“You might as well start writing your report now, mate,” mutters Autosport F1 editor Matt Kew on the return from trackside wandering, as Max Verstappen flashes up on the paddock screens having eclipsed the rest of the field in FP1 by nearly half a second. Benched for Thursday’s media sessions after battling a stomach bug, Verstappen rocked up to the Jeddah Corniche Circuit fashionably late and fired off a trio of hammer blows to the rest of the field by headlining the full set of practice sessions. Few in the paddock had any optimism that the race would be anything oth …