McLaren’s Lando Norris has topped the only practice session at Formula 1’s United States Grand Prix, with Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg splitting Norris from Oscar Piastri.
With Austin’s Circuit of the Americas hosting F1’s latest sprint weekend, Friday’s FP1 was the sole practice session for teams to dial in their cars for sprint qualifying later on Friday. That meant the 60-minute session was jam-packed with action, with all 20 cars out on track early on.
Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton led the early running, which was dominated by hard tyres, the Briton posting a 1m34.857s, 0.569s clear of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. Soon after Hamilton’s lap the session was red flagged after 21 minutes for a piece of debris originating from Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin.
The five-minute mid-session delay didn’t tempt teams to move towards softer tyres just yet, instead continuing their interrupted long run plans. But action finally picked up in the final quarter, with Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and George Russell switching to medium tyres while the Red Bulls and McLarens donned softs.
Russell and Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda and Verstappen briefly cycled through to the lead before Aston Martin’s two-time F1 world champion Fernando Alonso snatched top spot with a 1m33.639s on softs, edging out Verstappen by 0.009s.
The Spaniard was demoted by McLaren’s Norris, who found three tenths to set a 1m33.294s lap that would stay on top until the end of the session.
Nico Hulkenberg, Sauber
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images
Championship leader Piastri found a late improvement to jump from fifth to second, just under three tenths behind his McLaren team-mate, but he was ultimately split by Sauber’s surprising Hulkenberg.
The German veteran set his flyer in the dying seconds of the session, later than his direct competitors, showing the influence of the rapidly improving track surface on lap times.
Alonso was an equally impressive fourth, the latest occasion for Aston Martin to look impressively quick right out of the box.
Verstappen ended in fifth ahead of Williams man Alex Albon and fastest medium runner Russell, with Hamilton eighth.
Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar and Haas driver Oliver Bearman completed the top 10.
A noticeable absentee in the top 10 was Leclerc, who had to abandon his lap after reporting gear issues and smelling oil in his Ferrari.
Carlos Sainz also hit trouble, with a gearbox problem restricting the Spaniard to just nine laps for Williams.
F1 US GP – FP1 results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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