US Grand Prix: Lando Norris strikes back as Nico Hulkenberg springs a shock in FP1
McLaren has set the pace in the first and only practice session at the Circuit of the Americas, courtesy of Lando Norris, while there was surprise in second place…
Lando Norris and McLaren have started the US Grand Prix weekend in strong fashion, with the British driver enjoying a quarter-second advantage in first practice, as he was joined at the front by Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg.
Lando Norris sets the pace in FP1 in Austin
With track temperature at 43 degrees celsius as the drivers lined up to peel out on track for the one and only practice session of the weekend, it was Red Bull’s Max Verstappen who led the cars out onto the Circuit of the Americas for the first laps of the weekend.
Hard tyres were the order of the day for the first 30 minutes of the day as the teams sought to get a good understanding of the C1 compound, and it was Red Bull who found its feet in the early stages as Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda went first and second ahead of Norris.
Struggling on the hards were the Racing Bulls drivers as both Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson had to battle twitchy moments through the medium-to-high speed corners, with Hadjar having to take to the escape areas in the first and third sector, although did provide a moment of levity as his race engineer erroneously warned him about the presence of ‘Valtteri Bottas’ approaching behind him, to which Hadjar retorted that the interruption was confusing.
Lewis Hamilton then took over at the top for Ferrari, with a lap over half a second quicker than Verstappen’s, putting in a 1:34.857 despite complaining about a slippery throttle pedal, just before the session was interrupted for a five-minute stoppage.
At the 20-minute mark, the red flags were briefly shown due to debris on the track at Turn 19, which appeared to have come off Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin, which came at a good time for McLaren as Norris was in the garage for suspension tweaks on his MCL39.
Returning to the pits, Aston Martin also took the opportunity to make some front suspension changes to Stroll’s car during the brief interlude.
But while Norris and Stroll’s work appeared quite routine, there was less good news for Williams as Carlos Sainz came into the pits upon instruction from his race engineer, with a stern warning not to push. Williams confirmed that a gearbox malady had been spotted on the Spaniard’s car, meaning he was ruled out for the remainder of the session, having completed just eight laps in total on the hard tyre.
At the halfway point of the session, it was Hamilton ahead of Verstappen, Russell, Piastri, Tsunoda, Sainz, and Lawson, with little movement on the timesheets as the teams appeared to be concentrating on long-run pace.
Norris then jumped into second behind Hamilton, but was still over half a second down on Hamilton’s time, just before Haas’ Esteban Ocon slid straight on at Turn 11, taking to the gravel as he radioed in to say that he had suffered some sort of issue with his brakes as he locked up in uncontrollable fashion.
In 12th place, Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli found himself blocked on the apex of Turn 20, the newly-renamed Mario Andretti Corner, by Alex Albon’s Williams, resulting in the Italian driver radioing in to say Albon’s impeding had been “quite bad”.
With 17 minutes remaining, pacesetter Hamilton locked up at Turn 11 in a less extreme example of what had happened to Ocon, but recovered to the track without further difficulty.
Into the final quarter hour, the track fell completely silent as the teams reset for performance runs, and it was Russell who was first onto the medium C3 tyre, followed by Hadjar. Verstappen and Tsunoda came out on the soft tyres, as did Alonso, Albon, and Gasly, as thoughts turned to the qualifying simulations.
Russell vaulted to the top with a 1:34.675 on the medium tyre, 0.012 clear of Lawson, usurping Hamilton’s long-standing lap by just under two-tenths of a second.
Tsunoda then went quickest on the soft tyres with a 1:34.531 to go a tenth clear of Russell, but Verstappen smashed this time with a 1:33.648 to go almost nine-tenths of a second clear of Tsunoda at the top, leading a Red Bull 1-2.
Alonso then eclipsed Verstappen’s time on the soft tyre, going 0.009 clear of Verstappen, while Piastri slotted into third almost a quarter of a second down of Piastri. Nico Hulkenberg then underlined Sauber’s potential by going third, displacing Piastri down to fourth.
But it was Norris who really caught the eye on the first performance runs, as the McLaren driver did a 1:33.294 to go three-and-a-half-tenths clear at the front, although television footage suggested that he had gone outside track limits at Turn 19.
Piastri joined his teammate at the front with a time 0.279 down on Norris’, while Verstappen radioed in to say he was experiencing harsh ‘bottoming’ from his RB21. This was borne out by a big snap from Tsunoda in the first sector, wrecking the Japanese driver’s final push attempt.
As the chequered flag fell, there was a final surprise as Hulkenberg popped his Sauber into second place, quarter of a second down on Norris, and two-hundredths up on Piastri.
With the rest of the sessions for the weekend being competitive, Norris finished the sole practice session on top with a 1:33.294 on the soft tyres, 0.255 up on Hulkenberg and 0.279 up on Piastri in third.
Fourth went to Alonso, ahead of Verstappen and Albon, while Russell finished seventh ahead of Hamilton, Hadjar and Bearman to round out the top 10.
Towards the back, Antonelli struggled to put in a competitive time and wound up in 18th place, ahead of the sidelined Sainz. In last place was Charles Leclerc for Ferrari, who didn’t manage to get in a performance run as he encountered a late technical issue on his car, a problem that appeared to prevent him from gearing down.
United States GP First Practice (FP1) times
- 1. Lando Norris McLaren 1:33.294
- 2. Nico Hulkenberg Kick Sauber +0.255
- 3. Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.279
- 4. Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.345
- 5. Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing +0.354
- 6. Alex Albon Williams +0.626
- 7. George Russell Mercedes +0.637
- 8. Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +0.671
- 9. Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +0.861
- 10. Oliver Bearman Haas F1 Team +1.039
- 11. Esteban Ocon Haas F1 Team +1.074
- 12. Gabriel Bortoleto Kick Sauber +1.184
- 13. Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull Racing +1.237
- 14. Lance Stroll Aston Martin +1.316
- 15. Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +1.325
- 16. Franco Colapinto Alpine +1.359
- 17. Pierre Gasly Alpine +1.371
- 18. Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +1.443
- 19. Carlos Sainz Williams +2.580
- 20. Charles Leclerc Ferrari +2.786
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