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The 36-year-old Briton, who pipped 24-year-old
championship-leading Red Bull rival Max Verstappen in the
opening hour of running, went even quicker at night under the
floodlights, lowering his benchmark to one minute 29.018
seconds.
Bottas was 0.061 seconds behind while Verstappen dropped behind
AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly to fourth, 0.195 seconds slower than
his Mercedes rival.
The top three were separated by less than 0.1 seconds.
"I’m generally happy," said Hamilton, who trails Verstappen by
eight points in the overall standings and is gunning for a third
successive win on Sunday to force a final-race title showdown
with the Dutchman a week later in Abu Dhabi.
"As I said, made some changes between sessions.
"We’ll study through it tonight and work with the guys back at
the factory and try and make sure we come with the correct set
up for tomorrow."
HARD-FOUGHT BATTLE
The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix is the first of only two races left
on this year's Formula One calendar, with the hard-fought battle
of the generations between Hamilton and Verstappen racing
towards its conclusion.
Verstappen has his first shot at wrapping up a maiden title with
a race to spare this weekend. Hamilton, his sights set on an
unprecedented eighth world title, can keep the battle alive into
Abu Dhabi so long as he finishes at least fifth.
The pair were separated by 0.056 seconds in the first session,
with Verstappen wasting no time attacking and exploring the
limits of the track.
But the Dutchman struggled to get heat into his soft tyres in
the floodlit second hour of practice.
"There are of course a lot of things to work on and improve," he
said. "So we’ll see what we can do to get more pace out of the
car overnight.
Mercedes could also wrap up a record eighth constructors' title
on Sunday if they score 40 points more than Red Bull.
NEAR MISSES
Friday's action around the Jeddah street track, its flat-out
blasts hemmed in by walls, was not without incident.
Leclerc lost control of his Ferrari at high speed on the
approach to the fast Turn 22-23 chicane, crashing backwards into
the barriers. The Monegasque, winded, walked away but the crash
halted the session five minutes early.
Several drivers, including Hamilton, also got away with near
misses as they were nearly caught out by slower moving cars
while on their flying laps.
The Briton said the difference in closing speeds was approaching
a "danger zone." nL6N2SO07J
Teams carried a tribute on their cars to Frank Williams,
co-founder of the Williams team, who died aged 79 nL1N2SJ0AF on
Sunday.
The team, among the sport's most successful outfits which was
sold to new owners last year but continues to race under the
Williams name, carried the words: "I feel the need, the need for
speed," on the halo cockpit protection device.
The line was Williams' favourite quote from the film Top Gun
starring Tom Cruise.
(Reporting by Abhishek Takle; editing by Ken Ferris)
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