Practice 1 Report - Norris quickest

Lando Norris
© McLaren

Lando Norris set the fastest time in the only Free Practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix, the McLaren driver beating George Russell and a surprising Oliver Bearman by around 0.2s. The Haas driver wasn't scheduled to race this weekend, but team regular Kevin Magnussen fell ill overnight and was unfit to drive today. By taking part in the afternoon's Sprint qualifying session, the youngster will have to take the start of the Sprint race, but if Magnussen is back to fitness, this year's rules allow him to be back in the cockpit of his car for the main qualifying and race events.

As it normally happens during Sprint events, most teams split strategies between their drivers, to try and gather the maximum of information in the only 60 minutes where the lap times are not decisive and that's why the final lap times don't really reflect the relative performance of all the cars.

McLaren, with a new rear wing, took its time to get the balance right, but on their final Soft tyre runs both Norris and Piastri were quick all around, particularly in the first and third sector, losing out to their rivals in the second, slower, sector – an indication the team is going for top speed, to be in good shape for the races, rather than for more downforce.

Mercedes had completely different programs, as Russell focused his work on low fuel runs and was second quickest, while Lewis Hamilton was the only driver to complete the session with the same set of tyres, saving one set of Softs for this afternoon's qualifying session. The veteran was unhappy with the balance of his car, claiming "I'm bouncing all over the track" and finished the session in some discomfort, telling his team "I'm in a bit of pain here". Down in P16, Hamilton's first run on the Softs will come in Q1 later today, which may put him a bit on the back foot.

Max Verstappen and Sérgio Pérez never completed a low fuel lap on the Soft tyre, preferring to abort their best laps to avoid showing their game to the competition. The Dutch driver was on course to match Russell's best time when he dived into the pits, while Pérez, who's gone back to a previous monocoque for this weekend, was nowhere near his pace, in another worrying sign for the Mexican and Red Bull.

Ferrari admittedly came into this weekend expecting to struggle against the fastest cars and it was clear the SF-24 was a bit of a handful for both drivers. Leclerc beat Sainz for P6 by just 0.062s but they were both struggling in heavy braking, both of them going wide on a couple of occasions, both on the Medium and Soft tyres. The fact they were both 0.4s off Norris' benchmark showed the team has work to do to get into the battle at the front later in qualifying.

Bearman's P3 was the shock of the session, the young Brit benefiting from a massive tow on the long uphill run to the flag to gain almost 0.3s, but even without it he would have beaten Hulkenberg's best time. The German was 8th fastest, as the VF-24 seems to be the class of the midfield on this track, a circuit that has historically been good for the American team.

Alonso, recovering from a gastric infection that forced him to fly back to Spain for treatment between the Mexican and Brazilian Grand Prix, and Pierre Gasly completed the top ten, lapping just 0.1s away from Hulkenberg's best time, setting up a very exciting couple of qualifying sessions as the gaps all around are small – in fact, the 19 fastest drivers were covered by just 1.2s, showing there's no margin for mistakes for anybody.