F1 drivers hit out at 'dangerous' conditions in Saudi practice

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, F1, 2023 — Photo: © IMAGO

Saudi Arabia GP

F1 drivers hit out at 'dangerous' conditions in Saudi practice

The FP2 session in Saudi Arabia had multiple close calls between drivers

Tyler Rowlinson

Friday 8 March 2024 10:57

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The second practice session in Saudi Arabia on Thursday saw several near-misses between drivers on track.

Max Verstappen topped the timesheets in FP1 with Fernando Alonso in second and Sergio Perez locking out the top three.

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But FP2 was met with problems with traffic for the drivers, which almost caused some serious accidents.

Logan Sargeant had a near miss with Lewis Hamilton

The incident will be investigated after the session

FP2 near-misses anger drivers

Williams driver Logan Sargeant had to take evasive action while on a flying lap to avoid Lewis Hamilton who was coasting in the middle of the track.

Sargeant was left unimpressed by the Mercedes driver over the team radio: "Mate, come on. It's too dangerous.”

Carlos Sainz, who had been close behind Hamilton, said: '"What Hamilton did there was super dangerous. Like he was in the middle, I couldn't get out of the way. Sargeant nearly crashed because of him."

Hamilton responded to the incident by saying: "I didn't realise someone was on a lap. I was trying to get out of the way for Sainz and all of a sudden there was a Williams there."

Fernando Alonso was also unimpressed by the traffic

The incident between Sargeant and Hamilton has been noted by the stewards and will be investigated after the session.

The seven-time champion’s team-mate George Russell was also involved in a close call when Yuki Tsunoda almost cut across him on one of the curved straights.

Sainz was involved in a second incident moments later as he sped past the McLaren of Lando Norris, uttering over his radio: “Unbelievable this guy.”

Fernando Alonso also expressed his anger towards the amount of traffic on the circuit: “A mess, so dangerous!”

Red Bull Max Verstappen Lewis Hamilton Mercedes Sergio Perez Fernando Alonso