Brazilian GP: Lando Norris P1, Max Verstappen P15 and a stellar sub from Bearman

Lando Norris set the pace in British 1-2-3 in FP1 in Brazil, the McLaren driver clocking a 1:10.610 to beat George Russell with Oliver Bearman third in the Haas.

As for Norris’ title rival, Max Verstappen was P15 having aborted his soft tyre run.

Lando Norris heads a British 1-2-3 in Brazil practice

Set to the backdrop of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris’ ever-more fraught title fight, the Interlagos circuit played host to part three of F1’s penultimate triple-header.

Valtteri Bottas led the field out for installation laps on the newly resurfaced track and with just one practice session on a Sprint weekend, he immediately began laying down lap times – a 1:15.6 as his opening salvo.

Five minutes into the hour-long session, Oscar Piastri was quickest with a 1:13.4 and 15 drivers had set lap times including Oliver Bearman. The Briton was a last-minute call-up by Haas to replace Kevin Magnussen when was ill.

Despite the new track surface, the drivers were notably hit bumps and creating sparks. Charles Leclerc complained: “Impossible to do consistent with this tarmac.”

10 minutes in, Sergio Perez, racing a different chassis to Mexico but one already used, was P1 ahead of George Russell and Lando Norris.

Max Verstappen, down in eighth place, wasn’t happy with his RB20 as he radioed in: “It just doesn’t f***ing work. I don’t want to take the flap out.” And then he went quickest with a 1:11.7.

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Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had a close encounter as the Ferrari driver slowed down to make room only to catch out a charging Hamilton.

Hamilton pulled into the pits where Mercedes tweaked his setup before sending him back out. He reported his ride-height was “still bad”, but went second behind fastest behind Verstappen. He was 0.04s down.

Traffic and tows dominated the final medium tyre runs before the drivers, starting with George Russell, swapped over to the soft Pirellis for a qualifying run. The Mercedes driver found over a second and went quickest with a 1:10.9. Norris pitted for a new front wing with 12 minutes to go, Oscar Piastri also bolting on a different spec.

As more soft tyres laps were completed, Bearman shot up to second place, 0.014s down on Russell, with Norris third ahead of Albon, Sainz and Alonso. And then came the Red Bulls…Perez was P19 after his soft tyre lap, and Verstappen backed out on his.

The session ended with Norris putting in a late lap to go P1 with a 1:10.610,, 0.181s ahead of Russell with Bearman third. Everyone set their best times on the soft tyres except Hamilton, Liam Lawson and Lance Stroll who were on the mediums

Times

1 Lando NORRIS 1:10.610
2 George RUSSELL +0.181
3 Oliver BEARMAN +0.195
4 Oscar PIASTRI +0.340
5 Alexander ALBON +0.345
6 Charles LECLERC +0.428
7 Carlos SAINZ +0.490
8 Nico HULKENBERG +0.514
9 Fernando ALONSO +0.605
10 Pierre GASLY +0.606
11 Liam LAWSON +0.691
12 Yuki TSUNODA +0.873
13 Franco COLAPINTO +1.009
14 Valtteri BOTTAS +1.041
15 Max VERSTAPPEN +1.102
16 Lewis HAMILTON +1.144
17 Lance STROLL +1.173
18 Esteban OCON +1.217
19 Sergio PEREZ +1.235
20 ZHOU Guanyu +2.273

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