“[Jeddah] lives up to the hype, to be fair,” said Lawson. “It’s very fast, it’s very cool.
“We had a productive day, [we] did a lot of different things ... to try and learn what we can for tomorrow.
“Pace-wise, it’s hard to tell. We definitely need to find some time, relative to some of our competitors in the midfield.
“We need to make a step, but that’s what we’re working on now.”
Lawson’s teammate Isack Hadjar was 15th in practice one, but bettered the Kiwi with 12th place in practice two, coming away with a 0.182s gap between the two Racing Bulls cars.
Given the high-speed nature of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, laps driven were the key objective of the first session, before timed efforts took precedence in the second.
More than one driver struggled to come to grips with the fastest street circuit on the calendar, including newly minted world championship favourite Oscar Piastri, who clipped the wall in his opening laps.
Meanwhile, Yuki Tsunoda, Lawson’s replacement at Red Bull, clipped the wall at turn 27, crashed and triggered a red flag that all but ended the second session of the day, before it resumed with less than two minutes remaining.
During the earlier session temperatures on track touched 60C. However, those temperatures effectively rendered the first session meaningless, given the grand prix itself is raced at night, when cars and tyres behave differently on the cooler track.
The evening session, meanwhile, saw Lawson complete the majority of his laps on soft tyres, as preparation for qualifying on Sunday (NZ time). And given every race so far in 2025 has been won by the driver who started on pole, qualifying will be key for all drivers, in the last grand prix of this three-week block.
During the two practice sessions Lawson didn’t complete any laps on the hard tyre, which will be used for the most part in the grand prix.
Helping Lawson’s confidence even further are his results at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in junior categories. In 2021, on his first visit there, Lawson finished second in the Formula Two sprint race. A year later, he won that same race.
Earlier, in free practice one, neither of the two Racing Bulls were able to make use of the full session, and spent a significant amount of time in the garage to readjust both cars’ rear wings.
That meant both Racing Bulls cars recorded the fewest laps in the opening session. Lawson managed 17, with 11 coming on medium tyres and six on softs. Hadjar only put in 14 laps, nine on mediums and five on softs.
Lawson was able to set the 11th-fastest time of the opening session, crossing the line with a best effort of 1m 29.907s. That mark was just 0.668s off Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, who set the fastest time with 1m 29.239s.
Hadjar was 15th with a best effort of 1m 30.011s, 0.104s back from his teammate. The two Red Bull cars of Verstappen (1m 29.818s) and Tsunoda (1m 29.821s) finished ninth and 10th respectively.
McLaren pair Norris and Piastri recorded the second- and fourth-best times of the first session.
Qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix takes place at 5am on Sunday, before the 50-lap race begins at 5am on Monday.
Alex Powell is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016, and previously worked for both Newshub and 1News.
