Practice 1 Report - Norris leads Piastri in McLaren 1-2

Lando Norris
© McLaren

Lando Norris led a McLaren 1-2 in Formula 1’s only free practice session for the Brazil Grand Prix at Interlagos, edging team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri by just 0.023s in a tight opening hour to the São Paulo sprint weekend.

Norris, who recently reclaimed the championship lead after Piastri’s difficult Austin and Mexico rounds, clocked a 1m09.975s lap on medium tyres to head his fellow McLaren driver, whose 1m09.998s briefly looked good enough for top spot before Norris found a marginal improvement on his final run. Both were the only drivers to break the 1m10 barrier.

The session began slightly late following track cleaning work but soon settled into the usual sprint-weekend intensity, with just a single hour available for setup work before sprint qualifying. Most teams started on Pirelli’s hardest C2 compound, gathering data for long runs as grip slowly improved on the resurfaced circuit.

George Russell led the early stages with a 1m11.188s on hards, while both Red Bulls explored the limits—Yuki Tsunoda clipping the Turn 4 barriers after a snap over the kerbs and later Max Verstappen running wide at the same corner. Tsunoda’s incident damaged both wings but he returned after repairs to log further laps on softs.

As the track rubbered in, the field switched to medium tyres in the final 20 minutes. Williams driver Alex Albon first moved to the top with a 1m11.004s before being displaced by his team-mate Carlos Sainz. Then the pace rose sharply: Russell improved again, only to be beaten by the Sauber pair of Nico Hülkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto. Piastri’s 1m09.998s on mediums looked set to stand until Norris bettered it moments later.

Behind the dominant McLarens, Hülkenberg was a surprise third with 1m10.594s, six tenths back. Fernando Alonso was fourth in the Aston Martin ahead of local favourite Bortoleto, who impressed in fifth as the first Brazilian to race at Interlagos since 2017. Russell finished sixth, followed by Pierre Gasly’s Alpine and Sainz’s Williams. Rookie duo Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) and Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) completed the top ten.

Verstappen, who trails Norris by 36 points in the standings, endured a low-key session in 17th after aborting his final lap on hards. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were 18th and 19th, having skipped soft-tyre runs, while Tsunoda ended 20th.

With both McLarens immediately on pace, sprint qualifying later on Friday promises another close battle between the two title protagonists.