The single practice session at Formula 1’s United States Grand Prix saw McLaren’s Lando Norris achieve the fastest time, with Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg separating Norris from Oscar Piastri.
Circuit of the Americas in Austin is the venue for F1’s newest sprint weekend, so Friday’s FP1 was the only practice session available for teams to configure their cars for sprint qualifying later on Friday. Consequently, the 60-minute session was full of activity, with all 20 cars taking to the track promptly.
Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton initially led the session, which was largely run on hard tyres, with the Briton setting a time of 1m34.857s, a 0.569s advantage over Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. Shortly after Hamilton’s lap, the session was halted with a red flag after 21 minutes due to debris originating from Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin.
The five-minute pause did not immediately encourage teams to switch to softer tyres, and they instead proceeded with their long run plans, which had been interrupted. However, the final quarter saw a surge in activity, with Hamilton, Charles Leclerc, and George Russell switching to medium tyres while the Red Bulls and McLarens equipped soft tyres.
Russell and Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda and Verstappen briefly took turns leading before Aston Martin’s two-time F1 world champion Fernando Alonso secured the top spot with a 1m33.639s on softs, narrowly beating Verstappen by 0.009s.
The Spaniard was then overtaken by McLaren’s Norris, who improved by three tenths to set a 1m33.294s lap, which remained unbeaten until the session’s conclusion.
Nico Hulkenberg, Sauber
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images
Piastri, the championship leader, improved his time late in the session to move from fifth to second, finishing just under three tenths behind his McLaren teammate, though Sauber’s Hulkenberg managed to squeeze between them.
The experienced German driver achieved his fastest lap in the final moments of the session, which was later than his main rivals, highlighting the impact of the quickly improving track conditions on lap times.
Alonso also performed strongly, finishing fourth, in what is the latest instance of Aston Martin showing impressive speed right from the start.
Verstappen finished in fifth, followed by Williams’ Alex Albon and Russell, who was the fastest on medium tyres, with Hamilton in eighth.
Racing Bulls’ rookie Isack Hadjar and Haas’ Oliver Bearman rounded out the top 10.
A notable absence from the top 10 was Leclerc, who had to abandon his lap due to reported gear issues and a smell of oil in his Ferrari.
Carlos Sainz also faced difficulties, with a gearbox issue limiting the Spaniard to just nine laps for Williams.
F1 US GP – FP1 results
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