Formula 1 is back in Saudi Arabia for the second race of the 2024 season. In the lead-up to the Grand Prix, Max Verstappen continued to show his dominance by setting the pace in the first free practice session on Thursday afternoon. The Dutchman edged ahead of his competitors, with Fernando Alonso and his teammate Sergio Perez close behind in 2nd and 3rd. However, the session did not go silky smooth for the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc as he encountered an unusual complexity on the track. Mid-session, there were quite a few plastic bags littered across the circuit.

On one of his flying laps, Leclerc encountered multiple plastic bags that had drifted onto the track. While he managed to avoid some and drove over others, he had a funny analogy of the situation. The Monegasque humorously compared the track to the iconic game “Mario Kart,” emphasizing the need for drivers to navigate around these unexpected hazards. “The track is like Mario Kart! There are like plastic bags everywhere,“ Leclerc said over team radio.

Although Leclerc managed to bring the car back to the pits safely, one of the bags appeared to be entangled around the front suspension of his car, which could have potentially posed a big problem for the Ferrari man. If the plastic bag had remained attached to the car, it could have led to cooling issues if it lodged itself into any of the vehicle’s cooling ducts. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case. The FIA will look to get this problem under control before the start of the next practice session later in the evening.

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What did the FP1 session have in store for other drivers?

After the first runs on soft tires, Verstappen found himself behind George Russell by a mere three thousandths (0.003) of a second. However, the reigning world champion quickly improved his time to clock in at 1 minute 29.659 seconds, securing the provisional lead. As the session progressed, Verstappen maintained his position at the top, finishing just under two-tenths ahead of Alonso. Perez followed closely behind, with Russell rounding out the top four for Mercedes.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz secured the fifth and sixth positions respectively, with Sainz overcoming illness to join the session after missing media duties on Wednesday. Further down the grid, Lando Norris led the McLaren charge in seventh place, while Lewis Hamilton secured eighth position. Lance Stroll survived an early scare with a brush against the wall but managed to claim ninth place. Alex Albon in the Williams completed the top ten.

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Valtteri Bottas led the charge for Kick Sauber in eleventh place, with teammate Zhou Guanyu in eighteenth after a challenging soft-tire run. Daniel Ricciardo claimed twelfth place on medium tires, while Alpine’s Esteban Ocon secured thirteenth, aiming to rebound from a difficult season opener in Bahrain. Further down the order, Logan Sargeant and Oscar Piastri settled for the fourteenth and fifteenth positions. Yuki Tsunoda claimed sixteenth place, opting for medium tires for his fastest lap.

Pierre Gasly secured seventeenth place, followed by Zhou and the Haas duo of Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen, all setting their fastest times on medium tires.

Can Checo repeat his heroics from last year and claim a victory in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix? Let us know your thoughts and race predictions.