Title challenger Lewis Hamilton completed a Friday double as the seven-time Formula One champion posted the fastest time in both the practice sessions of the inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

In Friday’s second practice session, Hamilton pipped Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas. The evening session had to be ended about three minutes early because Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc brought out the red flag with a high-speed crash in Turn 22.

Hamilton was 0.061 seconds faster than his teammate. The defending champion was more than half a minute behind championship leader Max Verstappen. 

Meanwhile, in the first session, Hamilton led Verstappen on the speed chart. The Red Bull driver holds an eight-point lead over Hamilton with two races remaining, including Sunday’s debut on the second-longest course on the F1 schedule. The British veteran was 0.056 seconds ahead of Verstappen and 0.223 ahead of Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas.

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The 6.2-kilometre (3.8-mile) street circuit sits on a 30-kilometre (18.6-mile) coastal resort area in Jeddah. 

Although early in the afternoon session, Hamilton struggled to adapt to the track while Verstappen twice improved his best time, the Briton found some extra speed going into the thick end of things.

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Tomorrow’s qualifying session will be crucial as the track is filled with high-speed corners and getting pole position will allow being away from all the chaos in the middle. 

Meanwhile, Hamilton has been the most outspoken driver about F1’s visit to Saudi Arabia, a country that has been accused by human rights groups of “sportswashing” by staging Sunday’s race to detract from human rights abuses throughout the country.

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“As I said (in Qatar) I feel that the sport and we are duty bound to try to help raise awareness for certain issues that we’ve seen, particularly human rights in these countries that we’re going to,” Hamilton said.

“Do I feel comfortable here? I wouldn’t say I do. But it’s not my choice to be here, the sport has taken the choice to be here. Whether it’s right or wrong, while we’re here again, I feel it’s important that we do try to raise awareness.”

With inputs from the Associated Press