The Aston Martin team and Quebec driver Lance Stroll had their first Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend in Bahrain two weeks ago, but it looks like they’re ready to add more in Saudi Arabia.
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In the first free practice session on Friday in Jeddah, the green single-seaters of Fernando Alonso and Stroll clocked the third and fourth best times respectively. The Aston Martins were only beaten by the dominant Red Bulls, but stayed ahead of the Mercedes and the Ferraris.
Stroll completed 20 laps and set a best lap of 1:30.577. That’s almost a second slower than Max Verstappen (1:29.617), the fastest so far.
In the second practice session of the day, Alonso was second fastest behind Verstappen while Stroll slipped to seventh place. He reduced his time by at least four tenths of a second (1:30.110) and came within half a second of the leader.
A third free practice session follows on Saturday a few hours before qualifying, which precedes Sunday’s race.