to come back stronger for Qualifying tomorrow.

"It was a shame not to get the long run data in due to the red flag in FP2, but everyone else is in the same boat. It’s not controversial to say that McLaren looked like they were clear in front but I’m hopeful we can be in the fight for best of the rest once again as we head into the weekend."

"It was quite a tricky day out there today. It proved difficult to get too many clean laps in, but I’m pleased with what we were able to achieve. We worked on a lot of details, and I was able to build my confidence on the track. It is a circuit that demands a lot of confidence in the high-speed and you need to get the car close to the walls. Overall, it was positive even if I got slightly too close to the wall on the exit of the final corner on my last lap on the Soft tyre in FP2.

"I’m looking forward to the rest of the weekend now. It looks pretty close with many of our competitors behind McLaren. We don’t know the relative fuel loads and Power Unit modes of others, so we just need to focus on ourselves. We will work hard analysing the data overnight and look to come back stronger tomorrow."

Alpine

“Overall I am pleased with our Friday Practice today. I had a great feeling in the car in Free Practice 1 and it is always nice to top a session even if it is only Practice. I felt like the car was good enough to push right away, which is a good sign on a high-speed circuit like this one. It was tricky at times and we struggled a little more in Free Practice 2 with general grip.

"We know this session is more representative to what we will experience for Qualifying tomorrow, so certainly that gives us some things to understand and get on top of ahead of tomorrow’s running. We’ll take it session by session; it is all very tight as usual with just a tenth or two splitting a number of cars. We are not too far away, though, there is room for improvement and we just need to nail it tomorrow.”

“It has not been the easiest of Fridays for us but there have still been plenty of learnings to take from the two sessions. It’s such a high-speed circuit and you need to build confidence to really be able to push the car. On my side, I felt quite comfortable on the Medium tyre. We have not yet clicked with the Soft compound so there are a few things there for us to understand.

"I am sure we will get on top of it ahead of Qualifying and hopefully maximise the potential of the package. Free Practice 3 will no doubt be hot again like Free Practice 1 earlier today. We will do our best to refine those details and be in a position to put ourselves up the order towards the top 10 and in the fight for Qualifying.”

Williams

Alex Albon - FP1: 1:29.606, P5; FP2: 1:29.220, P10
"It’s a lot of fun to drive around this track with so many high-speed sections. It’s going to be very close in Qualifying, so there’s some fine-tuning to be done ahead of the session. Tyres are always a talking point here, especially when the track cools off throughout the session. We’re usually good at getting the tyres in the right window, so let’s see how tomorrow’s session goes."

Carlos Sainz - FP1: 1:29.779, P7; FP2: 1:28.942, P5
"A positive first day for us here in Jeddah. We’ve made some good steps forward from FP1 to FP2, trying some different things with the set-up and my driving style to try to extract more from the car. The lap on the Soft tyre was proof of those steps and, although it’s only Friday, the feeling around this tricky track was positive overall. Let’s see if we can keep it up tomorrow!"

Racing Bulls

Isack Hadjar - FP1: 1:30.011, P15; FP2: 1:29.306, P12
“It was hard to get the balance together today, I feel like there is still room for improvement, which is reassuring because I know it's not the best we can do. It’s the fastest street circuit that exists, so it requires a lot of focus, it's really tough but really enjoyable. I will definitely be better tomorrow after a night of sleep. These cars give you so much confidence, we will be fighting for Q3 tomorrow, but making it is a different story.”

"FP1 was busy, but it was nice to drive an F1 car here as it's the first time I've done that. The track lives up to the hype, it was very fast, very cool. We had a productive day and tried a lot of different things. Tyres wise, we'll try and learn what we can before tomorrow.

"It's hard to tell how we're doing pace wise as we still need to find some time relative to some of our competitors in the midfield. Alpine and Williams were strong today, so we need to make a step, but that's what we're working on hard now.”

Kick Sauber

Nico Hulkenberg - FP1: 1:29.916, P12; FP2: 1:29.193, P9
"Jeddah is a really impressive track to drive, with its high-speed sections, rapid changes of direction and overall dynamic layout. It's a demanding circuit. I am pleased we managed to get the car into a good window in FP1 and were able to complete our standard Friday programme in FP2.

"We gathered valuable information on the tyres and made some structural adjustments to the setup between the sessions. There is still work to do overnight to refine the details, but it’s encouraging to see that we are firmly in the mix.“

“It definitely wasn’t the day I had hoped for here in Jeddah – it’s my first time driving this circuit in a Formula One car, so missing out on valuable track time was frustrating. Unfortunately, a fuel leak discovered after FP1 meant we couldn’t run in the second session. These things can happen, and the team did everything they could to fix the issue – I’m grateful for their effort – but it just wasn’t possible in the time available.

"I still managed to complete a few laps in FP1, which gave me an initial feel for the circuit. It’s encouraging to see Nico finishing the day in the top ten; that gives us a strong reference. Now it’s all about learning as much as I can from the data and from Nico to be fully prepared for tomorrow and to make the most of the final practice session ahead of qualifying.”

Aston Martin

"We managed to get some clean laps in today, but it looks like the pace is a little behind where we want it to be. There will be a lot of traffic management in Qualifying and you need to have some luck too. We will look at the data tonight and hopefully put together the best package for tomorrow and try our best to challenge for the top ten."

"Not the most competitive day for us, but let's see what we can learn from the data and come up with overnight to improve for tomorrow. Conditions here are tricky and it will be a tough mission to put it all together in Qualifying but we will work hard and put the work in."

Haas

“It was obviously a very busy one today and there are now quite a lot of things we need to look at. It hasn’t been the easiest day, but as usual on a Friday, we gather data, and we try and improve things – the important day is tomorrow when we qualify.

"We’ll do everything we can to put it together on Saturday and hopefully we’ll have a bit more pace. It’s always difficult to say where we’ll be. This is a tough track and you need as much confidence as you can from every corner – you need to feel at one with the car. That’s what we’ll be working on tonight.”

“FP1 was difficult. I was struggling with similar issues to what I had in Bahrain practice sessions, just lacking confidence on the brakes and having a few lock-ups. We made a change for FP2, we put the brakes back from a race where they worked very well, and that was the case again, it was much better in the afternoon.

"On the other hand, we suffered a little bit on performance runs in FP2 missing a little bit, especially jumping onto the soft tyre, so we have a bit of work to do. It’s difficult to say where we are, it’s really tight, but I think if we put everything together we can be in the mix, we just have a few things to finetune.”