United States Grand Prix – Free Practice 1: Verstappen, ahead of Leclerc and Hamilton

The heat was once again present for the only free practice session of the Austin weekend. Indeed, it was 32° in the air and 37° on the track when the lights turned green, all under a large blue sky and no clouds on the horizon.

With the Sprint format, this session turns out to be crucial since the single-seaters will then be under Parc Fermé conditions for the rest of the weekend. So it was not surprising that all the drivers took to the track right from the start of the session for a first series of laps.

From his second attempt, Max Verstappen took the lead, relegating his colleagues to more than a second behind (1:37:687 against 1:38:603 for Lewis Hamilton, then second). Carlos Sainz then had a scare as he arrived at full speed on a Lando Norris who was in a slow lap, while Lance Stroll was recalled to his pit after only 14 minutes due to brake problems on the front left. He was asked not to use them to return and park in front of his stand. The Canadian was not able to get back out for the rest of the session and therefore had to settle for five quick laps before the qualifications.

After 20 minutes, Lewis Hamilton confirmed that the circuit matched the characteristics of his Mercedes, which arrived here with a new floor as he took the lead, with a tenth of a second ahead of Max Verstappen while Yuki Tsunoda was a surprising third. It should be noted that the first two had signed their reference in hard tires and not in mediums.

After 35 minutes of the session, Oscar Piastri indulged in a big slide coming out of turn 9, which propelled him off the track. Although he went through the grass at full speed, he managed not to touch anything and therefore not damage his single-seater. At the same time, his teammate Lando Norris, who was expecting to struggle for his 100th Grand Prix, managed to take the lead in the debates.

But all these references were wiped out in the final sprint when everyone put on soft tyres in order to do qualification simulations. Alex Albon was the first to lead the charge, with seven tenths better than Lando Norris’s time. But the Williams driver was quickly dethroned by Max Verstappen, who regained his own for six tenths.

In the end, it was indeed the new triple world champion who recorded the fastest time, ahead of Charles Leclerc (0.156) and Lewis Hamilton (0.281). Sergio Perez seems to be doing better with the fourth fastest time. It can be noted that improvements at Haas seem to be paying off since Kevin Magnussen is 5th and Nico Hülkenberg 10th.

Note that both McLaren drivers and Fernando Alonso have adopted a different tire strategy as they did not use the soft ones at all. The Papayas stayed on medium while Fernando Alonso recorded his best time on hard ones. This explains their respective rankings: 15th for Lando Norris, 18th for Fernando Alonso, and 19th for Oscar Piastri.

From our special correspondent in Austin