Charles Leclerc will go into this evening’s Qualifying session hopeful for his second pole position of the season as the Monegasque finished the final practice session of the day fastest.

Leclerc, who is coming off the back of a stunning victory in Bahrain, managed to pip Max Verstappen by +0.033 as Red Bull continued to show a good turn of speed after a messy season opener which saw both cars retire late in the race.

The weekend’s final Practice session took place just hours after the drivers had held a four-hour meeting to decide whether they would race or not. A missile attack on an Aramco planet had caused the teams and drivers to question their participation in the race weekend.

But despite these concerns, all twenty drivers and ten teams were present and correct for the session as the sun began to set on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

First to leave the pits was Valtteri Bottas, who came into the session off the back of an excellent FP2 which saw him finish ninth overall, whilst Kevin Magnussen also went out on track early as he tried to get some laps in after having his Friday disrupted with hydraulic issues.

Lewis Hamilton was the first of the big players to head out on track, but the seven-time World champion made a swift return to the pits shortly after doing a reconnaissance lap.

Mick Schumacher had some trouble getting away from the pit exit when he tried a practice start, but luckily for the German, he eventually managed to get away from the pits and back onto the track before entering the pits.

The Ferrari pair of Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were the first two drivers to set a lap time on the soft compound of tyre with the Spaniard the quicker of the pair with a 1:31.011, +0.041 quicker than his teammate and over a second and a half faster ahead of Lando Norris.

Leclerc improved on his next push lap with a 1:30.139 over half a second faster than Sainz.

Sainz went quicker on his next run with a 1:30.323, but he was still over a tenth down on Leclerc as Hamilton had to bail out of his first push lap after straight-lining Turn 16.

Sergio Perez leapt up to fourth on his first push lap on softs whilst George Russell could only manage 10th after a ragged first quick run.

Bottas was third after the opening runs, albeit half a second down on Leclerc, whilst his teammate Zhou Guaynu was up to sixth after setting a 1:30.946.

Perez’s second flying lap was much better as he moved himself up to second but over a tenth down on Leclerc.

Max Verstappen’s first flying lap on the softs put him in sixth spot behind Sainz, with Pierre Gasly moving into second with an ultra-fast lap that saw him come within a whisker of knocking Leclerc off the top of the timesheets.

But on his second quick run, Verstappen managed to move himself to the top of the timesheets as he managed to break into the 1:29s with a 1:29.768 over three tenths faster than Leclerc.

At the halfway point of the session, Verstappen led Leclerc and Gasly, with Perez fourth fastest ahead of Sainz and Tsunoda, further back Hamilton was 11th whilst Russell was way down in 14th.

Gasly’s promising session ended abruptly with a driveshaft failure caused by a practice start forcing the Frenchman to push his Alpha Tauri over the white line so that his mechanics could get the car back into the garage.

Bottas continued to showcase Alfa Romeo’s excellent single-lap pace, with his next flying lap being good enough for second, over two tenths down on Verstappen.

Traffic started to cause some issues in the latter stages of the session as Zhou complained on the radio after being blocked by Russell, who had gone off the track and had rejoined without seeing the Chinese rookie.

Verstappen continued to attack the Jeddah Corniche circuit with great zest, and he had gone fastest in the opening two sectors of the circuit; however, he was unable to improve after overcooking the entry of Turn 22, forcing him to endure a bumpy trip over the kerbs.

Nicholas Latifi kissed the wall on the exit of Turn 1, forcing him to abort his lap in the process. Meanwhile, Perez moved up to second with a 1:29.833.

However, just as it seemed that Red Bull would go into Qualifying as hot favourites, Leclerc improved on his final run to go quickest by just over +0.033 from Verstappen.

Perez was just under a tenth behind in third ahead of Sainz and Bottas, whilst Esteban Ocon gave Alpine plenty to smile about with sixth.

Gasly finished the session seventh ahead of Magnussen and Fernando Alonso, with Yuki Tsunoda rounding off the top 10.

Hamilton was well down in 11th place, whilst Russell could only manage 14th.